Transcript

Intro Clip

This is a top to, you know, what we use on stage. But it's very, very special because if you can see the numbers all go to 11. Look right across the board. 11, 11. Most of these amps go up to 10. Exactly. Does that mean it's louder? Is it any louder? Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not 10. You see, most, most blokes you'll be playing at 10. You're on 10 here. All the way up, all the way. Up, all the way up. You're on 10 on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where? I don't know. Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do? Put it up to 11. 11. Exactly. One louder. Why don't you just make 10 louder and make 10 be the top number and make that a little louder. These go to 11.

Steve

It's two dads one movie. It's the podcast where two middle aged dads sit around and shoot the shit about the movies of the 80s, 80s and 90s. Here are your hosts, Steve Paulo and Nic Briana. Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of 2 Dads 1 Movie. I'm Steve.

Nic

And I'm Nic.

Steve

And today we are talking about the 1984 mockumentary, or I guess rockumentary. This is Spinal Tap. Yeah, super excited to talk about this movie. It's just such a, such a genre defining sort of feature that nobody had done anything like this as far as I'm aware. Audience, if you know of a mockumentary style film that came out before this is Spinal Tap, let me know because as far as I'm aware, this was kind of the start of this style of movie.

Nic

Yeah, I couldn't think of one earlier and a lot of them have ended up coming from this kind of core crew that, that made Spinal Tap. Yeah, so yeah, this is just so original for the time and so much fun.

Steve

Yeah, absolutely. I mean there's even movies unrelated to this one like Fear of a Black Hat that is almost a shot for shot adaptation of this. Is Spinal Tap just using a hip hop group instead of a heavy metal group?

Nic

There's some things like that.

Steve

And then obviously, yeah, the Christopher guest, Harry Shearer, Michael McKeon grouping ended up making so many movies. Waiting for Guffman Best in Show for your consideration. A Mighty Wind. There's just so many fantastic movies that like this one. This other thing we should mention. I don't know how many times this had happened before this movie as well. This Is one of those movies where not every line was scripted ahead of time. They wrote the plot and they wrote the songs and they wrote sort of, this scene will take place and this will happen in it. And this seems to place, and this will happen in it. And then the actors just rift. And they just sort of, like, went. And it's like, you know, Adam McKay and Will Ferrell made careers out of doing this all throughout the early 2000s. But I don't know that this was super popular before Christopher Guest and crew really started doing this. So a lot of fun, very interesting stuff. This was my pick. My history with this one.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

Is really just, you know, I think I saw it for the first time in high school. It would have been many, many years after it came out. The kind of thing that, you know, somebody, you know, saw it because they had an older brother, older sister saw it and told you that, you know, whatever. And this a thing where I was a theater kid. And so I actually saw Waiting for Guffman before I saw this movie. I saw that first and basically was like, oh, this is so funny. And somebody was like, yeah, it's the same. You know, people, like, made this Spinal Tap, like, what's that? So I was probably about 15 before I saw this movie for the first time in the mid-90s. But it was such. Such an impact. And obviously, again, because it just. It just meant so much, you know, to the world of comedy and kind of defined this genre. It really is an important, important movie. And I'm super excited to talk about it. This is gonna be fun. Yeah.

Nic

Yeah. And, you know, on my end, I was telling you before the pod, I think I've only watched this movie one time, and it would have been. Yeah, probably like, late high school or so.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

But, you know, I was aware, like, there's stuff we'll talk about in this movie. Like it goes up to 11 and the drummer exploding. The things that. I was aware because I remember my dad telling me about this movie a bunch when I was a kid. This is my poor man's VCR is just my dad telling me about him.

Steve

So it turns out Luke Skywalker's father was dying theater the whole time. I don't know. Your dad doesn't sound like that. I'm sure he.

Nic

He does when he's talking about movies. So that is correct. So I knew about. I knew about a lot of the things from it. And I watched it then I remember I liked it. And I have friends that are just so much into it. And for Whatever reason, like with Spaceballs several episodes ago, where I was seeing it for the first time, it just like didn't get into my rotation.

Steve

Right.

Nic

And then I was kind of like out of it by the time, like, you know, I finished college. And then nobody's showing each other videos anymore because we're all like, you know, working and trying to not kill ourselves after the end of every day. So. So I didn't get into it. And I'm so. I'm so excited that I watched it again. And I actually watched it twice leading up to this podcast because I felt like it gets better. Like you need to kind of settle into what it is. And the characters are so interesting that it just gets better if you allow yourself to be, you know, to absorb it a little bit more.

Steve

Yeah, the movie really, it hits you so fast with such subtle humor at times. I mean, some of it's over the top, like, obviously all that subtle. Some of it's very in your face, very big, you know, humor. But some of it is super, kind of under the radar, you know, subtle kind of jokes and little throwaways and stuff that, like, it's easy to miss. And I think, you know. Yeah. Watching it, you know, understanding. I think knowing what's about to come sometimes is much better for you in this movie.

Nic

Yes.

Steve

Because it's like, you can prepare yourself for like, you know, like coming up, you know, David and Nigel are going to like, rapid fire each other for a little bit, pay close attention, you know what I mean? Because you can easily miss, you know, a great little line here or there. So, yeah, good stuff. Let's get into it. Let's get into the facts. This is Spinal Tap. So this movie. This is Spinal Tap, came out on March 2, 1984 with an R rating. Has a running time of 82 minutes. Might be the shortest movie we've done on the podcast at this point. Directed by Rob Reiner, written by Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer and Rob Reiner, and of course, starring basically that same group of people on Rotten Tomatoes. This received a score of 96%.

Nic

Amazing.

Steve

Very, very.

Nic

I haven't double checked, but that's got to be our highest. I can't imagine anything.

Steve

Fugitive was over 90, I think. But yeah, this is very, very high on IMDb. 7.9, which is like, as you're approaching an 8, that is a huge score on IMDb. Anything over 7 is very good. So, you know, that's big. It did win a couple awards. They were kind of weird ones, like about DVD commentary, things like that. But one of the one I wanted to mention is that in 2002, it was actually added to the National Film Registry, which is basically government's list of the important films of American history. And so by. This is. Spinal Tap is among those movies. It's right there with Gone with the Wind and the Godfather and shit like that. So very nice, very cool stuff. On a very modest budget of $2.5 million, it did earn just 5.8 million at the box office. Not much of a box office hit, although at 2.3 times the money it cost it. It's fine. It was a success. It made people money. And it's not like it was a flop in any sense of the word. Just not a blockbuster, you know, I also don't. I didn't do enough research. Look back, like, well, how many theaters was it released in? And, you know, how quickly was it all about getting it onto VHS so that it could, you know, be a part of the home video stuff, which was becoming big by the mid-80s. So. But, yeah, so those are the facts on this is Spinal Tap. All right, let's dive in. We open with an introduction from the film's director, sort of.

Nic

Right.

Steve

Martin. Marty Deburghy, played by Rob Reiner, is the fictional director of the fictional film. This is Spinal Tap inside the movie. This is Spinal Tap. So he is. He. Basically, Spinal Tap is a. He tells us it is a huge heavy metal band and from the uk and they haven't toured the United States, I think, six years, and they're now going on tour to support a new album. And he is a fan and wanted to make a documentary about them and so that he. They allowed him to come along on tour with them and. And film and bring his crew and make this movie that we're all about to watch together. So for the rest of the film, Rob Reiner is playing the part of Marty deburge, But of course, Rob Reiner himself also directed the movie we're watching. Yeah. So there is a little bit of like a mirror inside a mirror thing going on here. A little weird, but yeah. So we get a little intro from him, right.

Nic

And he comments that Spinal Tap was known for their exuberance, raw power and punctuality. So. And I think that might be the first joke that happens in this movie.

Steve

That. And. Or the hat that Rob Reiner is wearing, Marty Debrighi is wearing is like a USS Coral Sea, like, navy hat. I think it's a direct reference to the fact that Ron Howard as a director would always wear, like, a navy cap. I can't. I don't know for sure that's the case, but Howard had had a couple directing credits under his belt by the time this came out. So I think maybe that was Reiner, who obviously also would have been very familiar with Howard personally.

Nic

That's right.

Steve

The two of them, you know, they were both in television around the same time and like directing movies around the same time. So they obviously knew each other. I think he was kind of maybe poking his buddy in the ribs a little bit. Not 100% sure on that, but.

Nic

And we. We saw a similar cap with our most recent episode, Secret of My Success. Michael J. Fox's mailroom boss was rocking that style of stuff.

Steve

The navy hat. Yep. So cool all. How do we, like. Here's the one I kind of want to mention.

Nic

Yeah, we can talk about how it's.

Steve

Tough to talk about first most of the time. If you've listened to any of our episodes, you know that we kind of walk through the movie. You know, we comment on the scenes going through it, but we're doing that pretty much by memory. We both have notes that we've taken, but otherwise it's like we've seen the movies recently. Let's just talk about them. The plot of this movie is pretty shallow. The point of the movie is not the plot. This is a character play. This is a character driven concept. And it's a concept movie in the sense of like a concept album. Right. Like, it's all about its structure. And so we're going to do our best to continue to kind of walk right through it and point out the things that are funny, whatever. But really the movie is structured in a way that we see the band do one of their songs, like not even the whole song, but like a portion of one of their songs, like at one of their concerts. Then we'll see some scenes in between on tour where they're going from either show to show or they're hanging out the hotel or whatever. Sometimes it'll be, you know, Marty is interviewing them directly. Other times he's just kind of showing us them chatting with each other. And then we'll get to another song. And so it just kind of goes back and forth, like in this way, and we'll get into the details, but, you know, the plot is not really the point. And so following it along like we often do with. With much more plot driven films that we cover might not work exactly the same. But, you know, let's. Let's go ahead and dive in.

Nic

Yeah, let's dive in. Well, I think so. The first thing we're kind of shown like a montage of just. It's cutting between fans kind of giving the commentary of like, I love Spinal Tap, they're my favorite band. And. And then Spinal Tap themselves walking in and then cutting to some concert footage and to some. Some roadies loading, you know, speakers on the truck, everything. And then they. They're on stage and it starts just with one of their songs. And is this the Big Bottom song?

Steve

What's the first song later? I can't remember the first one they do.

Nic

It was a good song though. It was like a decent, like kind of Kiss style song.

Steve

All the songs are pretty good.

Nic

That's one thing about this movie, since we're going to be kind of jumping around, is the key to making this type of comedy work, especially if it involves like joke, like parody songs or things like that, is the songs have to be good on their own.

Steve

Yes.

Nic

Like it's not funny if you're just rhyming the obvious thing. And that's why so many people stereotype like guitar comedy as something that sucks or whatever, because you can. There's cheap shortcuts to jokes just by like rhyming words or whatever. But the fact that this is a real production taken seriously by musicians who actually cared about the kind of music they were making and wanted it to be a funny, but good version of what they were making really shines through in this.

Steve

It reminds me of something. Just as an aside, I don't know if you ever watched the TV show Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which was an Aaron Sorkin show, very short lived, maybe two seasons, maybe just one. Actually. Matthew Perry was in, was about a Saturday Night Live type show and the inner workings on that. I mean, that's kind of. Sorkin is always about, there's this thing, you know, now I'm gonna show you how they make that thing, whether it's the White House or it's sports night, you know, whatever. So this was how he did this show. And it didn't work. And unlike a lot of his work, it just didn't work. And it was kind of hard to tell initially until I read something somebody pointed out. The problem is the show within the show wasn't funny. So when they would show you sketches that these supposedly the funniest actors in this universe of this show have created these sketches and they're hilarious and they're edgy and they're getting in trouble with the Network, none of it was funny enough. And that's, I think, a really good point. And I think you're right. The songs in this is Spinal Tap are good enough. They're obviously inspired by Queen and Kiss and Boston.

Nic

Little Jethro Tull, Stonehenge song, Stonehenge thing.

Steve

You know, there's. You know, there's. They're not heavy metal like, 80s heavy metal. Like, they're not Slayer, they're not Anthrax or Megadeth or Metallica. They're nothing like that.

Nic

But they're the exact type of band that would call themselves heavy metal a lot.

Steve

Yes, exactly. But they are big hair and eyeliner, 70s arena rock metal. Like that sort of the style that they are. Actually, I was. I listened for whatever reason on the way here today to a couple of songs by Boston, including Rock and Roll Band, and I was thinking myself, oh, my God, this sound sounds like a song Spinal Tap would have done. Oh, yeah, we were getting real big. We were getting good, like, all this kind of stuff. Everybody's listening to us, like, you know. But anyway, yeah, so, so they. They do their first song. But really, I think the, the. The kind of first scene we really start to get to know these people is they're sitting in like, a. A garden somewhere and Marty is interviewing them and they're telling us about their history. And it's like Nigel Tufnell, played by Christopher Guest, and David St. Hubbins, played by Michael McKean, are sort of the. The. The ringleaders. They're your. Your John and Paul. Right. That's kind of, you know, where there's a lot of Beatles, you know, and then Harry Shearer who plays. I think it's. Was it Derek White or Derek Smalls? Yeah, he's the basist and. And the kind of the third member. But Nigel and David are the ones really kind of telling us the story of how they got together. And, like, when they did, and I loved it. They originally called themselves the Originals, but then it turns out another band was called the Originals, so they needed to change the name. So they called themselves the New Originals. Then that Originals ended up calling themselves the Regulars. And they thought to themselves we could go back to being the Originals, but that might get confusing, so I don't think they did. But yeah, and then.

Nic

Then we talk about their drummers.

Steve

Yeah, we get the first, like, look into this weird history of their drummers. Yeah, And I love the first drummer they show us, which, by the way, they're clearly a sort of Beatles Herman's Hermits, Monkees, you know, early to mid-60s Brit pop band to begin with.

Nic

This is a fun thing about this movie is that they're not. Spinal Tap is not like a current new band. So they're a band who's gone through all these iterations that have gone in line with like the popular music at the time. So they get some good material out of them in their Beatles phase and them in their like late 60s hippie rock kind of phase and stuff like that.

Steve

So they've been around for like 20 years at this point. Basically this is like a comeback tour. Right. They were big in the. In the sort of early to mid 70s as Spinal Tap or maybe even late 70s, but now they're. They're trying to come back with a new album and a new tour. That's kind of the whole idea. Yep. So we learn a little bit about the drummer. So I love it that the drummer is an actor who would show up in a lot of these movies with Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer. Later, Ed Begley Jr. Actually plays the original drummer. I didn't catch the name because all the names were super similar to each other, like Stumpy and Stimpy, all these different names. But he dies. A bizarre gardening accident kills the first drummer. The second drummer, when he talks about.

Nic

That, they said, oh, the police said it's better just leave this one unsolved.

Steve

The authorities said, leave this one alone. It's just so terrifying in so many ways. And then the second drummer choked on vomit. And then they make it clear that it was someone else's vomit, but they couldn't tell who because you can't fingerprint vomit.

Nic

Yeah, you really can't dust for vomit.

Steve

That's what it was, dust for vomit. Which it's like today, you probably, I mean, you know, DNA and stuff. But. But yeah, so they've had at least two. We learn drummers die from mysterious circumstances.

Nic

Yeah. But yeah, we get a couple other characters there. I think it's like a, I don't know, pre release party or something like.

Steve

That for a tour record label. Right. The record label's hosting the tour off in New York City.

Nic

And I'm going to bring it up again. But one of my favorite movies, which is also a rockumentary type, which I think is the most well done one, other than this is Pop Star Never Stop, Never Stopping, directed by the great Akiva Schaefer, who I think will be proven by history to be one of.

Steve

The better comedy directors, maybe the best xennial comedy director. When all is said and done.

Nic

But it was funny watching this movie, having not been super familiar with it and being like, oh, it's hitting a pop star. Hits all these same beats and stuff, and it just works so well.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

So. Yeah. So we meet a couple of characters. We have Bobby Fleckman, who's played by Fran Drescher.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

She's kind of like their, I don't know, manager type.

Steve

She's A and R artist relations from the record label.

Nic

It doesn't really show this guy too much, but I do love the name that the guy's name is Sir Dennis Eaton Hogg.

Steve

Eating hog.

Nic

I love eating hog.

Steve

Sir Eaton to you. Yeah. I also love in this scene, there's a mime waiter. There is a waiter. And did you notice who played the mime waiter out in the party? The one that doesn't ever talk?

Nic

So I didn't notice the first time, but I did the second time.

Steve

Right. It's Dana Carvey.

Nic

Dana Carvey. Yeah.

Steve

And then he goes. And nobody wants to eat the mime waiter's food off his platter. So we see him backstage or, you know, like, in, like, the kitchen, and his mime waiter boss is like, no, no, you gotta push these. And that is Billy Crystal.

Nic

Yep.

Steve

So it's like, already we're hit with these incredibly good actors who are just in moments of this film. Ed BEGLEY jr. Dana Carvey, Billy Crystal. They all are in just seconds of this movie, and then they're done. And that's fantastic.

Nic

They end up going down into their limo after this party. Right, Right. So they're being taken in the limo and the limo driver played by the great Bruno Kirby.

Steve

I love Bruno Kirby.

Nic

Who's in. I mean, he's in so much. That guy can do a T.O. and somebody in the limo is reading a copy. Is it Fran Drescher's character reading a copy of, like, Sammy Davis Jr. S biography? And then the limo driver just, like, only wants to talk to them about Frank Sinatra. He's like, hey, you know what Frank used to do? And they try to put the glass up on him. And Rob Reiner's in the front seat with him. He's like, oh, can you believe how rude it is?

Steve

You know, I don't wanna tell them, but this is a fad.

Nic

That must have been such a thing in the early 80s.

Steve

Oh, yeah.

Nic

Just guys that would only talk about how there's still people like that. But, yeah. The Frank Sinatra obsession then must have been mind blowing.

Steve

Oh, God, Seriously? Yeah. Boomers Boomers loved Frank. I mean, not that. I mean, I love Frank too. A little fun fact. I actually share a birthday, obviously not year with Frank Sinatra. So I learned at an early age, like, hey, like that's an interesting person who I have a, like, you know, obviously ten tenuous connection to. Let me look into it.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

And I liked Frank's music a lot. He was obviously a complete piece of shit. Like an absolute horrible human being. But, you know, good music. Yeah. And yeah, people like Bruno Kirby's character here, like, you know, just. You could do no wrong. I feel like Frankie Valli had similar sycophants as well. You know what I mean? Like, that kind of stuff.

Nic

Well, especially if there was like kind of a, like an ethnic connection to it. The way that like Italian people would associate themselves so much with Sinatra. He's one of us, you know.

Steve

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Nic

So. So that's. That scene was. Was funny. And I think Bruno Kirby's not really in it too much other than that he's.

Steve

That scene again. He's. But he at least gets, you know, a few lines. He gets, you know, 30, 40 seconds of screen dialogue versus like Billy Crystal and Dana Carvey and who most of them don't say anything. But yeah, he gets a little time. Here we hear from a very funny scene with him. I think the next thing we cut to is another show, they're at another concert.

Nic

And this is the Big Bottom song.

Steve

And so this is. This is. I love two things about this. One, this is Derek Smalls with his enormous two necked bass. He's got the double bass that he never plays the lower half of, but it looks freaking cool. And then Big Bottom is maybe the best song in the movie. It's possible. It's a very good song. Very funny, very vulgar. You know, probably a significant portion of the R rating that this earned.

Nic

I was laughing a lot. Like, the lyrics in this song, it was good.

Steve

Anything about a pink torpedo, you know, but.

Nic

Oh my God, it's.

Steve

It's also like clearly a Queen sort of rip off, right? This is a Fat Bottom Girls. Right? This is. And all of. I feel like all of the songs they do, they really. You could kind of tie. This is the real band that this.

Nic

Is sort of like pulling from.

Steve

Like you mentioned, the first one really had a very big Kiss influence.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

And then this song obviously is a very big Queen influence. And you know, there's a few others like. But yeah, fantastic. Very funny song.

Nic

When he had the. Nigel, I think was in the middle and David and Derek are on either side of him and he's turned around and they're like smacking his butt with the necks of their guitar during the song. That was really funny. So they find out that they're kind of getting bad reviews here on the new album. And the shows are a little more tenuous and everything. And one of the shows gets canceled. I like the manager character. Ian is very funny in that. And he says, oh, the Boston show got canceled.

Steve

Don't worry about it.

Nic

And he says, I wouldn't worry about it. It's not a big college town.

Steve

I called that line out as well in my notes. Because in case listener you're not aware, there are more colleges in Boston than in any other city in the United States of America. Like, it is literally the college town of the United States.

Nic

And so that makes.

Steve

That reference is very funny.

Nic

The joke they make there is, hey, they opened a Dunkin Donuts across the street and it has a college inside of it. Yeah, really, really funny reference there.

Steve

Okay.

Nic

I think this is a time to kind of go a little sideways and talk about it because it relates to this scene. So they're kind of back to an outdoor interview or they're like in a restaurant of some sort. And it's Nigel and it's David. Right. And the director's speaking to them and they're kind of talking about one of their early songs. They're talking about Cry, Cry, Cry all the way home. And they both kind of go into it. And it's not like a joke song. It's just kind of like a sweet moment. The characters are really well done in this movie where they're just not throw away. You understand? These guys have a real history and bond and friendship and stuff. But during this scene, and I noticed this the first time watching this, they have to be a couple of the best I've ever seen of American actors doing British accents.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

And especially in this scene because they kind of sing. They do the U2 thing where they sing, like, with an American affect or accentless, whatever they call that. And they're going back and forth between singing this song and talking about it seamlessly. And it's just like, dude, the difficulty of that as an actor, where you can't just be like, I'm in British guy mode, I'm in American guy mode. I thought was so impressive.

Steve

Absolutely. And I think that. That this is really part and parcel with the way this movie is structured in the way that it's written, where, you know, it's not about, like, memorizing these lines and understanding your character's motivation for saying this and for being here, whatever, you know, it's like, hey, you know, Christopher, Michael, this next scene we're going to do, you two are going to reminisce about a song or whatever. Right. That song probably wasn't written at the time the movie was written, so they had to get together and come up with that song. And I think that there is an element of needing to understand these characters much more deeply in order to be able to improv as them. Them. And I think that that's kind of like a big piece of it, because it's one thing to make up a scene and improv a character on the fly and do whatever, and that's funny and great and whatever. There's like, improv is fine, but to do this where it's like, no, no, no. You're maintaining this character. This character has to be a real feeling, living character that has a history and has desires and has fears and whatever else. And you got to maintain that all the way through while inventing, you know, speaking as him.

Nic

Yeah. You're improving within the restraints of the character.

Steve

Exactly.

Nic

As opposed to just freely associating with.

Steve

Whatever or being given everything to say. Right. Either one of those is like a much easier kind of, you know, task at hand. And I feel like this really is indicative of. Of, you know, the. The acting chops of these. Of these actors. And I think that that really bears out all throughout, you know, the movies that they would end up coming later and all the people from this movie, they brought back in those movies.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

I mean, Again, Ed Begley Jr. Fred Willard shows up later. He's in a lot of those. All these guys. I mean, Parker Posey ends up in almost every one of these movies later on with Christopher guests, Eugene Levy, people like this who are just, you know, really probably underrated actors, you know, really. And. And to be able to do this and. And live in these characters enough to make us believe this. It's. It's very like Daniel Day Lewis does with his really crazy method acting and the absolute transformation that he does, but with that added level of. And no, you don't get to know what to say. You know, you have to come up with what to say. It's really impressive. Yeah. So next scene, I think, is they're at another, like, party or, like, hotel room in between two gigs, and they're, like, talking about the album, and they're talking about the album cover and that the record label does not like the album cover. I'll note at this point at least Nigel and David, maybe Nigel, David and Derek all have cold sores on their list.

Nic

They're the most comedically exaggerated cold sores.

Steve

So gross.

Nic

I mean, they need like one of those fire suppression helicopters to airdrop Carmax on their lips for any chance of getting those things to go away.

Steve

And they don't mention them. There's no reference to them. They're gone in the next scene and they never come back. It is just there for a moment. It's like, did they both make out with the same chick? Like what? Like what is this referencing? We don't get to actually know the details. But yeah, it's at least Nigel and David and I think Derek might have his. Has had one as well. But very, very funny.

Nic

So, yeah, so the album cover basically is being described to us as saying, you know, this. We think the album cover is sexist. The label doesn't like it. It's a woman with a dog leash around her neck and there's a guy like basically with a. Holding a gloved hand in front of her face or just a loose glove, something. Smell the glove. But when she says the label doesn't. Fran Drescher's character says the label doesn't like the album being sexist. And Nigel says, sexy. What's wrong with it being sexy?

Steve

What's wrong with that? It's good to be sexy, isn't it? Sexist?

Nic

Like Michael Scott saying, monkey problems. I don't have any monkey problems.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

So they don't. They don't like the COVID And this thing is like so close to coming out. That's like now is when, like, it's been recorded.

Steve

This is happening. They're playing the songs on tour. I mean, the tour is ostensibly, you know, to support the album. And we learn, you know, early on in the sequence here that the album's actually not available for sale yet. Yet. You know, they. It sounds like they've got some. Something they're playing on radio. They've given some radio stations like one of the songs or something. But, you know, they're not selling the records, it's not out. And yet here they are trying to support it. It's a very. It's very backwards in that sense. Right. The album should already be out. They should be selling it at the shows. They should be doing all this stuff. And so they are. They're all kind of worried. They're like, ah, we don't have the record yet. And now we're talking about changing the COVID Like, that's crazy. So then we move on to the next show, and we're backstage in, like, the green room with Nigel, and he's talking to Ian, the manager, and he's got a problem with craft services. He's got a problem with the being offered. And it's. There's these little tiny, like, it's like rye bread or some kind of, like, dark wheat bread. Little tiny things. And then, like, normal sizes piece. Normal sized pieces of deli meat. And I'm like. Initially, I'm thinking myself, like, oh, man, Nigel's right. That's kind of crappy. The bread should be bigger. This is crazy. But then the very simple explanation or, you know, like, workarounds he's being offered, like, hey, just fold the meat. He goes, yeah, no, you can't do.

Nic

That, because when you fold it again, it breaks.

Steve

You see, it's not you. Doesn't work. You can't do that. Like, and he's just like. So, like, it's like malicious compliance and, like, forced, like, stupidity on himself. He's just like, oh, it doesn't work. I don't like that. No.

Nic

It was just such a funny way to show, like, the unreasonableness of a celebrity in certain situations. And it panned over to some of his other food. First of all, Nigel kept, like, extinguishing his cigarette butts right in the middle of his craft service trays. But some of the other stuff he had. One he had was just a tray of Oreos that were all pulled in half. Like, just half with, like, most of the cream gone.

Steve

Like, it's just. It's just the cookies. It's like the worst part of the Oreo, brother.

Nic

Yeah, the folding the bread was really funny. I have this miniature bread. Nigel's great. That's a really funny character. And the way Christopher Guest plays it, I don't know if it's to help him keep the accent or keep the character, but it's like he somehow was able to disengage his jaw by, like, 20%. It just hangs a little bit in the funniest way during the entire movie. Movie.

Steve

It's also because he's chewing gum almost the entire time as well. Anytime he's not actually eating something, he's like, chomping on a piece of gum. Yeah. And so I think that's part of it too, is that, you know, the gum, he can kind of go, I know you all love hearing mouth sounds, but, like, kind of like, you know, drop your jaw a Little. And you kind of look surprised, you know, and. Yeah, there's something about it that you're right that he does that through the whole thing. And so. And so Ian is concerned, you know, like, don't let this ruin your performance. He goes, I won't. I'm a professional. It'd be all right, you know, whatever. And they go out and they do Hellhole, which is actually another really great song.

Nic

That's a good one.

Steve

Got kind of an AC DC feel to it a little bit. You know, it's got that style. And it's got Nigel jamming out on the guitar.

Nic

And Derek, everyone. Ridiculous hog. Like, it shows in his pants. It goes, like, all the way down to his knees, like on the tight pants. Yeah, this scene is funny. And Nigel does one of those guitar solos where he, like, keeps leaning back and leaning back.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

And then he's unable to get up. So the stagehand has, like, stand him.

Steve

Back up, but, like, turns him around a few times for, like, no good reason as he's, like, trying to find his footing or something.

Nic

They need better stage hands. That guy was not a problem solver in this.

Steve

Oh, my God. So good. Yeah. And so. All right. So then. Then the next thing that happens is we are back. Marty is interviewing Nigel. We're in Nigel's studio. Probably one of the most famous scenes in the movie, for sure, right? So he's got 50, 40 or 50 guitars all over the place. And so Marty starts with like, like, oh, do you play all of these? And he's kind of like, oh, yeah, yeah. I've played him old. But of course there's one later he shows. It's like, oh, like, you can't touch that. And he's, well, I wasn't going to touch it. Don't even point at it. Don't even look at it. Like, you know, it's very, very special. But all these guitars. But he's kind of showing the different guitars he has. Some are really cool and everything. And then he goes over to his amp. Yes, right. And this is the part that everybody, even if you haven't seen this movie, you know, this part he says, you know, these are really special Marty. You know, and he's like, like, you know, if you're at 10, you jam and, you know, he's like, going off, like, where do you go from there? You know, you can't go. And Marty's like, I don't know. Where do you go? He's like, no, you can't. You can't go anywhere. You know, these go to 11. And sure enough, all the little dials have 01, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 10, 11. All of them have it. And Marty asks very reasonably, why don't you just make 10 louder and have that be the highest?

Nic

He's like, these goes to 11.

Steve

And I love it.

Nic

It's one louder.

Steve

He doesn't even say, like, no, no, no, you don't understand. These go to 11. It's that Nigel clearly doesn't understand. He goes, right. What are you talking about? Like, these go to 11, dude. Like, doesn't matter how loud 10 is. These go to 11, right?

Nic

It's kind of like a brondo, but it's what plants crave.

Steve

It got electrolytes. Yeah. Oh, my God.

Nic

Really, really funny scene.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

And man, I mean, has that stuck more than almost anything from the movies we've done so far as far as just like, you can know about the goes to 11 thing. Like, the sports center anchors will talk about that and stuff. Like, it's everywhere.

Steve

Yeah. I think these go to 11 exists on its own in pop culture and in the zeitgeist as just referencing something needlessly bigger, better, louder, whatever. Right. And it's its own thing. And plenty of people know that reference or know what that means when they hear it and don't have any idea about this Spinal Tap or, like, where it came from. And that's fine. But it has really taken on a life of its own. I think you're right probably more than any of the, you know, I mean, you can say, I mean, maybe I'll be back from Terminator or something like that. But, like, really, these go to 11 is like. It's the whole joke in. What is that? Four words? Yeah, right. It's the whole joke for sure.

Nic

Yeah. That summarizes, like, the whole thing. A really funny piece of merch would be a Spinal Tap ruler that goes to 11. Only an 11 inch ruler, that spinal Tap. And they're bragging about how it goes to 11.

Steve

No, it's got to be a 12 inch ruler that only goes to 11.

Nic

Like, exactly. Yeah.

Steve

Every inch has to be 1.09 inches long.

Nic

Ooh, I like that.

Steve

So it ends at 11. Yeah.

Nic

This was a good aside of Nigel's station. And now we're back kind of at the hotel. They're trying to check into the hotel, and the guy at the front desk of the hotel is like, hey, we've made a minor mistake.

Steve

Minor.

Nic

You requested seven suites, but what we have for you is one suite on the seventh floor.

Steve

It's a very large suite. It's a king efficiency suite or something like that, which is like.

Nic

So they're dealing with this and trying to get it figured out. So they're kind of standing around the lobby of the hotel with the manager, and then this other artist with his manager comes through. I didn't catch the name.

Steve

I know I didn't.

Nic

Just someone who's supposed to be, like, another famous musician. And their manager is kind of, like, just trying to ditch Spinal Tap very quick. And Ian comes in, he's like, oh, hey, man, good to see you. The manager of this other musician says, hey, I'd love to stand around and chat, but we got to go sit around and wait for our room in the lobby.

Steve

No, it's. It's. We. We got to go sit in the lobby, wait for the limo. Like, they just need to catch a car. That's all they need to do. But he's like, I don't want to be here with you guys to do that. So we're going to go over here.

Nic

Would it be nice to have one of those guys in life just to, like, disperse any kind of social situation you don't want to be a part of?

Steve

Exactly, yeah. So they. And of course, as soon as the other artist walks away, all the boys and Spinal Tapper talking shit, they're just like, you know, oh, I hate that fucking guy. Like, yeah, they're really going at him and.

Nic

And.

Steve

But then they're saying, like, oh, but his album cover is, like, super sexist. Why was that? Okay, like, he's top of the. He's, like, number two in the country or something. And his. It's like, him on, like, a table, and he's, like, mostly naked. And then there's, like, women grabbing at him and all this stuff. And Ian's like, yeah, but see, he's the victim, so it's okay if he's the victim. With yours, it's. She's the victim, and that's why it's a problem. I think it's Nigel has line. He goes, it really is such a fine line between clever and stupid, isn't it? Yeah.

Nic

That guy's getting Michael J. Foxed on his album cover.

Steve

Exactly.

Nic

So their show. They find out then that their show is canceled.

Steve

Another canceled gig. Yeah, exactly. And they're like, in New Hampshire or something, right? There's not a lot of places around to just go to another show.

Nic

So, moving on, There's a scene where Ian is talking to the director, and he has that cricket bat on his desk. And he's asking him, what's this for? And he's like, oh, kind of like a totem, like the conch in, you know, Lord of the Flies, whatever.

Steve

Just.

Nic

But then he's. You know. But there are other uses for it. And it just kind of cuts to him, just enraged. Like smashing a coffee table and smashing a TV and just destroying everything off.

Steve

A desk with it.

Nic

Like, that would feel so good to do.

Steve

Yeah. And then. So now they're in another hotel room. I think that. Not the one they were going to stay in, obviously, but maybe it is. Maybe it's supposed to be that one suite they got, but they're in a hotel room and they're hanging out and they go, hair, Harry Shearer. Derek walks in to Nigel, and David's like, hey, you guys, you got. You gotta come hear this. Like. Like, come listen. And they're playing, like, an old song, like, from Spinal Tap, whatever, on the radio or, you know, you never know if it was one of the Spinal Tap songs, one of their earlier iterations. But basically they're all sitting around listening, and then the radio DJ comes on and is basically like, you know, that was Spinal Tab. They're in the. Where are they now? File.

Nic

Whatever happened to those guys?

Steve

Voice of Harry Shearer, by the way? Not sure. The radio. The radio announcer was Harry Shearer doing that.

Nic

Doing that voice is Harry Shearer. Is Handsome Dan in the Wayne's World movie.

Steve

Yes. Okay. That's right, yes.

Nic

So I was trying to place. I was trying to place also half.

Steve

The voices on the Simpsons. Right, so.

Nic

Yes, yes, absolutely. Anything.

Steve

Anything Hank Azaria doesn't do. That isn't one of the Simpsons family. It's pretty much all Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer, like, the rest of the voices.

Nic

So they're in. They're in Tennessee, and they visit Elvis's grave.

Steve

Oh, right. Yeah, yeah.

Nic

And there's the Derek and David and Nigel standing there at Elvis's grave, and they're trying to sing Heartbreak Hotel. And singing in the weirdest way. I mean, that's where the kind of improv really shines through the fact that these guys all kind of know what the other one's doing. Because to do a musical improv bit has to be hard because it can't sound so offensive to your ears that you can't watch it.

Steve

Right, right.

Nic

So there has to be some part of it where they're really trying to. But then screwing it up in a very, like, weird way that makes the song like, oh, what. What are you doing here?

Steve

I think there's, like, a fun level of singing ability that this works well for. And I'll be honest, I think I have it, which is like, I can carry a tune, but I don't. I don't know keys. I don't. I can't read music. Don't ask me to, like, find the harmony with what you're doing. I have. None of that's gonna work. But I can, like, kind of carry a tune if I can, like, karaoke something, you know, whatever. So it's like that kind of thing where it's like, yeah, I don't sound like a screeching cat. So it's not going to be, like, unlistening reasonable. But if we're trying to, like, harmonize, it's going to sound. It's going to be bad. You're going to have. And all it takes is one person in the group doing it who knows how to call out that. That person's right. Okay, you're flat, dude. Like, you got to stop up here, you know, or whatever. And it's like, I'll try, but, like, I don't know what I'm doing, you know? And it makes for a very funny thing, especially given that these are ostensibly right, professional singers.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

You know, doing this. But, yeah, they cannot figure out Heartbreak Hotel is much too complicated a harmony for them, it seems.

Nic

Yeah, that was. That was good. And we get kind of a little flashback of them in another iteration. I think it's back to kind of the garden interview. And they're talking about the flower people. Like, that was one of the iterations of the band, I guess, Very, very incense and peppermint style. And that was a drummer. They're talking about their drummer at that time who spontaneously combusted, spontaneously exploded on stage or whatever.

Steve

It's actually very, very common. People don't talk about how. How often spontaneous explosion really happens. They say, you know, it's like. It's not talked about, but it's really common. A new member is brought into the ensemble here as David St. Hubbin's girlfriend Janine shows up. She. This is. We're now in Milwaukee, and Janine has come to join them on tour. When David first told Nigel, hey, Janine's coming, he's kind of like.

Nic

He's like, oh, just coming to drop.

Steve

Something off, then leave and then leaving, please. Oh, no, no, no. She's going to tour with us. She's going to come. You know, she's going to come on the Road with us. And Nigel clearly is not into it. And it shouldn't be hard to pick up what they're referencing here. This is a Yoko Ono type situation. David is John, Nigel is Paul. Which actually kind of works, in my opinion, in other ways as well. But. Yeah. So Janine actually shows up while they're doing a sound check ahead of their show in Milwaukee. And David's excited to see her, whatever. But as he runs off to go hug Janine hello, Ian walks in with a box full of records and he's like, the album seems here. The album came. And so they pull it out and it's all black. And this. Actually, we didn't mention it with this references when. When Fran Drescher's character was first complaining to Ian about the sexist cover, you know, she said, like, I don't think that the COVID has to be sexy to sell. I mean, look at the white album. That was just white. And it sold, you know, tens of millions of copies. Like, it's. It's. Whatever. There was no. Nothing sexy about it. So it looks like they're trying to do that, right? Years, of course, before either Metallica or Jay Z would do basically the same thing with a couple of their albums. But this is the problem with this one is it's literally just all black. There's no writing on the spine. There's nothing sticker. There's no word anywhere that says anything about. Now, I'm assuming if you pulled the LP out, right, that little label in the middle, hopefully Spinal Tap and Smell the Glove or whatever the hell. But yeah, they are all pretty nonplussed about it. They're not pleased. It's like, what is this? This is just black. Yeah. And it's. At one point, I think it's. It's, you know, how much more black could it get? And it's like I'm thinking myself. No, none. None.

Nic

None more black, right?

Steve

None more black is what it. The answer is. None, none more black.

Nic

But, yeah, the next. The next concert scene we have, they're all on stage there and they're in these kind of, like, I don't know, alien, like, cocoon pod looking things, right? And David's opens and he steps out and he's playing guitar. And then Nigel's opens and he steps out and he's playing. And then Derek's still cruising and you see him playing bass in there and kind of like it's not opening. And this leads to an incredibly great concert scene because they're still rolling with the song.

Steve

They're just. They're just going along with it. He's still playing, and David is still.

Nic

Playing, but then he's kind of, like, struggling a little more. He's like, okay, I'm going to play, and then try to get out a little and play. And they have a stage hand who's there trying to, like, hit it with a hammer.

Steve

Well, he, like. He, like, just tries to pull it open at one point. He tries to plug it in, unplug it, you know, like, see if it's, like a power thing. He tries to pry it open. He can't. He starts hitting it with a hammer, which is loud as hell. And David, Nigel, will, like, notice they're trying to play their songs.

Nic

He's not showing them at the time. He's hitting with the hammer, and it almost sounds like there's a really weird drum thing going on. And then they look over and you see him. Boom, boom, boom. He tries to fashion a blowtorch, blast it open.

Steve

Oh, my God. And then it finally does open. But the whole plan, apparently, was that at the end of the song, they would all climb back into their cocoons and they would close. So as David and Nigel are being closed back up, and there's Derek's opens. He steps out, recognizes what's happening, turns around to try to go back, and it just closes on his arm, and he can't even get back in. Oh, my God. That's so funny.

Nic

They don't give Derek a lot to say, but he really has some moments in this one.

Steve

Yes.

Nic

Let's see here. Okay, so.

Steve

Oh, by the way, the song they were doing that way, that was Rock and Roll Creation, which was from whatever album of theirs was considered sacrilegious because.

Nic

They were showing some of the covers and, like, why they had issues with.

Steve

And so that one was Rock and Roll Creation. The next one, I think we're back to just Nigel and Marty chatting. Nigel sitting at a piano. Marty is chatting with him a little bit, and he's talking about his influences. I love it. He goes, yeah, you know, very influenced by Mozart and Bach, you know, together. It's sort of a mock thing, you know, and it's like, all right, I get it. And he plays the song. It's very pretty. He's playing this very pretty thing on the piano. And, you know, and he's just like, talking about his process. And then Marty goes, what do you call that? And he goes, that one's called Lick My Love Pumpkin.

Nic

I love that joke. And it just, you know, something's coming, right. It's just too long of a serious moment. Too tender.

Steve

The music's too light. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nic

And that one really hits. And, you know, piano does sound great. I mean, Christopher Guest, Good, good musician. There was something real quick before then where they were kind of hanging out in the tour bus.

Steve

Okay. Oh, yeah. And.

Nic

And Janine, David's wife. Girlfriend. Girlfriend. Girlfriend, yeah, David's girlfriend. She had made him some kind of, like, homemade sweater that planets and stars on it looks like a little kid's space sweater, like Danny Torrance's Apollo 11 sweater from the Shining. And. And he's just kind of like, oh, well, maybe I shouldn't wear it till you're fully done with it.

Steve

You know, this is full on Ralphie in the pink bunny suit, like, for sure.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

But. But she. He just wants to go back and play the game. And I love it, too, because they've got this video game on the tour bus, but it's like. And it's not an Atari or Nintendo. It's like an old, like, Commodore or something. It's like a computer, right? With these playing, like, you know, Missile Command or something. But, like, with the keyboard, it's all very old school but very cool. And he wants to go back, and he's already got a new game. I want to go play the game, you know? And she's like, what are you talking about? Like, that's. That's a child's toy. Yeah.

Nic

They're going through security at the airport, I think is the next significant thing.

Steve

Is it the airport? Is it one of the venues or wherever they're at?

Nic

They're going through a metal detector.

Steve

That's right. Yes, Through a metal detector.

Nic

And. And Derek goes through there. And the first to say, oh, well, you got to take the metal out of your pocket. Oh, okay. It takes out, you know, change. Oh, I got a tuning fork. A musician gotta stay in tune.

Steve

Ton of stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nic

So goes back out, walks through again, still going off. Oh, maybe it's the zipper on my jacket.

Steve

Yeah, yeah, must be.

Nic

So they end up wanding him, and it's right. Right in. His bulge is going off. And the lady's kind of horrified, looking at him, like, sir, do you have any plates or prosthetic limbs? And he ends up pulling out this giant cucumber wrapped in tin foil. Foil.

Steve

Why was it wrapped in tin foil? Keep it in place better or something. Like, I don't know why I could have gotten away with it. It was just a cucumber Derek. Yeah.

Nic

Or Saran Wrap. I mean, if you.

Steve

If.

Nic

Let's say you don't. You want it to rot slower, you want it. You don't want your cucumber budget to be off the charts.

Steve

That's fair.

Nic

But yeah, it was funny too, how he just like, takes it out, leaves it and walks away.

Steve

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Nic

So good old Derek.

Steve

So now we see how. We see that was fake. I think at some point in here, we also get to. We meet a new character, Artie Fufkin, for a brief period of time, played by Paul Schaefer.

Nic

Yes.

Steve

Oh, yeah, real quick here, because I.

Nic

Did have a question for you. So in the Artie Fufkin scene, it shows, I think, outside the hotel that they're staying at, and it's like welcoming the national company of the Wiz and Spinal Tap.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

And then they get. And the Wiz, obviously is kind of like all black remake of wizard of Oz. Like, very popular at that. That time. They get room service in the room and the guy comes in and, like, looks around the room and he. I forget his exact line, but he's like, oh, finally some, like, normal people or whatever. I was like, is that a racist? I didn't get like, oh, this is the only room full of white people I've delivered to.

Steve

Oh, my God.

Nic

So I wasn't sure about that. So I, I want to. I want to revisit that because I do say. And I'll, you know, bring up some example later, but not a lot of racism in this movie for being in 1980. For comedy.

Steve

Right. But also not a lot of non white people. Like, sure, yeah, fair. Like very, very few. I think, again, the woman.

Nic

Long duck dong or anything like that.

Steve

But the wand, the. The security guard wanding Derek. There was a black woman, but, like, there's not a whole lot of non white folks in.

Nic

That's very true.

Steve

So. But very true. Nothing overt. And. And I guess the point is, like, nothing didn't seem like any of the really common casual racism that you had in movies of the era, especially anti Asian racism was super common because it kind of, for whatever reason, at the time, was not viewed as. As bad as racism against white.

Nic

They're the. Okay target.

Steve

Yeah. Which is disgusting, obviously. But, yeah, really none of that here. I mean, outside of the fact that it's a very whitewashed type cast, but it's also about a group of UK heavy metal musicians not likely to be non white, frankly, at least not at that time. And. But yeah, that's an Interesting. An interesting call out, but I didn't catch that thing. I'll have to go back and watch that scene again.

Nic

Let me know what you think.

Steve

Skip past me. You know, sometimes I write notes without pausing, and I realize I should pause every time I write a note because I might miss something. But yeah. So we meet Artie Fufkin, played by Paul Schaefer, and he's there to help them promote in Chicago. I think he's another A R. He's like the Fran Drescher character. Same role, but she's in New York, he's in Chicago. That's the thing. Kind of thing works for the record label. He's got them going to a record store to sign autographs. Yep. And they go. And they. There's no. Nobody there. They're just sitting there by themselves. The behind them is all. They're all black lp, you know, cover with nothing on it. But there's nobody coming.

Nic

And arties are not even a normal level of customers. There's nobody in the store.

Steve

And already talking to the manager of the record store and is like, what are you doing to me? I thought we had a relationship. This is like, what are you doing? Like, there's nobody here. And he goes, I'm telling you, already, it's. It's been slow. Like, it's a bad economy. You know, I think the early 80s were kind of this. The movies, by the way, we should say the movie came out 84. The documentary. The tour takes place in 82. So something just to mention. But yeah, so like, 1982. Yeah, that was a bit of a rough time for a lot of people economically in the United States and especially in cities. And so that makes sense. But he basically already is like, this was my fault, guys. This was my fault. It was all me. I want you to do something for me. I want you to kick me right in the ass. He was like, ben's home. He's like, kick my ass. You gotta kick my ass.

Nic

Paul Schaefer is funny. He doesn't get a ton of acting appearances, but in this era, he dropped in a couple things.

Steve

A couple things. He was also in one episode of Shit's Crew, which is always something I love referencing on our podcast here, but. Yeah.

Nic

Nice.

Steve

That's himself, by the way.

Nic

Oh, this is. This is really funny. So I think, were they Cleveland or something like that? And they're in the green room, and the concert's about to start, and you hear the crowd, like, yeah, they're all ready for them to come out. And they're getting pumped up, and they get up and they're like, all right, let's go.

Steve

Rock and roll.

Nic

Here we go. Going down the hall.

Steve

All righty. Hey, hey. Hello, Cleveland.

Nic

Turning this way and that. Clearly lost. Trying to walk to the stage. At some point, they encounter. It's like the boiler room area. There's a guy just wrenching on something that has steam blowing out of it. And he's telling him, oh, no, you went the wrong way. You got to go. He gives them these directions, and then it shows them walk around, and then they re. Encounter this total circle.

Steve

Yeah. And then I don't think they. I don't think we see a clip from that show.

Nic

Not really. I think it's just that I think.

Steve

Next one is they chat about, you know, there's drab, Right? The show's drab. Like, we're not getting. We need. We need oomph. We need something new. We need, like, a new piece, whatever. And so they start talking. This sounds like they're talking about, like, songs they've done in the past. Should they bring something back? And Nigel mentions, like, what about Stonehenge? They've got a song about Stonehenge. And, like, it's such a banger. Everybody loves it. We know it musically great. And they're like, yeah, but we don't have the piece. We don't have the, like, set piece for it.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

Oh, that's not that hardy. And can get somebody to make it. So he sketches out a single one of Stonehenge and. And writes next to it quite clearly, 18 and a double quote, right? Which means 18 inches. 18 inches, he writes.

Nic

He meant bad British guy. I will say.

Steve

Yeah, but he writes 18 inches. Gives it to Liam. Like, just have somebody make this. And so we cut to right after that, Ian seeing this little model of the Stonehenge. And actually, the. I don't know if you know, but the woman, the sculptor who made it is played by Angelica Houston.

Nic

I saw her name in the credits. I didn't know where she was.

Steve

So. Yeah. And then. So. But he's just like, okay, so when you make the real one, it'll be just like this. Like, all these contours, everything. You really made a very detailed model here. But, like, when you get the real one done, right, It'll be. And she's like, what are you talking about, real one, Ian? Like, this is what I was asked to make. She pulls the napkin out of her purse. Look, it says right here, 18 inches. And he. He's like, Fuck the napkin. What are you talking. Why is. I can't just. He's just like freaking out because they.

Nic

Foiled by his own laziness.

Steve

He did an 18 foot thing.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

The most amazing thing to me is that he clearly didn't tell the band because we then cut to the show where they're all in the hooded robes and they're ready to do the Stonehenge song. They're playing the song to start and then lowering from behind Nigel is this tiny 18 inch. It hits the ground and it's like they all start noticing what it is. And then there's these, like little people that they wanted dancing around.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

What would have been the 18 foot tall, you know, set of stones. And instead they're sort of kicking it and like, you know, stepping on it and it's moving around and it just ruins the whole thing.

Nic

It's crazy. It looks.

Steve

Why would they even like. Why would Ian bother with it if he was bothering with it? Why wouldn't he tell them? It's so incredible.

Nic

It's so bad.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

And then it leads to a great exchange after the show and David is saying, you know, like, the Stonehenge monument was being in danger of being crushed. Crushed by a dwarf. It tended to understate the hugeness of.

Steve

The object to understand the huge. And this is the scene where they're now. David is now basically telling Ian, like, hey, you need help. You can't do all this on your own. Yeah, Janine here is going to help. And he's like, what do you mean help? You mean co manage the band? And they're like, yeah. And it's like Nigel and Derek are staying kind of quiet about this. Was a little surprised, but I kind of thought Nigel might fight against us, but he clearly doesn't like Janine. But David's just being forceful about it, saying, no, this is what's going to happen. This was such a huge screw up. This was not something we can accept. So we're going to bring. You're going to get some help. You can do this and they can do that, whatever. And he's like, what, her? I can't believe you're talking about her. I never for a moment thought you'd talk about her. And I love this line. He goes, I quit. I am not going to be replaced by somebody, especially one who dresses like an Australian's nightmare. I don't get it. But I. I like it. I like that line. I'm not sure if there's like a specific reference to Australian Folks that I should have, like, understood in that, but it was just funny. Yeah.

Nic

And I wonder if that was like one of his improv lines that they were just like, hey, that doesn't make sense to us either. But your emotion was really funny with that. So it seems like a thing we.

Steve

Gotta keep the take in because it was so good. None of us know what you're talking about. He's like, yeah, neither do I. I just said it.

Nic

Like, this scene is really funny here and has one of our. I think, fair to say that he'd be one of your favorites as well. Where they go to do a concert on this air force base and they're met by the kind of liaison, whoever's there to greet the band played by Fred Willard.

Steve

The late, great Fred Willard.

Nic

So wonderful. Only bring stuff to the table. There's never a movie where it's like, you know, I wish Fred Willard wasn't in it too much.

Steve

Right, right. Yeah. He's the kind of guy that you don't look at any role he played and go, God, you know, who would be better in somebody else? But you can. I could point out, if I took the time, I could point out a dozen or two dozen roles where I go, you know, who would have been great in that? Fred Willard would have been doing that role. You know, some. Pick out a third level supporting character actor from like all kinds of movies and Fred Willard would have done an amazing job. Anything that requires naively friendly, deadpan. Yeah, there's something wonderfully naive and corn fed and sort of down home about Fred Willard. You know, we've talked before when we were doing the Happy Gilmore episode. We talked about Modern Family and Julie Bowen and Fred Willard's character as. As Ty. Ty Burrell's dad. Phil Dunphy's dad is so funny.

Nic

He is so perfect.

Steve

And it's. Yeah, yeah.

Nic

And he's. He just has like a signature style of comedy that works in so many situations because you kind of know a guy who's a little bit like that. But yeah, his commentary here. So he. He brings the band in. First of all, I think he calls them Spinal Tarp.

Steve

Spinal Tarp, Yeah.

Nic

He says he's like, like, oh, we're a big fan of you. You know, we love your records. We love your. We love your concerts. Not you in particular, not you specifically, but just the genre of music that you're a part of.

Steve

Right, Just rock music in general, but not metal. Not like you don't have it. No, just generally, you know, the music's so great. We love music here. This is our. And I love you guys.

Nic

How to use weekends.

Steve

A comment about his hair getting a little bushy. He goes, I better be careful. They might think I'm in the band with you guys. You know, that.

Nic

That has to have been an improv. Like, I feel like that line was just. It just so perfect that that made it. And that's one that I do remember when I watched this. I was like, I remember that for the first time. That really stuck with me.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

So not really their demographic at the Air Force base, though.

Steve

No, no, no. And they do one of their more vulgar songs. They don't do Big Bottom, but they do Sex Farm, which is like a very vulgar song as well. Doesn't really move the crowd. They don't. They don't really get into it.

Nic

No. And Nigel, during playing this song.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

Nigel's amp is like picking up radio chatter or something like that.

Steve

Jump back for a second. When. When Marty went over to Nigel's studio and he saw all the guitars. One of the ones Nigel particularly pointed out to him was this one that has, you know, it's a cord to, like a transmitter that he can wear on his belt. It's a wireless guitar, which is like, frankly, the technology is not that great. That's why even today, people still generally play wired, you know, instruments on stage. But, you know, he had this thing. He thought it was cool. And so that's. This is what he brings out at the Air Force gig. And so it's picking up like the bass radio chatter.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

So instead of just. It's like the. Whatever receiver has to be on the speakers or on the amp to get the transmission from the guitar is picking up this other stuff. So it's not even the thing that's on him, although he does. Christopher Guest makes this sort of play to. To make motion towards the receiver thing and kind of. Or the transmitter and like, do the. What's going on with this? But really it would be the other end of it on the amper speaker. But, yeah, it picks up all this chatter about, like, you know, whatever a military base would have, you know, for radio chatter. And he just gets so frustrated by. He slams his guitar onto the stage and just walks off the stage and basically quits the band. Really.

Nic

He's done. And he gives a good hard look to Janine.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

On the way out, just to show her, hey, it's partially because of you, right?

Steve

Yeah. Thanks, Yoko.

Nic

They have a show, so now she's managing the band. They have A show at this amusement park, which really. Just the name of it. It's called Theme Land Amusement Park. I really like that.

Steve

Almost positive. That's Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California. Pretty sure looking at it, that that's where that was filmed. But yeah, Theme Land Amusement Park. And their billing on the marquee is like Puppet show and Spinal Tap. And she's like, I told them that has to be Puppet show second. But you have a bigger green room. And David's like, oh, bigger than the Pup Puppets. Bigger green room. Oh, that's wonderful. Like.

Nic

And they. And they don't have Nigel as part of the band, so they're like. So David and Derek are kind of talking about, oh, well, we can't do this. That's a Nigel song. We gotta cross that off the list. And that's a funny scene of them kind of eliminating songs from their set.

Steve

Because he was the lead guitarist. So it's gotta be hard, you know, for lots of songs to not to do it with just the one guitar in the bass. And so they settle on free form improvisational jazz, which doesn't really fit their target audience's tastes necessarily, but it's something Derek is very into and so he's.

Nic

Very excited about that. And it fills a lot of time, so that's big for them too.

Steve

I did notice David had to throw the shade of announcing to the crowd, who was clearly not into it, that it's like he wrote this. Yes, this is Derek Small's on bass. It's his song.

Nic

So I guess we're approaching the final show now.

Steve

Exactly. So that. Actually, that Theme Land Amusement park, it was. It was labeled as Stockton, California, but there's no theme park in Stockton. So I guess. I think it was filmed in Southern Cal. But now they're at the sort of end of tour again. The record labels throwing them a party in Los Angeles. Nigel's not there. It's. It's. It's Derek and David and the other two members. There's a keyboardist and a drummer, obviously. We haven't really talked much about in as much. But they're there and Marty's there and whatever.

Nic

Nic Shrimpton. I do love the name of the drummer. That's a very good fake British guy name.

Steve

Very good name. Yeah. But basically a lot of what happens here is David and Derek sitting around talking to each other about, like, you know, this. This is probably a good thing. Like, we're. We're kind of. We're kind of done, you know, we're not going to Keep doing this without Nigel. This band doesn't work without him, so. But, hey, we're, like, free to do all the other projects we wanted to do. Like, remember we were going to write that Broadway musical about Jack the Ripper called Saucy Jack? Oh, we can do Saucy Jack now. And I love the line at the end. It was like, you know, people really should envy us. I envy us. And David goes, yeah, me too.

Nic

Yeah. So they're ready to move on without him. And so they kind of start in front of. Oh. Nigel meets them backstage before they go out for the show. And there's another kind of sweet moment between Nigel and David of just, like.

Steve

They'Re still pissed at each other.

Nic

Do a good show or whatever. He says to him.

Steve

Yeah, but it's. But he tells them because Ian told. So Ian has quit. Right, right. The manager quit and then Nigel quit. But Nigel is coming as a messenger with a message from Ian. That Sex Farm, the song that they. We heard them play at the Air Force base, that song has reached number five on the radio charts in Japan. It's apparently a huge hit in Japan. And so basically he was like, hey, you know, that's something we could do. But they're kind of like, you know, at first, David's like, no, no, dude. Like, this is done. You're not coming back to this. So they go out to get on stage. I don't even know which song they're doing here. They're doing Big Bottom again. I think it's a doubled song. Yeah, potentially. But they're doing another one. And, you know, Janine is in one off stage, one wing, you know, looking on. And then Nigel comes up and is watching from the other wing. And finally David, like, notices him and he, you know, kind of nods, swings his head.

Nic

Kind of funny, the way he's gesturing for him to get on stage.

Steve

And for whatever reason, Nigel's wireless, you know, guitar is on stage. So he, you know, walks on stage and gets it and hooks the thing on his belt and starts playing. And of course, it fucks up again and starts playing weird radio chatter. But. But we still get the sense that this is a reunited group or whatever. And I believe at that point, it actually cuts to a second show and they're in Japan. It's kind of like a Japanese audience. Or is there something in between?

Nic

At the very end of this show, I think it shows Mick the drummer exploding, because it cuts. It cuts then to them in Japan with a different drummer.

Steve

That's right. Yes.

Nic

And again, I mentioned it earlier, but I will say credit to this movie, entire scene in Japan, nothing racist, just.

Steve

Japanese people enjoying the show, loving the music, digging it. The band loved them and whatever. And then, so then we get the credits, but we get stuff all through the credits. Still rolls.

Nic

Yes.

Steve

I think the entire credits has more movie. Yeah. And the one thing that I wanted to call it because I loved this was I can't remember exactly what he called it, but David is telling Marty about this, like, book on tape.

Nic

The Namesake series.

Steve

The Namesake series, Right. So it's, it's actors with same last names as famous writers. And so the one that I really loved, because for us, we've had him in so many, many of our movies, is denholm Elliott reading T.S. elliot.

Nic

Yes. And does this count as Denholm Elliott being in a movie? Because he's been in two of ours so far.

Steve

He's up there. Yeah. I mean, it's, I, I, I definitely am going to start pulling some data on, on the cast of movies we've done to see kind of who actually is, is like our, our most. Because we know Stephen Tobowski's been in several. Denholm Elliott's been in several. I don't think we can count this as an appearance by Denholm Elliot, but it's fun to have.

Nic

It's a type. Let's say if he has the same number as somebody else, this will break the tie.

Steve

Fair enough. It's a half an appearance for Dental Elliot.

Nic

But yeah, I love that all the, the post or during the credits interview scene that was all valuable. It wasn't like throwaway stuff and it.

Steve

Wasn'T bloopers, which, you know, I'm sure there were a lot of bloopers recorded with this style of movie where there's all this improv improvisation happening and whatever. They had to have tons of stuff that hit the cutting room floor that just kind of wasn't good enough. But that's sort of the thing. It probably wasn't as funny as the stuff that made it into the movie.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

You know, and so to. I was glad they didn't go that route to have something that was more just like, eh, here's some other little bits that we couldn't really fit into the narrative other places. So let's just add these little bits at the end that was really smart. And it's just another thing, you know, having movie through the credits is another thing that, like, probably didn't happen much before this movie. Maybe once or twice. Absolutely. Another kind of groundbreaking choice by Rob Reiner in this movie.

Nic

That takes us to the end of the movie. Yeah. Like you said, it's not this kind of normal narrative. Although at the end, now we're back together, we're friends again. Janine's probably still the manager. They didn't really resolve that.

Steve

I think we do see Ian at the end. I think he's back with them.

Nic

Okay.

Steve

I think he and his cricket bat are back, but Janine is also still there. So it's not like David broke up with Janine. That's still going to happen. She's still going to be around. But yeah, we get this concept of David and Nigel having reunited and reconciled. Then Ian is back with them because he kind of found the tour, found the Japan connection for them.

Nic

So keeping them alive, they found their new audience. I think earlier in the movie there was something where Ian was asked about, does, do you have concerns about the band's like, waning popularity? Because you went from playing 15,000 seat arenas to playing 1200 seat theaters. And he's like, it's not really a waning popularity. It's just that our fans are like, it was there. More selective appeal.

Steve

Has become more selective. Yeah, something like that. Yeah.

Nic

Great manager stuff.

Steve

Absolutely. The other thing that we didn't mention, one other thing I just noticed from my notes that I didn't mention, that is a great scene. One of the few times when Marty sits and interviews Derek by himself, which is not common, he asks him like, how do you fit into this Nigel, David dichotomy or whatever? And he's like, well, David is like fire or no. He's like boiling water or no. What does he say? Yeah, he says he's like fire. And, you know, Nigel's like ice. So I need to be somewhere in the middle, like lukewarm water. Oh, man, Such a funny guy.

Nic

Well, this was. This was solid. This takes us to the end of Spinal Tap.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

And man, what a fun one. And yeah, genre defining, like, really important movie. Yeah, I'm glad it. I'm glad it exists.

Steve

All right, so I'll go ahead and give my take on. On Spinal Tap here. So, yeah, this movie, movie, again, it defined the genre of the mockumentary, which is something that became pretty popular. You know, it's adjacent, in a sense to the horror subgenre of the found footage. Film is like, very kind of similar in some ways. And I think possibly it was built off of this. You know, it had its own sort of catalyst film in the 90s with the Blair Witch Project. But like that style of horror film really draws back to the mockumentary in a lot of ways. Right. This, this, you know, subverting of the, of the. The format by turning fiction into what looks like a non fiction production, which is great. It also again spawned basically one of the few true acting troops in Hollywood motion pictures is this Christopher guest led group with people like Catherine o' Hara and Fred Willard and Eugene Levy and Ed Begley Jr. And Michael McKean and Harry Shearer and all these people. And it's really impressive group and they've made a such, such great movies. There's so much about this Spinal Tap that you know, even beyond its own existence as a film, the importance it had.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

You know, all throughout Hollywood and all throughout movie making. So that having been said, like, I don't think that I would put this on the category of like perfect movie. Like for me it's too short. I mean, honestly, I wanted more and that's a good thing. But it's also kind of like, man, you could have given me like 10, 15 minutes of like really good stuff. You're sure of it. It's, it is very dated and it's very intentionally like a product of its time and that's okay. But like it does mean some of the references and some of the jokes, like you kind of have to have some understanding of how things worked in a different era for the joke to really be funny. But other parts of it just work, period. So, yeah, I'm a four and a half out of five on this Is. Spinal Tap is a fantastic movie. Clearly one of those movies that if you haven't seen it, go out and find it. I'm sure it's streaming someplace. I own a few copies of it on several different media, so. But yeah, this is a four and a half out of five for me. This is. Spinal Tap's a fantastic movie and I really have high hopes, hopes for the sequel as well.

Nic

Yeah, yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I'm glad that the, the same people are involved. So yeah, being less familiar with this movie going into it, I watched it once, I kind of thought, okay, that was good, that was good. But then over the next couple days I was thinking about it a lot and I thought that it really deserved for me to watch it another time before reviewing it. And I'm glad I did because I think this is one I'll continue to enjoy the more I see it. The influences had on, on other movies I like is can't go unspoken for. I did Bring up pop star Never Stop, Never Stopping, which came out in 2015. It's an excellent mockumentary that follows a lot of the same beats as Spinal Tap. Joke, joke, joke, joke, Joke, and taking advantage of that form. And there's been a few very enjoyable movies with that. Another one I wanted to bring up, which is an actual documentary, but I feel like probably wouldn't have come out if it. If it weren't for this being popular, is a movie called Anvil, the Story of Anvil. And it's this documentary about a kind of aging rock band similar to the vein of Spinal Tap. And they're going on their last tour. They were kind of regionally popular enough that it was their living, and they're kind of putting it back together. Very enjoyable. It's a serious movie. It's not like a comedic one. But I just want to shout that out there, because I don't think that would exist if the Appetite weren't created by Spinal Tap and other similar things.

Steve

Makes sense.

Nic

This movie was so much fun. So many good actors in it. I loved how the music sounded. I do remember when I was a kid, my brother had a copy of the subsequent album. 1992 is break like the Wind. So I knew Spinal Tap. I knew songs of theirs from that album, which is not the soundtrack.

Steve

Oh, no.

Nic

So I have this weird Spinal Tap knowledge that doesn't. You know, it's like if you never saw the Ghostbusters movie, but just the cartoon tune when you were a kid and that was all you knew about it. It's just an odd thing. But, man, this one was great and deserved as a classic. And I'm gonna give this one a four out of five. I thought this one was super fun and super funny. I'd definitely watch it again.

Steve

Very cool. So that's eight and a half out of ten for the two of us for this Is Spinal Tap, which actually puts us below the Rotten Tomatoes score, which was astronomical, but I think it's a very appropriate score. And like I said, if you have have not heard, if you've not seen this Is Spinal Tap or if you haven't seen it in 15 or more years, like, go watch this is Spinal Tap the movie. The sequel's coming out. I think it's going to be fun. This one's a lot of fun. So this was my picnic. What do you got for us next? What are we going to watch next week?

Nic

Yeah, so I think we're going to switch it up a little bit. We're going to go to something that's maybe a little more serious. Although things I remember about it, it might not be taken so seriously by. Yes, we're kind of. We're getting into September now, so, you know, we all see the spirit Halloween stores popping up. So I thought maybe give it a hint of spookiness. And this is an actor who we haven't seen yet.

Steve

I don't think that's right.

Nic

And one of the. The marquee actors of this era. This is starring Robert De Niro. 1991 thriller, where he has probably the least de niroish haircut out of any of his. His other films. We're gonna go with Cape fear.

Steve

Very nice.

Nic

And I think Cape Fear is important not only as a movie on its own, but there's a great parody Simpsons episode where sideshow Bob, you know, as kind of the de Niro character. So I think it's worth watching just to understand the Simpsons better.

Steve

That's fair. I have not seen Cape Fear, at least not all the way through. I've definitely seen pieces of it. I've seen that Simpsons episode. But this will be good. This will be the first time that I'll ever have sat down and watched Cape fear beginning to end. So very excited about that. Yeah, this will be a lot of fun. And. Yeah, it is. It's fun. We're getting close to spooky season. Yeah. And. And actually, we'll have. We'll have an announcement after we watch cape Fear next week. We'll talk a little bit about our plans for the spooky season for October. But it's gonna be a lot of fun. So. Yeah. If you like what you're hearing, everybody out there, please go to apple, go to Spotify, Throw us a five star review. It helps people find the show. If you want to send us an email, let us know how we're doing. Something we missed analysis that you had about a movie, or if you want to suggest one for us to do, you can hit us up at the show@2dads1movie.com. That's number two. And the number one. This was. This is spinal tap. This has been another episode of 2 Dads 1 Movie. I'm Steve.

Nic

And I'm Nic.

Steve

Thank you all so much for listening. And we'll be back next week.

Nic

Thanks, everyone.