Speaker 1: We went Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Shirtley
You Can't Be Serious podcast. We are back with part
two of our comparison of the movie National Lampoon Vacation
and the movie The Great Outdoors.
Speaker 2: Hey, do you guess what what? My podcasts and I
French kiss?
Speaker 1: So everybody does that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but Daddy says I'm the best at it.
Speaker 1: Okay, guys, we are here. I've got the waste paper
basket over my head, I've got some tennis rackets in
my hands, and Jason is over here. Bear ass, I
mean bear, bear ass bear, it's a bear bear ass.
Speaker 2: You're a bop, You're balooney. How do you use a magazine?
Speaker 1: Do you know what you do when you get in trouble?
You let go of the rope, Let go of the row.
Speaker 2: That's right. That ski jumping scene went on for about
twelve minutes.
Speaker 1: It was great, It was funny. It was funny. Whoever
the stuntman was being John Candy for that one there
deserves all of the money that he got on that deal.
That was good.
Speaker 2: I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm alive. I'm alive.
Speaker 1: Guys, can't wait to talk a little bit more about
these two movies. We're going to talk today about the music.
We're going to talk today about the cars. We're gonna
talk today about maybe some boats, and we are going
to talk about our final judgment as to which of
these two movies are the best.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be awesome. I've got some funny scenes I
want to talk about with you. Yeah, and we're just
kind of we're just gonna kind of road trip it
through this episode.
Speaker 1: Man, Listen, guys, this is going to be a good time.
You may not know a good time even if it
fell out of the sky and landed on your face
and started a wiggle. I'm just telling you right now,
this is a.
Speaker 2: Good time, all right, all right? So do you remind
us when did you see these movies for the first time?
Speaker 1: Both of these in the theater seven years old, nineteen
eighty three. I'm watching Beverly DeAngelo take a shower, monumental moment.
And then yeah, I remember going and watching The Great
Outdoors in eighty eight and just absolutely loving it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we are going through our summer of nineteen
eighty eight. Now this doesn't fit perfectly, but nineteen eighty
three was national Timepoon's Vacation that's turning forty this summer,
and The Great Outdoors was June seventeenth of nineteen eighty eight.
It's turning thirty five or just last week turned thirty five. Yeah,
and so this will be one of our nineteen eighty
eight summer movies.
Speaker 1: So both of these movies have some very memorable vehicles
in them. The memorable vehicle, I mean number one he had.
I believe it was a Cherokee, a jeep Cherokee wagoneer
that they were driving, you remember, Hey bear, Yeah, zagnutt
and then climbs. So that was okay, right right, But
you got the boat, you got the Suck My Wake boat.
Suck My Wake. Oh man, I can't tell you how
many boats that have come by that. I'm like, if
I had that boat, I'd name it suck my Wake.
Speaker 2: Hey. You know, dan Aykroyd does something in that scene
that it didn't appreciate as a kid, but I do
as a dad. Right. So they're talking about which boat
they're going to take out there, and John Candy's got
this perfect vacation for his kids already mapped out, already planned.
He's got a couple of intruders on his vacation and
he's like, no, no, no, no, We're getting a pontoon boat.
We're gonna gonna, you know, just put around the lake
and have a good time. We're gonna fish and eat
and relax. Yeah, and Dan across No, no, no, we
want to you want, you know, suck my wake, you know,
and ask the kid what do you want? You want
a rocket or do you want to The kids like, yeah,
I want to rocket.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: As a dad, now I'm like, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Yes, the memorable vehicle from vacation though, yes, is the
wagon Queen Family Truckster metallic pee, metallic pee, I'm sorry,
metallic peace.
Speaker 2: Yes, it was supposed to be Antarctic glue, the super
sports wagon with the optional relic comeback.
Speaker 1: You think you hate it, now wait till you drive.
So I mentioned last episode that I was going to
give you a little bit of a story there. I
may have built it up too much. This may this
may be a letdown, but here you go. Are okay? Ready? Ready?
So this car was actually a modified version of a
real car? Was the Ford Ltd Country Squire? Right?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 1: So they hired a guy whose specialty was modifying cars,
and his name was George Barris. He designed the Munster
coach and the Dragula from the TV series The Munsters.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: He designed the original nineteen sixty six Batmobile. Get out
of here, I am not kidding. He designed Kit from
Night Writer. He designed the convertible version and the super
pursuit version.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: This guy was known in Hollywood as if you need
a car modified, this is the guy you go to.
George Barris, right, yeah, and he's got a whole company
that does this. Well. You have mentioned to me watching
about the Doloreans in this new series that's out called
Expedition Unknown Fantastic Man, and this is the guy in
that series is trying to find all of the original
with like eight seven seven original Deloreans that they used
in the movie Back to the Future one, two, and three.
And so George Barris, ten years after number three comes out,
he restores one of those originals, right. And then a
little while later he makes his own replica DeLorean time
machine from like a stock DeLorean, right, and he starts
to use that to promote himself and his company, and
for like the next seven years has got posters with
this thing where he's saying I modified cars until Universal
sends him a cease and desist letter because he's making
it look like he was the guy that designed the
original DeLorean time machine. I don't know why. I mean,
you designed the original Batmobile. Go with that. You don't
need to have the DeLorean time machine. That's but yeah,
they they had to say, hey, you get a cut
that out. But turns out, I mean, this is eleven
years ago. He had the number one Batmobile. He owned it,
owned that number one Batmobile. Wow. Sold it in twenty
twelve for four point six million dollars.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is really cool. That's a great story, man,
I like it.
Speaker 1: I like it.
Speaker 2: So he does all these cool cars, and then he's
got the one single ugliest car you've ever seen your
entire life.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the truckster.
Speaker 2: You know, Harold Ramis when they brought it to him,
made it metallic pe with brown paddling and stuff. He thought,
we may have gone too far.
Speaker 1: They literally killed the station wagon industry. I mean, the
station wagon sales plummeted after this movie, really plummeted.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, that's hilarious. Yeah, my buddy Chris Alexander
Patreon member Chris Alexander. I can't tell you how many
times I've ridden in the back of his blue station wagon.
We called it the dragon wagon. And it went right
through his family, like mom had it. Then it went
to older brother. Then when's younger brother? You know, so
he had to take dates and stuff out in.
Speaker 1: The did you put gas in through the hood? I
can remember having a car, one of the cars we
had growing up, you had to pull down the license
plate in the back to be able to get to
the I think it was a Chevy Caprice. Interesting nineteen
seventy six Chevy Caprice.
Speaker 2: Hey, you know that scene with Chevy Chase where he
grabs the license plate and like flings it over his head.
He almost drills that lady and she was not expecting
that that came way closer than he intended it to be. Okay,
you want to talk music, let's talk music.
Speaker 1: There's some Both of these movies have some incredible songs
in the movies, and number one out of the gate,
we got to talk about the vacation song Holiday rep.
If this doesn't put you in a happy mood, then
you're you're a lost cause.
Speaker 2: Right, This is a perfect song for this movie.
Speaker 1: It is. And what's great is that Lindsay Buckingham had
no idea about what the movie was really about other
than a family going on vacation, right, and he writes
this song and it fits so perfectly with the events
of the movie that it was like he telepathically knew
how things were gonna go.
Speaker 2: Well, he had seen some Harold Ramis movies, so he knew. Okay,
it's lighthearted, it's whimsical, it's funny. Yeah, it's fun it's
a road trip.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Harold Ramis approached him specifically for this. He's like,
I need you. They had just finished Mirage Fleetwood Mac
in case, in case you guys aren't familiar, the song
Holiday Road is by Lindsay Buckingham, who is one of
the original members of Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood Mac had just
finished with Mirage, and Harold Ramis comes up and says, hey,
I need I would love for you to do a
couple of songs for this movie, and he does. He
does too. The other one is the Dance Across the USA,
great song. Another great song.
Speaker 2: Hey let me back you up, though, go ahead. He
didn't go to Lindsay Buckingham and say, I want you
to write two songs for me. He went to Fleetwood
Mac through Lindsey Buckingham, oh okay, and said, hey, Fleetwood
Mac very popular right now. They just came out with
this incredible album that had hold Me and Gypsy, I
mean well known stuff from the eighties, and Lindsay Buckingham's like, well,
we're not really speaking right now.
Speaker 1: They were in a bit of a turmoil at that point.
Speaker 2: Well gosh, I mean they all had relationships within the band.
I mean yeah, Christy McVie and John McVie and Lindsay
Buckingham and Stevie Nicks and then Stevie Nicks with Mick
you know. I mean there's a lot of intermingling. And
so Lindsay Buckingham's like, how about I do the two
songs right?
Speaker 1: Well then, and he nailed it right absolutely. I didn't
realize this. I was looking at personnel on Holiday Road.
It is Lindsey Buckingham singing, listening Lindsey Buckingham, guitars, Lindsey
Buckingham bass, a fairlight drum machine and that's the end.
Like he did everything except for the drum machine.
Speaker 2: Does he do the dog at the end of it, barking.
Speaker 1: So that was the part. That was the part. They
were like, how did you know about the dog? And
he's like, I don't. I just thought a dog would
be funny.
Speaker 2: Deacoms Deacoms is in the song.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, just he had no idea. He just was like, well,
it's supposed to be funny. So a dog barking is funny. Yes,
it's crazy, perfect, it is crazy.
Speaker 2: Hey, I'll tell you this. That song is one of
his most well known songs. Yeah, it screams eighties to me, Like,
I associated it tremendously with this movie. Peaked out at
number eighty two on the Hot One.
Speaker 1: I can't believe that that's as high as it guy,
and it was. I think it like would get these
resurgents in popularity as because they would use it in
the subsequent vacation movies, right yeah, And then they used
it in the closing credits on National Lampoon's Drunk Stone
Brilliant Dead The Story of Doug Kenney. Oh yeah, that's right.
We talked about quite a bit when we did our
catch checkup episode.
Speaker 2: Yeah, hey, there's one more song I want to talk about.
First of all, before I Leave this Dancing across the
USA is the song they play at the end of
the movie when they're riding roller coasters with Roy Wally
and they're having a great time and then they're showing
I think they show postcards at the end of the movie,
and it's the culmination of this road trip and absolute fun,
wacky zaniness. The song fits perfectly there as well. Yeah,
so two home Runs by Lindsay Buckingham. But the one
song I want to bring up to you is a
song called little Boy Sweet by June Pointer.
Speaker 3: On my.
Speaker 1: I was like, what the heck happen? Because It's been
a long long time since I've seen this movie, right, Like,
I probably I saw it in nineteen eighty three. Yeah,
and I probably have seen it maybe once or twice
since then. Oh really, okay, and I watched this last time.
I'm like, I thought this was I'm so excited that
played in this park. Yeah, and it's not.
Speaker 2: And then I was like, oh, but it was, Okay,
tell me that story.
Speaker 1: So I'm so excited by the Pointer sisters. Yes, the scene,
I mean the scene where Christy Brinkley is dancing around
drinking her pop or whatever it is that she's drinking.
Speaker 2: And Clark is making dancing moves with the sandwiches with.
Speaker 1: The bread, yes, making love motions with the peed the
dog pee.
Speaker 2: Bread, singing the bread.
Speaker 1: Yes. Yeah. So originally that was I'm So Excited by
the Pointer Sisters. What happened, I don't know just when.
I guess when the DVD came out or the Blu
ray or something somewhere in the line of things. Really
they changed that song, Oh.
Speaker 2: You're blowing my mind. So in the original, like theatrical version,
it's I'm so excited.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, yeah, okay, which is by the Pointer Sisters,
and then they replace it with this song that you're
talking about called Little Boy Sweet, which has a similar
beat to it.
Speaker 2: It's very nearly the same song.
Speaker 1: It's by June Pointer. He is one of the Pointer sisters. Yes,
it's crazy.
Speaker 2: See whenevery time I hear that song, I'm looking for
a Beautiful Woman in a red Ferrari. Yeah, I love it.
I think they nailed the music in vacation.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So A couple of the other ones that you
might know is Mister Blue by the Fleetwoods. No relation
to Fleetwood Mac. Just an odd coincidence there, Okay, and
then you've got the Ramones singing the Blitzkrieg Bop, which
is the hey oh, let's go that. I love it,
I love it right.
Speaker 2: That's the part where Clark and Ellen are singing Jimmy
Cragclorn and I don't care. Yes, the kids are like
their headphones on, forget this, I'm out.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. So the composer for this movie is a
guy named Ralph Burns who had done other movies. He
did the music for Lenny with Dustin Hoffman in it
and Valerie pH yep, and he did the music for
All That Jazz, And he did the music for Urban Cowboy,
which we've had a guy who said this is the
best movie soundtrack.
Speaker 2: Shout out to my high school buddy Jay Reid, who
hit us back when we were talking about greatest soundtracks
of all time. He's like, no, no, no, you guys
have got it all wrong.
Speaker 1: It's Urban Cowboy THETA and be made for sure, especially
that time in history. I mean, yeah, knocked it out
of the park.
Speaker 2: It is Hall of Fame country artist after Hall of
Fame country artist plus the Eagles, right.
Speaker 1: Okay, So switching gears back over to the great outdoors,
our composer on this one is a guy named Thomas
Newman who we have talked about before. He was the
composer on The Lost Boys. Really, yes, brother of Randy Newman.
What you got a friend of me? Baby, I'm just
this dude is I mean, he's huge. He did the
shash Ank Redemption if I can bring it back again,
another crossover, the shosh Ank Redemption. But he's he's done
a ton of stuff. He's done less than zero Lost Boys.
As I mentioned, Jumpin' Jack Flash Gung Ho, real genius.
I mean the Man with One Red shoe Hanks right early. Yeah,
not the best Tom Hanks movie, but I mean, hey.
Speaker 2: I guess it's definitely not the best Tom Hanks movie.
Speaker 1: But again, the kind of just loose background music, not
really a score that you're listening to. But we've got
all kinds of fantastic stuff in the soundtrack as far
as songs go. Like we mentioned last Time you Got
Them Coming in Singing yakat y Act two nineteen eighty
eight movies where Yakayyac plays a major part. In the
early scenes of the movie, we had twins and then
we've got the family singing Yaktyact by the Coasters, and
then we had a Land of a Thousand Dances. Everybody
remembers that Part's where they're all dancing around singing the
song by Wilson Pickett. Great scene. But what's interesting about
this is they pulled in some songs by the l
Wood Blues Review Elwood Blues, Ellwood Blues. You got it
so literally dan Aykroyd's character from the Blues Brothers, that
band that was the original Saturday Night Live band. For
the most part. They come in, they've made their their
spinoff band from the Blues Brothers, and they have several
songs on this eric at least a couple of songs
on this soundtrack as well.
Speaker 2: That's fun, that's really cool.
Speaker 1: You got drag Boat where dan Aykroyd is singing as
Elwood Blues. And then you've also got a song called
Hip hug Her, Hip hug Her right. This one is
by the Elwood Blues Review as well. But you've really
just got the members of the band. You don't have
Elwood Blues singing. You've got Steve Cropper, You've got Booker T. Jones,
You've got Donald duck Dunn, which if you've seen the
Blues Brothers. He's his only line is if the fit
to swear it.
Speaker 2: But we're getting the band back together.
Speaker 1: We're on a mission from gut So again another great
soundtrack of songs.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay. I wanted to bring up just a few
of the funniest scenes in both of these movies that
we can talk about, and then I've got a few tidbits,
and then what final judgment.
Speaker 1: I guess, right, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2: Okay, Okay, let's stay with the great outdoors for.
Speaker 1: Just a second. Okay, Okay.
Speaker 2: Some of the funniest scenes I think are You've got
the part where the guy is struck by lightning is.
Speaker 1: Six times is it's sixty six to guys.
Speaker 2: In the head.
Speaker 1: Sixty six times? God, that's got hurt.
Speaker 2: Okay. And then you also have the bat scene where
the bat gets into the cabin. John Candy goes in there.
He's like, no, no, I've got this. Everybody calm down.
I'm gonna take care of this problem. And then it
comes out He's like, it buzzed me. Hey, I'm telling you.
This scene reappears in Christmas Vacation with the Squirrel.
Speaker 1: It is the same scene and.
Speaker 2: You know what, it's not the only scene that we
duplicate for one of these movies. Yeah, we'll talk about
that here in just a second. Okay, the scene with
the old ninety sixer.
Speaker 1: What's the old ninety sixer?
Speaker 4: Oh, that's our world famous Paul Bunyan's blue ox tick.
It is a ninety six OUNSD prime aged beef steak
and you or any member of your party orders the
old ninety six or a finishes everybody eats for.
Speaker 2: Free is like my favorite, right.
Speaker 1: Oh, it's absolutely the most memorable scene. And it became
a thing, like I don't know that it was anywhere,
like having these kind of outrageous things to eat and
then you get a free meal, T shirt whatever. I
don't think it became as much of a thing until
this movie. Yeah, and then, oh god, I mean, all
that's left is fat in the gristle. Yep.
Speaker 2: Have you ever been to the Big Texan in Amarilla? No?
I have eaten there, and they've got it on dis
when you walk in, it's actually seventy two ounces and
it looks like a cow's left butt cheek. Wow, it's
it's massive.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: Another one of my favorite scenes from the great outdoors.
I don't know how they got this bear to do
this thing. But when he's jumping up and down on
the door with John Candy underneath, that is a scream man. Yeah,
and he is just ragging that door, and of course
John Candy is is so funny. You faster, yeah fast?
Speaker 1: I think he said go faster, go fast, Go faster, dude.
Speaker 2: That was funny.
Speaker 1: That's hilarious.
Speaker 2: Yes, the water skiing scene is.
Speaker 1: Funny because he's just finished saying, what do you do
in your job? You let go of the rope and
not once, right, not once? And then he waves and
faints in the water. Oh my gosh, I was dying.
Speaker 2: Hey. First of all, I know it's a joke, but
nobody ever starts on the dock holding the rope while
your stupid idiot brother is at the controls of the
my weight. Yeah, and then the fun the part that
I may have laughed at the hardest. And it's a
cheap thrill, I get it. But the first time I
saw this when they shoot that bear in the butt
with a shotgun and it blows his button bear, I laughed.
I laughed hard. The first time I saw this, I
thought that was hilarious. And then the closing dance scene
is a great fun It's like the end of Footloose, right, Yeah,
it's all about having fun and dancing and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: That one is very very Blues Brothers, Like would they
just break into song and everybody's just singing and dancing
and having fun. I love it.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of closing credit scenes John Hughes movies
that are a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: Sorry, I gotta run your bathroom real quick. I'm gonna
I'm gonna introduce mister thick Dick to mister Urine. Okay, sorry,
we could not leave figure it outdoors saying that. I'm sorry,
it's bad, bad, inappropriate. I apologize, Please forgive me. Okay,
all right, we're going back to vacation now we are.
Speaker 2: But before we do, I just want to say, the
raccoons in the trash.
Speaker 1: Scene you hate, I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't think that's funny at all. I think that's dumb.
Speaker 1: You have had an issue with chipmunks since episode one
of this show. I don't know what your deal is, dude.
I mean, you need to find some Alvin love.
Speaker 2: The Chipmunks singing backup for Michael Jackson have just tainted
it for me. Okay, so let's talk about the funniest
stuff from the movie National Lampoon's Vacation.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you something, this is no longer a vacation.
Speaker 1: It's a quest.
Speaker 3: It's a quest for fun.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have fun and you're gonna have fun. Okay,
this is gonna be hard for National Lampoon Vacation. There
are so many funny scenes.
Speaker 2: Like literally they string it together from the opening scene
all the way to the end, exactly funny scene after
funny scene after funny scene. Yeah, so you start with
the first one where Clark pulls up to pick up
the Antarctic Glues super sports wagon and you know what,
it didn't come in.
Speaker 1: This is not the car you ordered. Take it easy, Russy,
this is not the car I ordered.
Speaker 2: And you have the sleaziest car salesman of all time.
Eugene Levy. I thought this was interesting. Eugene Levy thought, Hey,
I was in this movie. It's doing really, really well.
Speaker 1: It's fun.
Speaker 2: And David Letterman brought it up when he was talking
to Chevy Chase about the movie. He said, David Letterman's like,
how about that car salesman at the beginning. That was
so funny. Eugene Levy almost fell out of his chair.
He's like, he's talking about me.
Speaker 1: Nice.
Speaker 2: I thought that was really cool. So that's a funny scene.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Eugene Levy had been in with John Candy, had
been in setv C TV.
Speaker 2: With John Kenny.
Speaker 1: That's correct.
Speaker 2: Yep, the scene went early on Clark is trying to
talk Ellen into performing a sexual act in the car
with the kids.
Speaker 1: Right, it had stuck.
Speaker 2: It's so frigging funny. And then and that's why one
of the reason I'm showing my cards here a little bit.
Vacation is just a little bit naughty, a little harder edged, yeah,
which makes it that much more hilarious with the payoffs
and stuff.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean when they go into what south side
of Chicago? Where the where do they go off the.
Speaker 2: Road in the wrong is a Detroit Saint Louis?
Speaker 1: Oh Saint Louis's right, Okay, so they go off honky lips.
There is no way. I mean, you're not getting away
with that in a movie today. That is not I know,
but I mean, you know, excuse me, could you please
tell me how to get back on the Expressway. Oh,
thank you very much.
Speaker 2: I saw I saw Harold Ramus talk about this. He said,
every scene that had a cussword in it, they had
to do an alternate scene without cusswords. Right, okay, So
the alternate scene to that very word right there, the
guy says, what do I look like? Christopher Clobo? And
I'm like, no, the F word is much better there.
But the scene I wanted to bring up to you
is when he is trying to romance her panties off
with the vibrating bed and the champagne, and of course
the bed goes haywire, like the entire trip is going haywire.
But Ellen, being a good wife, is still up for
you know whatever. Let's just pull the you know, the
bed spread off and put it on the floor, all right.
The kids come in because of the racket that's happening,
and they're like, where's mom And he goes to the
like thumb like she's in the other room.
Speaker 1: I'm down here, I'm down here.
Speaker 2: Kids go back to bed. Huh. Hilarious.
Speaker 1: Hilarious.
Speaker 2: Also, he's got her panties on his on his thumb
and she rips it off. The scene when they go
to Dodge City. Hey, Underpants, move your chicken wings, turkey.
All that's improv All that's Chevy Chase gold great.
Speaker 3: Hey, tander Foot, give your chicken wings, Turkey Clark.
Speaker 2: That's not nice part of the act.
Speaker 3: Huh, Hey underban, Hey, okay, I'm okay, I'm all right.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna throw back to this is a personal story, right.
You got me into running back in two thousand and eight,
I mean a long time ago, right, And so I
kind of ramped up suddenly and did a marathon within
a few months after we started running together, that's true.
And at mile fifteen of the run, we go off
off road onto what I can just describe as a
walking trail. It goes by this lake. And at some point,
you know, my kids and my wife would drive to
different spots and they would wave and be filming and
all this other stuff. And at that point they had
arrived at this place again, and they're like yay, Dad,
and I'm like proud of you, honey, And I start
doing these like big kisses, like I'm totally hamming it
up and I'm not paying attention to what I'm doing.
At mile fifteen, my ankle goes off the edge of
this trail and I face first plant onto the gravel.
I remember that, yes, and I totally I had it
going through my head. I jump up like Chevy Chase
after the shotgun and I'm like, okay, I'm okay, I'm okay,
I left.
Speaker 2: You're gonna say? Casey was like, maybe you're chicken wings turkey.
That's hilarious. We've we've already talked about Dinky versus the
bumper with the highway patrolman and Chevy Chase jas son
of a Bitch, the single greatest line ever delivered in
any Chevy Chase movie. But the scene where he's making
all the loving blow of kisses to Christy Brinkley while
they're playing Little Boy Sweet and bever Delangelo is like
the dog wet on the picnic basket and he's like
spitting it out and at end is like, who cares whatever,
I'm hungry. I'll tell you a line that we still
My wife and I use this all the time. We
were in air on a we went to the Grand
Canyon not too many years ago, and we're driving around
looking for the road to the Grand Canyon, and we
could not help ourselves. We're like don't think you're gonna
find the Grand Canyon on this road. And I'm like,
it's only the biggest gd hole in the world.
Speaker 4: I honestly don't think you're gonna find the Grand Canyon
on this road.
Speaker 3: It's only the biggest goddamn hole in the world. Wark
watch your language, like that the second biggest one.
Speaker 2: And that scene where he jumps the family truckster, yeah, Dad,
you must have jun this thing.
Speaker 1: Love fifty yard.
Speaker 2: That's something to be proud of. Russie Yarns. So the
interesting thing is that was filmed in Monument Valley, which
I was there in December, and it's another strange coincidence.
I keep saying this, I don't go to movie locations,
but with any which way you can and every which
way it lose and vacation. Of course, they shoot a
lot of it in Colorado, which I go there a
lot in Arizona. The scene where they jumped the family's truckster,
they had an the old eighties style stunt man who
was like, I'm just gonna put some knee pads on
and jump this sucker. And they were talking about how
far he's gonna jump it, and he's like, put your
money where your mouth is. I'm gonna show you how
far I can freaking jump this truckster and he jumped
it exactly where he drew the line. Wow, Like everybody
was like, there's no way you're gonna jump that far.
Let's see your cash.
Speaker 1: Well, and you've got after that scene, of course, you
have him walking through the desert, which is classic, a
classic moment, right, right, But then the mechanics.
Speaker 2: Passive gas station, every hundred brains. Okay, so the manure
for brain mechanics right where Clark's like, how much is it?
And they're like, how much you got?
Speaker 3: Boy?
Speaker 2: All of it?
Speaker 1: What does your sheriff think about your business practices?
Speaker 2: He pulls out his badge, right, Okay, So one of
those guys looks like Dermott mulroney. But that's not him, right.
The other guy, the guy who's the sheriff, that's Mickey Jones.
Speaker 1: Yeah, do you know who that is? I mean, I've
seen him in a bajillion things.
Speaker 2: Right, he's been an actor and he's been a lot
of stuff.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: He played drums for Bob Dylan, Okay, what he is
a founding member of the First Edition with singer Kenny Rogers.
Speaker 1: Well, throw back to our freaking big labouts at episode Wow.
Speaker 2: That's right, that's awesome overall, Mickey Jones has played on
seventeen Gold records in two decades of a musical Wow Wow.
And then he's playing the freaking sheriff in Invacation.
Speaker 1: He was he was with Jeff Bridges in Starman too.
He was the trucker in Starman.
Speaker 2: There you go, Okay. The scene that I really want
to talk to you about, though, is the scene after Edna,
of course has died. Huh. They drop her off at
her son's house in Phoenix in the Porn Range.
Speaker 1: She can't be more than one hundred pounds. You are
not going to put her on the roof.
Speaker 2: And then they go in the backyard and he's like.
Speaker 1: You think he'll be upset. Why would he be upset
to come home from vacation to find his dead mother
on the porch.
Speaker 2: And he's given that prayer. He's like, yay, though, they
walk to the valley of the Canaanites, give her a break, lord. Yeah.
And so he's given this total half butt prayer that
he's trying to get on the road and get to
Wally World, and of course, bevery angel is like, Lord,
we love this woman with all our hearts, Like, let's
not overdo it mom. So that scene is hilarious. Yeah,
But when they drive off, they're in the car and
all this bad crap has happened the entire trip, and
the family is basically like, we want to bail out, right,
I've had it, we can't take any more. And he
slams on the brakes and he turns to him and
he's like, I think you're all left.
Speaker 1: In the head.
Speaker 2: Right, We're gonna have so much f and fun. You're
gonna be whistling zippity dude out of your a holes. Yeah,
we're ten hours from the F and Fun park. You
want to bail out? Well, this is no longer a vacation,
it's a quest, right, it's a question fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're gonna have fun. I'm gonna have fun.
Speaker 2: So that meltdown with the f worts is hilarious. Now,
like I said before, they had to film an alternate
version for TV. I've seen that version. It is not
as funny shocking. Right, Here's the thing. John Hughes stole
that exact scene and used it in another John Hughes movie.
Can you name that movie.
Speaker 1: Christmas Vacation.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'll go with you on that, but that's
not what I was talking about.
Speaker 1: Okay, what you got.
Speaker 2: It's the f bomb tirade that Steve Martin does.
Speaker 1: At the end of Plants, Trains and Nomobiles, the the
rented car not being there, that one tirade.
Speaker 2: Poor effing Wheels in a seat.
Speaker 1: Yeah right, you're ft right, Yeah.
Speaker 2: So it just as I'm going through these, I'm like, man,
John Hughes keeps stealing from himself.
Speaker 1: But it's it every time.
Speaker 2: It's good every time.
Speaker 1: Right, you see the character completely lose his mind.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's my assertion that The Great Outdoors is a
complete thievery of vacation and it's a reboot.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So we'll talk about final judgment here in a second. Okay.
And then one scene I wanted to talk about, Clark
has had enough of villain and he goes to the
bar with the white shoes.
Speaker 1: So glad that you said. I was waiting for them, Like,
we cannot, we cannot leave this movie behind without talking
about this is crazy. This is crazy.
Speaker 2: He meets up with Christy Brinkley.
Speaker 1: He I mean, dude, one little fight and he is
out trolling.
Speaker 2: He is trolling the water, the second in the bar.
Speaker 1: Third or fourth, he's checking every single one of them out.
One's not interested, the other one has a boyfriend. And
finally he bumps into Christy Brinkley, who he's seen this
whole time. Creates the story about the being the hotel.
Speaker 2: Owner when you're in the CIA.
Speaker 1: No, I was, but I don't like to talk about it.
Speaker 2: So they go to the pool. Now. Then here's the
thing with Christy Brinkley. She had been in glamour magazines,
she had been in sports illuspirated swimsuit issues. I don't
know if she'd been in music videos up to that point,
but she was the it girl every magazine in a
bikini known to man. Harold Raymis is like, you got
to be topless, and she's like, Nope, not happen. And
they're like, what are you talking about? You are half
naked all the time. She's like, I have made a
fantastic living by making people wonder what is underneath my
bikini and I am not showing it. And I thought
that's a shrewd business.
Speaker 1: Move by a good job. Yeah, I mean you're you're
you're trying to stare into the water the whole time
she's in the pool when you think she's naked, right,
and you never see a thing. I mean, I still
don't have a problem with brother Angelo going crazy a
little bit later on exactly. I mean, she was just
a shoos a pool waitress, a waitress in the pool.
Speaker 2: I mean, he's ordering some fish for you and Audrey.
Speaker 1: He believe that, don't you rest Oh yeah, you think
mom's gonna buy it?
Speaker 2: Can tuck rs. But here's the interesting thing. So for
that scene, they compromise, Okay, we'll find no no topless.
You gotta wear lingerie though, and she's like, okay, fine whatever.
Speaker 1: Sure.
Speaker 2: So one day Harold raimis, he's working, he's dealing with problems,
he's directing people, he's dealing with, you know, bursts of
anger from Chevy Chase. And he gets a phone call
and they're like, hey, you need to get down to wardrobe.
And he's like, what's going on in wardrobe? Like what's
the problem, Like, well, we're working with Christy to help
her pick her laingerie. He's like, yeah, I can do that.
I'll be down there in a seconds.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I thought it was interesting. She would not take
her clothes off.
Speaker 1: I'm been good for her.
Speaker 2: Yep. Okay, I've got just a couple of tidbits I
want to talk to you about from both of these movies. Okay,
let's do tidbits from The Great Outdoors First, money choice, Biche.
Speaker 4: What did he say?
Speaker 2: What When John Candy showed up on set, he thought, Hey,
this is an outdoorsy movie. You know we're gonna be camping.
So he had a beard. Oh okay, And they showed
up and they're like, I'm not really sure about the beard,
so they made him shave it right.
Speaker 1: So same thing with John Travolta and Urban Cowboy. He
thought Cowboy supposed to have a beard, showed up with
the beard, They're like, nope, nope. That's why at the
beginning of the movie you see him with the beard
and then he shaves it all off.
Speaker 2: Interesting, there you go. Okay, this movie took three weeks
to film in late October and November of eighty seven. Okay,
so it's supposed to be summer, but really it's set
in the fall. This was shot at bass Lake Lodge
in California.
Speaker 1: You know what else was shot? No, The Star Trek,
where Kirk is climbing up the side of the cliff
and then all of a sudden, Spock is like levitating
next to him Star Trek five and they sing, row
row your boat around the campig same, same, Like.
Speaker 2: That was the worst of the Star Trek movies, but
it came out in the summer of eighty nine, of
which I'm plenting my flag as the best here for
movies in the eighties. Oh wow, So okay, all right, now,
I noticed this the other day when I was watching
The Great Outdoors, the scene where John Candy's character in
Dan Arkward's character, Chet and Roman are sitting there and
they're talking about, you know, what do you see out there?
He's like, I see a business investment and millions of
acres of you know, blah blah blah. And he's like,
what do you see? He's like, I see trees. I
see nothing but trees. Right, they're sitting there. They both
have Star Wars glasses from Burger King back in the day.
Speaker 1: Yeah, although I think and looking at it, we decided
maybe it was Empire Striking.
Speaker 2: One was Empres Strikes Back, and one was Return of
the Jedi.
Speaker 1: So there you go. So you noticed Star Wars cups. Yes,
I noticed the beer in the Great Outdoors. There are
a ton of people drinking this beer called Point beer,
and you don't see it around here. This is a
Wisconsin beer. It is made by Stevens Point Brewery, which
is the fifth oldest continuously operating brewery literally started in
eighteen sixty four and sold beer to the Civil War troops. Wow,
that's how it is, and the third oldest privately owned
brewery in the nation as well.
Speaker 2: Interesting, there you go. Okay, do you know the name
of the bear in the Great Outdoors? No? Bear's name
is Jody.
Speaker 1: That is the worst name for a bear I've ever
heard of.
Speaker 2: Why you know why I know that? No, because the
effing raccoons told me that at the end in the
closing credits.
Speaker 1: What, Yes, they said, the bears is Jody Jody.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, okay, let's blip over vacation.
Speaker 1: Yep, this is crazy.
Speaker 2: This is crazy.
Speaker 1: It's crazy.
Speaker 2: Now then, I've already told you about the alternate cussing scenes, right,
They always had to have something for television, and almost
always those cussing scenes don't work. Right now, then, do
you know who Clark and Ellen rent the Tints from
when they're in South Fork, Colorado. No, Brian Doyle Murray.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah right, eating the watermelons and flower seeds.
What does heat spitting something out?
Speaker 2: He's spitting watermelon seeds out. Yeah, so they rent the
tints from him. Yeah, you know where. He shows up
again in the vacation movies.
Speaker 1: He is the boss in Christmas Vacation who gets kidnapped
by cousins, the.
Speaker 2: Mister Shirley from Christmas Vacation.
Speaker 1: Surely you can't be serious.
Speaker 2: I am serious, and don't call me Shirley. Chevy Chase
actually adopted Dinky the dog after the filming of this movie.
Speaker 1: What, yes, that's that is awesome?
Speaker 2: How about that?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good one. So you're touching on a
subject that I just wanted to cover real quick. We've
got several vacation movies that come after this vacation. Yeah,
you've got European Vacation. Yes, you've got Christmas Vacation, You've
got Vegas Vacation. You've got some others that we don't
probably even need to talk about. And then you kind
of have this soft reboot where it's vacation but with
Rusty as a dad. Right, So going back to let's
say the original four, yes, you've got vacation, European Christmas,
and Vegas. Yes, give me your how they rank for you?
Speaker 2: Okay, vacation number one, Christmas vacation number two. Although I
am a strong apologist for my number three of European vacation.
I think it's very funny, Okay, I don't hate it
like most people hate it.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: And then Vegas vacation is a distant fourth, but I
still think it's very funny. Yeah, I love them all.
I think they're all great.
Speaker 1: So Christmas Vacation, as I said when we did our episode,
I didn't even really like it that much the first
time I saw it, but grown to love it so
much it is now my number one. Okay. Number two
for me is the original National Lampoon vacation. Okay. Number
three is gonna be European Vacation, which I've seen maybe
once or twice, if that really okay, and it's it's
definitely a distant third. And then Vegas Vacation. I hate it.
I saw it in the theater. I thought it was terrible,
and I have not seen it again since. Now I
was talking to Arlin, our buddy Arlind about this, and
he was like, No, Vegas Vacation was hilarious, and it's
like Rusty meets the Mobsters and it's like Jerry Wintraub
is the mobster and it's and I'm like, I don't
remember any of that, So I may need to go
back and give Vegas Vacation a try to see if
it's warmed up any for me.
Speaker 2: I think it's great. I think there are some real
funny moments when they're at the damn and cousin he's like,
where's the damn bathroom that takes care of tidbits for
me from vacation?
Speaker 1: Okay, so one last tidbit for me. Yeah. John Hughes'
last directed movie was Curly Sue. He didn't do I mean,
he didn't really do anything for the rest of his life.
He tragically died at the tender age of fifty nine,
I think in two thousand and eighty.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I have to wonder if that hadn't happened, if he
would have ever come back and started doing stuff. I
don't know what it is that led him to stop
doing movies altogether, but he did write some stuff, but
used a different name. Did you know this? No, so
you know of the movie Beethoven with the Big Saint Bernard.
That's pretty awful, like a John Ritter movie, right, pretty
well known.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: He wrote that under the pseudonym Edmund Dantes.
Speaker 2: Dantes from Freaking the Count of Money Christo.
Speaker 1: Very good. That was my I was going to say,
do you know? And there you go? Wow, that's the character.
He took the characters from the Count of Monte Cristo
and that was his pseudonym. Whenever he would write, you
are blowing my mind. There you go. Okay, you're ready
for final judge, Ready for final judgment. Okay, let's go.
You go first, to me, go first, You go first.
We know what you're gonna do already, so you go ahead.
Speaker 2: And this is the biggest mismatch we've ever had here.
The Shirley can't be serious, okay. National Lampoon's Vacation has
hilarious scene after hilarious scene after memorable line.
Speaker 1: After I'm not gonna sneeze. I'm over here trying to
restrain myself from talking while you make a statement like that,
but go ahead.
Speaker 2: Literally one of the funniest comedies of the nineteen eighties,
and then you have The Great Outdoors that is inferior
in every way. It's way less funny, the characters are
way less funny. The story has already been told. I
don't like to rain on my man John Hughes, because
I love John Hughes. But it's a forgettable comedy, and
The Lampoon's Vacation is one of the greatest comedies of
the landslide for vacation.
Speaker 1: Okay, are you finished?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 1: Go? Okay. We did Groundhog Day versus Multiplicity, and you're
telling me that this is the biggest, biggest landslide, biggest.
Speaker 2: Gap between the two movies.
Speaker 1: You're out of your freaking mind. Okay, you're out of
your freeman. I am not going to I mean, I'm
gonna I'm gonna share it right off. I Am not
going to come out here and say that The Great
Outdoors is better the National Lampoon Vacation. But I'm gonna
say it's freaking close. This is a good matchup. This.
The Great Outdoors is a hysterical movie. It's one of
John Candy's best, It's one of Dan Ackroid's best. You've
got suck my wake, You've got the old ninety six er.
You've got all of these iconic scenes. You've got great acting,
Annette Benning's debut, You've got the skiing scene, you've got
the bear scenes. This is a fantastic movie. For you
to say that it is the biggest landslide, the biggest
Mitch mismatch we've ever had, is outrageous. Okay, you are
not wrong about your pick. Vacation is a better movie,
but it is close. And there would be days that
I would say, if you said pick one of these,
I would pick the Great Outdoors. There would be days
there would be days that I picked Vacation. There would
be days that I picked the Great Outdoors. They are
both fantastic movies, both worthy. You saying that there's this
is the biggest Mitch match we've ever had is ridiculous.
But I don't disagree with your pick. It is Vacation
that is the better.
Speaker 2: Interesting. Yeah, Okay, let me ask you this. Yeah, rank
the three herald raymis movies that we've covered so far,
National Lamdfid's Vacation, Ye, Groundhog Day, Multiplicity, Caddie Shack.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Four. So Multiplicity is by far the worst, right,
It's it's it's it was not good. It is a
bad movie. I'm standing on that. It's a bad movie.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna you're hearing my feelings.
Speaker 1: Now, well you got it coming, misters. So then you've
got uh, Harold Ramis, You've got uh, you.
Speaker 2: Got Caddy Shack, you got vacation, You've got groundhog Day,
you got multiplicity.
Speaker 1: Okay, so it's gonna go. So multiplicity is the worst.
Then you've got vacation number three. Vacation is number three, okay,
Caddy Shack. I'm gonna watch before I watch vacation Oak.
And number one is groundhog Day. I love groundhog Day.
Top of the list for me for sure.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: Yeah, how about you?
Speaker 2: Number one? Vacation best Harold Raymis movie ever.
Speaker 1: Wow?
Speaker 2: Then groundhog Day, Then Caddy Shack, Okay, then multiplicity, and
I love Caddy Shack. But vacation is the best. Man,
It's so funny.
Speaker 1: So let's I mean, just because you've said this absolute nonsense,
I'm go got I gotta ask this question. What multiplicity
or the great outdoors?
Speaker 2: Which one is multiplicity?
Speaker 1: Every day of the week, you are out of your
frigging mind and such out of your mind.
Speaker 2: No, Michael Keener or dan Aykroyd.
Speaker 1: People, you you should come and denounce Jason right now
for what he is saying about the great outdoors. It
is terrible.
Speaker 2: Well, we want to hear from you, guys. How did
we do? Where do you? Where do you weigh these two?
I love the Summer of eighty eight. This one just
didn't quite hit me. I think it's a sweet movie,
and it does give me nostalgic feelings. My family used
to go to the lake. It's just not not even
close to as good as vacation. But if I'm wrong,
I want you to come after me.
Speaker 1: You wouldn't know a good movie if it fell out
of a sky, landed on your face and started a
wigle my friend, how about a zagnut oh man?
Speaker 2: All right, Well, that wraps up this matchup. Hit us
up on Facebook, hit us up on Twitter, send us
an email, become a Patreon member. Next week, d we
are covering Cinderella's Long Cold Winter again, another album from
the summer of nineteen eighty eight. It's unbelievable. And then
the week after that we're gonna compare it to Van
Halen's Oh You eight one two? Uh Hey, Gar, We'll
get to that. We'll get to that from the summer
of nineteen eighty eight. That's gonna be a great matchup.
We've got some friends joining us for that. Come back
next week, that great matchup.
Speaker 1: See you guys then, thank you so much. We can't
do it without you. See you next week, Thy guys,