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National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - Chevy Chasers #35
200 Plays22 days ago
Ben & Jess discuss the now Christmas canon movie Christmas Vacation, maybe the most popular Chevy movie? How many concussions can Clark take in a week, and why were kids movies so obsessed with gross dogs? All this and more on this holiday special episode.
Chevy Chasers is a production by Benjamin Vigeant and Jess Morrissette
Show art by Jess Morrissette
Editing by Benjamin Vigeant
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Weekend Recap
00:00:13
Speaker
it's chevy chasers i'm ben and you're not and i'm jess and you're not how you doing today jess ben i couldn't be better i've uh i've been having a a lovely day i had uh i had nachos for dinner like a nacho like a bachelor might you had nachos for dinner i had a plate of nachos i I would love to talk about that, but you know we we don't try to to fill our time talking about food. We're pretty strictly about chey and you know and Chevy Chevy-related things and also you know what we did over the weekend.
00:00:55
Speaker
um ah But I will ask, since you had dinner nachos, did you have a ah protein on there? ah had a little bit of pork carnitas.
00:01:08
Speaker
was pretty good, Ben. Are we talking some kind of liquid cheese on here? Are melted? melting a blend. We're melting a blend. okay Is this, ah where they did, did where where do you get this at? These were homemade. This was a homemade. maybe Homemade. I didn't like roll out the the tortillas and fry them, but they were from a bag. But yeah, i mean, this was serious homemade. yeah the The carnitas is just where, what made me think that you purchased it. Like I hear carnitas and I'm like, yeah
00:01:41
Speaker
But no, I mean, it was delicious. How are you do today, Ben?
Home Decorations and Smart Lights
00:01:44
Speaker
I'm good. i'm I'm good. um You know. Are you in the Christmas spirit, I think, is the big question. Yeah. ah Well, you know, we here, let me adjust the the the camera here ah so you can see, of course.
00:01:58
Speaker
I have ah my my Christmas lights ah ah going now in my beautiful home. Beautiful. Of course, I have the ridiculous color changer ones. So I have the...
00:02:16
Speaker
um like ah the Govi ones, the the budget color changer ones, and the the app for it is kind of insane.
00:02:27
Speaker
um There's like license. There's a like Zootopia color. oh like you can pick. There are like color themes for the strand. Finally, Judy Hopps lights.
00:02:38
Speaker
And, um, like, and I'm going through all the different themes and stuff that they have for it. And they don't have like just Christmas lights or like holiday lights or whatever. but they do utopia They, they have like all this other shit.
00:02:58
Speaker
Um, and, and I'm like, I just want like kind of your classic set of Christmas light colors. red green and they have instead on there they have this thing where it has like this tiktok-esque like feed of footage of other people's lights often on trees finally a social platform for sharing your photos of your of your life yeah and and it's like do you want
00:03:35
Speaker
the the light set up from this Christmas tree. Wow. And so like so I went through and I found like a couple different ones that are like Christmas lights colors. And so the the ones that you you see behind me are Christmas
Holiday Plans and Knives Out Series Discussion
00:03:53
Speaker
lights colors. And because I had to get stupid with it, I made it so they kind of chase. But very yeah slowly, so it's not too...
00:04:03
Speaker
you know, kind of the LED. d Like, I want it. I didn't want it to look smooth because when you see, like, the the color changers on the Christmas tree, they look too smooth.
00:04:14
Speaker
You don't want to look like Kit's, like, little digital readout on Knight Rider. You don't want like, swoosh in back and forth. That's right. and And this could do this. This does have the thing where like you play music and the microphone, which also probably like records my like conversations and everything else.
00:04:33
Speaker
um That's important to deliver the kind of service you need. Yeah. um The microphone like will start like syncing it up like to music and stuff like that.
00:04:46
Speaker
That's kind of fun. It makes my home look insane. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. um So i'm I'm living in essentially what looks like a game show set, which if you know anything about me, ah is exactly what I've always wanted.
00:05:06
Speaker
Yeah, that's dead on. That's perfect. Yeah. Where else would you want to be? That's, mean, one of one of my like ah one of my favorite Seinfeld plots when Kramer builds ah the set for that talk show. I forget which one. Merv Griffin? that' The Merv Griffin show.
00:05:22
Speaker
Yeah. in in In his apartment. Truly one of, like, that that that is so obviously a post-Larry David ah plot Yes. Seinfeld because it's just completely unhinged. Like yeah it is divorced from reality. Yeah. Like there's no gravity anymore. Yeah. Like, uh, but you know, i every, uh, every day,
00:05:50
Speaker
Is bringing us closer ah to to Christmas. And, you know, and every week and every weekend. So my question for you is, let's have a
00:06:10
Speaker
Weekend update! Wow. yes What did you do this weekend? yeah this weekend was a little weird. I had some lovely holiday plans. ah My family and a couple of friends every year, we we go off a week or two before Christmas and spend the weekend at one of the state parks nearby. They have a lovely resort there. We rent a cabin at the resort. We rent cook meals there and play holiday games and listen to holiday music and the resort has like a lovely outdoor heated pool that you can like swim in on a snowy day so you get like the fun of never had that experience yeah it's really lovely like just to swim in the snow but we had a winter storm watch that hit this weekend that was supposed to dump
00:06:58
Speaker
eight inches of snow on the ground and temperatures with wind chill down near zero. Yeah. So we ended up canceling those plans and postponing them a couple of weeks. So it became... snow come ah we got a little, like we got like maybe two inches. We got the cold. We got the bitter cold, but yeah it was a bad choice. We should have gone.
00:07:18
Speaker
We should, i hate changing plans based on weather forecasts, but we did it. But what's more important is we got a weekend hold up at home and I watched Wake Up Dead Man. the news i haven't watched that yet. Ryan Johnson, Benoit Blanc mystery from the Knives Out series. Yeah, no, that's on the list. I got to watch that.
00:07:38
Speaker
Ben, if you enjoyed the first two, I think you're going to enjoy this one. Where do you rank it in comparison to the first two? It, and this is probably recency bias. It may be my favorite, personally. Where did you put Glass Onion, the second one?
00:07:55
Speaker
You know, I think I liked Knives Out a little better than Glass Onion. yeah And I like Wake Up Dead Man. yeah I mean, love all three of them. They're fabulous movies. So charming. um i mean, Daniel Craig's amazing. the you know, every one of the movies assembles a marvelous supporting cast. But, yeah, I think if you've enjoyed the first two, Wake Up Dead Man might be right up your alley. I think, you know, because, yeah, I didn't i didn't get the... the I ah didn't like Glass Onion as much. I enjoyed myself. um I loved the first movie.
00:08:31
Speaker
yeah And i I think... Like, what I wonder... And, and I feel bad with wake up dead man is that like, i saw knives out ah in the, the movie theaters in 2019.
00:08:53
Speaker
And, you know, like it's, it's funny and it's harrowing and it was like a sold out like crowd. And I like, and that really kind of enhanced the experience. Like everybody laughing at all the funny jokes and every like, and then,
00:09:11
Speaker
Glass Onion, which I think was even a little broader, like a little a little sillier, if I recall correctly. um I watched that like alone in my apartment.
00:09:23
Speaker
Very different experience. and And so while I do think like there there are like some flaws with Glass Onion, I do wonder if ah like I would have had a much better time If, if I saw it in a crowd and, and I know that they played this wake up dead man for like a week. Yeah, I think so. I think it was briefly in theaters as well. I really hate how Netflix does that. Um, yeah. Yeah.
00:09:57
Speaker
You know, what I remember most about Knives Out, which I saw on Netflix, I didn't catch it in the theater, but I hadn't read anything about it really. And I spent the entire movie wondering if Benoit Blanc, Daniel Craig's detective.
00:10:15
Speaker
Not if he was the bad guy, but rather if he was just like going to try out to be a buffoon. like if Oh, I see. And maybe like the foghorn leghorn voice was part of that, um which I feel like he's dialed that in a little better in the subsequent movies.
00:10:28
Speaker
But I had the whole movie thing. It's like, what if this guy is just an idiot? What if he's because he of does the Lombo thing of maybe playing the fool at certain parts of of all three movies. But yeah, and that was I think I was expecting a weird twist that wasn't there. But no, Wake Up Dead Man is really good stuff. It's a perfect for when you're stranded inside for a weekend when you should be enjoying a lovely Christmas cabin.
00:10:54
Speaker
Yeah. What'd you get up to this weekend? Hold on. Actually, how about this?
00:11:06
Speaker
Weekend update. so this past weekend here in Chicago, we had single digits with like a below zero wind chill, like a negative 20 wind chill. So it was...
00:11:18
Speaker
was nasty It was nasty. It was also staying in and watching stuff, weather. So I also sat down and watched a buzzy new thing um and really enjoyed myself. I watched all seven, as of this recording, um episodes of Pluribus.
00:11:40
Speaker
Yes. Have you been watching this, Jess? This is very much on the schedule soon. now My wife and I have been discussing. it We need to resubscribe to Apple TV. It is. first Yeah, it is.
00:11:53
Speaker
It is so good. i like, and I knew. so pluribus is uh the apple tv uh uh series and you might as well at this point just wait like uh another week because the the series uh the first season is going to be done next week so that's kind what we were waiting for so you can binge it and then cancel immediately i don't want to get caught to another subscription um and ah Pluribus is the ah latest show from Vince Gilligan who did Gilligan's Island.
00:12:31
Speaker
Yeah, he did Gilligan's Island and the Gilligan's Island movies and Scooby-Doo meets Gilligan's Island. But no, he did Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. And more importantly, he did he was one of the best writers on The X-Files in in the ninety s Now, not more important, like, but more importantly for this, because this is now his return to like a a sci-fi premise.
00:12:56
Speaker
um And ah it is starring Ray Sehorne, who was one of like, who was essentially the second lead in Better Call Saul and...
00:13:11
Speaker
uh like she was did you watch bring that better call salt did you ever get into this you know i've what i've watched almost no breaking bad i've watched a handful of episodes of uh better call sal as uh as my wife was watching through it very recently so weirdly i have slightly more familiarity with better call song you know listen you can ah you can watch it completely separate like yeah i think it's enhanced uh by by watching Breaking Bad, especially like kind of in the, the later parts of the latter parts of the series where it, it starts to bring the two shows together. yeah You can,
00:13:46
Speaker
But she's the second lead in Better Call Saul, and she is spectacular. Like, she's a really, really good actor. and And so when it was, it's like Vince Gilligan is getting back to sci-fi, and he's shooting ah ah he's shooting a show starring Ray Sehorne,
Chevy Chasers Podcast Introduction
00:14:04
Speaker
also in Albuquerque. I was just like...
00:14:07
Speaker
I am so in and I just kind of kept putting it off. And then, you know, I'm second side. It's fucking cold. And I was like, just, you know what it was the the classic, just one episode. And then I watched all seven and it is just ah that that that guy's got it. um he He knows, he knows how to spin a yarn and he knows like,
00:14:33
Speaker
And I've seen some people online a little frustrated ah with the the show. The most satisfying part of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul to me, and also the most satisfying part of Pluribus to me, is kind of how slow and methodical...
00:14:51
Speaker
his storytelling style is and a lot of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul and Pluribus like is like you just see like people work and put things together and slowly like try to figure out what they're doing um and and so like I, I, I, I'm really, I'm just spellbound. It is. There's, ah in the most recent episode, and this isn't a spoiler. You just like, I was just hooked watching someone drive a car for a while. Like it was, it was yeah just, I'm, I'm just watching it. I'm like, Oh my God, like drive that car. and do it. Yeah.
00:15:33
Speaker
yeah Yeah. And, and yeah, Ray, Ray C. Warren, uh, stars as pluribus and, drive that car, Pluribus. Wait, wait, wait, no, sorry, sorry. As Plur, Plurundus.
00:15:44
Speaker
Uh... But, But yeah, I can't recommend it enough. It is... The pluribus. It is really good. And next week, the ninth and final episode of the season is going to air. And I'm not looking forward to that because i know that it's going to drop something...
00:16:15
Speaker
brutal like i just you know it's only one know about the premise it feels like uh showed that the first season would end with a brutal drop yeah like it's gonna end and like you know it's it's gonna end with a oh my god what are they going like some sort of major revelation and it's gonna be like oh my god what is pluribus gonna do what is pluribus what's she gonna get out of this scrap ah oh boy yeah no it's gonna be uh you know it's that's pluribus for you Yeah, she's, and and that's the thing, is that she's always pluribus-ing around.
00:16:50
Speaker
that's her pluribus, which she drives, yeah. Yeah, yeah, that that that is what she drives in that one episode. It's also, it's good. Like one of the the, the great things, and this was, you know, true in X-Files and it was, you know true in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul is that he mixes like kind of scary stuff with like moments of really funny humor. Yeah. Yeah.
00:17:16
Speaker
Like the first episode has some really, really spooky, like unsettling parts. And then like it ends with this sequence that is very funny. um And yeah, I love it. ah You know, I'm on, I'm on team pluribus, you know. You're on the pluribus bus. I'm on the pluribus bus.
00:17:41
Speaker
checks out well i suspect by our next episode i will have some thoughts of my own because i have a feeling this is probably good chance could be my upcoming weekend so uh with ah the weekend update done before we get uh to today's movie and you know i realized that i didn't spell out the the the premise of course like assuming you know we've been doing chevy chasers for for a while now but i i'll once again spell out the the premise this is of course the the complete chevy chase oeuvre uh as you know but if this is your first episode welcome in because this is a big one i mean this is a this is a lot of people adore
00:18:22
Speaker
Um, uh, but, uh, like we are, we are watching, uh, every, everything of Chevy
Chevy Chase's Christmas Vacation and Holiday Films
00:18:28
Speaker
chases. We're watching all the movies. We're watching community. We're watching the Chevy chase show. We're watching it all baby. Watching SNL sketches.
00:18:35
Speaker
we Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Um, uh, but, uh, but before we get to, uh, today's, uh, feature presentation, uh, uh, we have a dispatch from our soup correspondent, Sarah Shockey.
00:18:54
Speaker
Hi there. Come on into my kitchen. Yeah, I'm cooking up another one. I'm Sarah Shockey, the soup correspondent. Recently, I had a delicious soup and hope it's not cheating that I made it myself.
00:19:12
Speaker
Started with a base of zoop, bone broth, chicken. but You can get beef if you like. Then a healthy array of carrots, some celery, peas,
00:19:25
Speaker
and sauerkraut. Very important you don't skimp on the sauerkraut. Little potatoes rounded out with some secret seasonings and sauce. After about six to eight hours on low, this soup was ready for days of winter snows and Wisconsin cozy.
00:19:44
Speaker
I'd give it a zoop out of zoop. Now back to the show. like Thank you very much. Soup correspondent, Sarah. And you can check out that recipe on chevychasers.com. Just pop over there and just click on the Sarah's soups section. and The SSS?
00:20:04
Speaker
Yes, that's right. and And you'll find everything you're looking for. ah Yeah, thank you so much. I mean, ah last week, Sarah was trying out the soups of Mauritania. So ah like, you know, it's it's it's a you know, it's perfectly perfectly fine. That soup does sound ah wonderful. I have seen just have you seen that soup broth is like is that in your stores or is that just admit? oh okay Oh, yeah. I mean, we don't have a soup around here, but we definitely have the in-store soup varieties. Yeah, the Zoop seems to be expanding its footprint.
00:20:43
Speaker
Yeah, even even as it's its location shut down in large numbers, Zoop seems bigger than ever.
00:20:51
Speaker
Zupa. All right. Well, now it's time. that time. Wait, well, hold on. It's that time.
00:21:03
Speaker
Christmas here. Who is that Christmas time all day? It's Christmas, Christmas time. That is ah Mavis Staples, I believe. um That's right. that's right Gospel legend. That's right. Staples. That's right.
00:21:19
Speaker
Um, So, yes, we are talking about National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation starring ah corny Cornelius Chevy Chase.
00:21:32
Speaker
Yes. Jess, you're going to be taking us ah through this, but before we go through the movie... let's Let's talk about our history with it before we get... Yeah. i I think this is a movie that people have histories with. So what's your history with it?
00:21:49
Speaker
My history with this movie, um I mean, more so than any other Chevy Chase movie that we've talked about up to this point or show or anything else. This is definitely the piece of work from Chevy Chase that I have seen more times than any other. My family went to see this in theaters when it came out in 1989. Let me tell you my parents did not go to movies. Like going to a movie was like a once every five or six year kind of thing. So the fact that they went to theaters to see Christmas vacation should tell you like all boomers, just how much they loved a Chevy chase. um So saw it in theaters and I'm pretty sure there is a good chance.
00:22:32
Speaker
I have watched it with my parents. every christmas since 1989 so that is a lot of as many as my brother has been alive yes like my younger brother and then a few like showings in between like occasionally just like ah oh it's on cable i'll just watch it prior to the official christmas eve viewing so i've seen this one literally dozens of times you know this chapter and verse
00:23:03
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's one those movies I can just about close my eyes and just play through in my head. Yeah. But Ben, how about you? i assume you haven't seen this upwards of 30 times. I have seen this movie twice. Oh, man. And once of them. Once of them. Once of them.
00:23:25
Speaker
Was for this podcast. Okay. I have seen this movie two times and i was an adult. And my my feeling about this that that kind of similar to like there i think there are a couple movies that are are really totemic uh for for people uh okay uh like that they watch like every year or very or they're like a comfort movie or something like that and this is definitely a comfort movie this is a nice warm blanket yeah of a movie um
00:24:09
Speaker
But I think that you have to kind of get it in like kind of a, a, a window where you're open to it. Yes. And that could either be that like your parents where it's just like, we are on board with whatever, uh, like, you know, the, the new Chevy chase, were you, uh, like were the other vacation movies big in your, your household?
00:24:33
Speaker
They were. That was something that, yeah, i mean, we we definitely, you anytime that we saw of those on cable, we were watching vacation and European vacation. So we were we were very much primed for this one. You know, you mentioned that. this is the only And this is the only one that I've seen.
00:24:47
Speaker
I've only seen. and and Really? you haven't For this podcast that we're not covering them in order. But yes, the first, well, because it's Christmas, we had cover it. But also there's not dense lore here.
00:25:00
Speaker
Well, you say that. You say that as someone who's never seen you. When we finally finish Vegas Vacation, I'll be like, you know what? Yeah. Ben, I think you're in for a pleasant surprise with Vegas Vacation. It's going to be...
00:25:14
Speaker
a bad movie that's better than you expect. But I'm wondering, yeah you mentioned like totemic films that require a certain window. I'm looking at the Wikipedia right now. Oh, is that like Eddie's Hawaiian vacation or something? Yes. yes No, I didn't watch that. Chevy Chase isn't in it.
00:25:31
Speaker
that's That's right. That's right. Yeah. No way. Sorry. I'll watch that old Navy ad that has Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo reprising their roles. I'll watch that on a loop, but I'm not going to watch Christmas Vacation, too. Anyway, you were you were saying. Oh, yeah. Your other totemic movie that you weren't by chance talking about, like, one for me that I didn't watch as a kid that I totally can't appreciate now.
00:25:52
Speaker
I didn't see a Christmas story until was an adult. See, okay. I... You know, that's interesting. i I did see Christmas Story was definitely, because that would be like on a 24-hour repeat on TNT, I think.
00:26:11
Speaker
Are there successful Christmas sequels? Successful Christmas sequels. Man, that is. And and we pose this ah to to the crowd. You, of course, can send us ah an email.
00:26:26
Speaker
app And i've I've been emailing, like I've been contacting Google. If you could let me know a way for Google, there was some sort of weird typo ah with the email address. But this week, it's still questquestpodcast at gmail.com. I mean, the thing is, if you just look at your keyboard and you move your fingers one letter to the to the right. That's right.
00:26:48
Speaker
I mean, it's basically a Chevy chasers just transposes to quest. Yeah. If you just move. Yeah, it was. It's literally just that my hands were right. My fingers were just one key to the right for every single letter. Yeah. And that just happened.
00:27:03
Speaker
Yeah. But anyway. Yeah. I tried looking up how to get that changed. And Google just gives me an AI summary that says it's fine. Yeah. And not to contact them. Yeah. Stop contacting us, Jess.
00:27:14
Speaker
Yeah. It's that time. Yeah.
00:27:20
Speaker
There it is. It is here. It's National of Lampoon's Christmas Vacation from 1989, directed by Jeremiah Chekik. You know the one who was supposed to direct this, right? You know this story?
00:27:32
Speaker
Yes. yeah Chris Columbus, right? Yes. Yeah. yeah um he And And apparently Chris Columbus...
00:27:44
Speaker
uh, has a reputation for being like an absurdly nice man. Yes. And you can pick that up from a lot of his films on us. They're very heartwarming and charming. Yeah.
00:27:55
Speaker
And, um, so, so you, you want to tell the story or should I, I mean, I can't have the loose version of it, which is a story that I suspect defines a lot of Chevy Chase's career, which is he was brought on because John Hughes, while he writes the script for this one, wasn't interested in returning as director. Yeah. It's based on his earlier story, Christmas 59, I think.
00:28:22
Speaker
So Chris Columbus was, was picked here. But after a meeting with Chevy chase, they had certain personal and creative differences that led him to abandon the project. Ben, do you know more of the specific context? There's, there's a, there's a story he gave an interview a couple of years ago and he talked about it. And this is just one of those things where it's just funny where it's like, there's probably stories like this all the time in Hollywood, but Chevy chase is such a acknowledged asshole that you could just do, you could just say this, you know, yeah like you could just like tell the story about Chevy Chase being a prick and like, there won't be any, like people won't be like, you shouldn't have done that.
Griswold Family Holiday Chaos
00:29:03
Speaker
Um, what it was, was that like, apparently he, uh, Christopher Columbus flew out to Chicago where I am right now and to do like some early like prep work and met up with Chevy Chase who and this is from memory you can look this up but it was like he spoke to Chevy Chase for a while and Chevy Chase just stared past him and didn't say a word and then at the very end He was like, did you hear anything I said? And Chevy Chase ah it said something like, and why are you here? And he goes, I'm directing this film.
00:29:40
Speaker
And Chevy Chase said, like, I thought you were an electrician. and good god even about chevy chase and uh and and and i i might be getting some details of this little mixed up but um but essentially what happens is that christopher columbus goes back to john hughes and says and and to be clear chris Columbus was like needed to make a movie. Like apparently like his career was not going well at this moment.
00:30:17
Speaker
And so this was like a big opportunity for him. And he went back to John Hughes and said, i I'm not going to work with Chevy Chase. And John Hughes, God bless him, didn't say like, well, fuck you. I did you. like I like you know gave you a favor of this surefire movie. ah But instead said, okay, here's this other script. It's called Home Alone. um and Which turned out to be pretty successful.
00:30:48
Speaker
I mean, we get our little animated opening with the the Mavis Staples sign. We need good animation. It is. It looks like some money was spent on this, yeah but very quickly we we join the Griswold family.
00:31:01
Speaker
That's Chevy Chase as Clark. That's going to be Beverly D'Angelo as his wife, Ellen. And we have two new kids. This time, ah future stars, Juliette Lewis and Johnny Galecki are here as... um as as russ and audrey irrespectively um but yeah they are off on a drive in the old four-wheel drive sleigh they are cruising down the road singing along to some christmas carols i think this is a good example of a theme we've hit on before which is chevy chase will take any opportunity to sing in an exaggerated silly voice that he can
00:31:43
Speaker
In one of his films, we get some come all ye faithful and some other stuff. Yeah. But then um he as they're driving along on their way to go get a a Christmas tree, a couple of rednecks in a truck began to tailgate them. they they They all of a sudden become... The the movie takes ah a brief detour into becoming Steven Spielberg's duel. And...
00:32:11
Speaker
and Like this fight with this, like, you know, smoke-belching, disgusting truck. Yes. Like, and...
00:32:22
Speaker
um Which Clark escalates, um, like probably unnecessarily. I mean, as they eventually pull out to pass him, he flips them off.
00:32:35
Speaker
Uh, he then, you know, i mean, he is the engine of his own misfortune. Right. I feel like, I mean, that's the case throughout this film. I mean, Clark escalates this, this weird road rage, road rage incident with, with a couple of rednecks. And as you said, a disgusting looking, looking truck.
00:32:55
Speaker
um He's, he's having fun. yeah Yeah. Which, I mean, again, that's probably a little bit of a problem. So as they're playing, like,
00:33:08
Speaker
a road rage game of, of like passing and, and, and trying to deal with these people. They find themselves in an unlikely predicament and unlikely predicament that I remember seeing like a making of featurette that like aired on entertainment tonight in the lead up to the release of this film, this big stunt.
00:33:27
Speaker
We have a car stunt here and in this Christmas vacation. ah Ben, Ben, Where do they find themselves? they So getting away, like the the truck starts trying to to veer him off the road. And so they, ah so he swerves back onto like ah to the left and directly underneath a log truck.
00:33:50
Speaker
um And so then this happens. We're all right. Thank God we're all right. Mark, we're stuck under a truck. Do you honestly think I don't know that? Come on, you guys. Don't fight.
00:34:02
Speaker
For Christ's sake, didn't do this on purpose. Do you honestly think I don't know? That is, is a pretty good line read there. um As Ellen points out, she doesn't want to spend the holidays dead. um this boy But yeah, it's a, it's a precarious. spell Oh man. Yeah. No. And poor Beverly D'Angelo, who apparently is the only co-star Chevy Chase has ever had that has had nothing but good things to say about him.
00:34:30
Speaker
So, i mean, and she like, you know, she shows up on the Chevy Chase show. Like she's always, Like for some reason they are not enemies. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's it's strange, but it's simply the case. But yeah, ah Clark has pulled under this. Eventually he decides to swerve out from under it. He hits a big snow bank and they come crashing into ah Christmas tree lot. theres So there's something I'm kind of wondering about this. And when I was watching them drive and then like they crash on this Christmas tree lot and then like
00:35:05
Speaker
They don't go and get a tree in the lot. They just wander out into the woods and just cut down a tree, which is admittedly pretty funny. Yeah, maybe somewhere to park.
00:35:16
Speaker
but So they parked at a tree farm that happened to be there, then hiked out yeah into the wilderness to to get their own tree. Have you ever gotten your own Christmas tree like that, but Have you ever gotten out and tromping with a saw? No. It's an adventure every time. what i What I wanted to ask, though, is that... So this movie is so intensely set in the the Chicago's northern suburbs ah and very occasionally in downtown Chicago. And everybody is wearing, like, Bears hats or, like, Blackhawks jerseys. Yeah. Like, there's there's just constant Chicago sports stuff. Like, just constantly.
00:35:54
Speaker
Yeah. And... um But I'm trying to figure out... Where is this? Like, is there like this ton, like mountainous tundra with pine trees like north now?
00:36:08
Speaker
and And I could be wrong. I haven't done a ton of ah driving far, like how far north are they? It's great question. Where, like, are they up in Wisconsin? They're certainly not in Illinois anymore.
00:36:23
Speaker
Like, yeah they, I would, if so, you need to establish that as a filmmaker, you need to establish that. they They have to say, well, we passed Milwaukee two hours ago. Yeah. Here in Wisconsin, Russ, put down your cheese. It's time to go chop down a Christmas tree. they have to go like we we passed the brat stop like uh 20 minutes ago we're definitely in wisconsin but it's all these people packers cheesehead hats yeah no like some guy comes up to him and and calls him a bunch of f fibs fucking illinois bastards um oh man yeah i didn't realize you guys faced so much prejudice yeah you know it's it's hard uh
00:37:06
Speaker
um Um, yeah, they're they like, uh, this is a North of Sheboygan, apparently. Sheboygan. Sheboygan. Uh, anyway, that was like my, i I'm just sitting there cross-armed. I'm like, where, where is this supposed to be?
00:37:25
Speaker
I'm confused. I'm confused. The eyelines are all off. Where's the camera? So. did he Wait, have you ever cut a tree out in the woods? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Me and my dad used to do this every year. We'd just go tromping off. and I mean, we live in a rural area, so we'd just go tromping off into the wilderness, find a tree that presumably belonged to somebody because it was on their land, not our own, and we'd just cut it down and take it back to our house, making it our own. That's castle doctrine.
00:37:56
Speaker
If they drive all the way... to uh you know all the way and then they drive back with this enormous tree that they've had to uproot like they they come up on this tree of course Audrey can't see it because her eyes are frozen shut uh but they have this enormous tree it's like several stories tall uh they realize they haven't brought a saw along and they end up basically having to dig it up by its root ball I mean do you think here's the question Ben I've always wondered this
00:38:27
Speaker
They don't have shovels. Definitely frozen. What's up? They don't have shovels and stuff. They don't have shovels. and They hook the car up to this. That's the only way. Pull it out of the ground. yeah And even then, like what they've got like a ah eighty s station wagon. like Yeah.
00:38:43
Speaker
On snow is probably not going to get a lot of traction. I mean, even with like chains, that thing's probably that. I mean, right away, um this film has... Is this a little... I don't buy it.
00:38:55
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's drifted in the realm of fantasy right away. All right. And Clark hasn't even suffered his first concussion of the film yet.
00:39:08
Speaker
He's got several coming. um But, yeah, I mean, the whole crashing of the tree farm, I mean, that is a callback to the original vacation as they have, like, a crash in the desert. and so Wow, there is there is a dense lore. Yeah.
00:39:21
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, this is You can tell that John Hughes is back on this one. Like, he really had nothing to do with the production of European Vacation. And as a result, European Vacation tonally is quite a bit different than the original Vacation.
00:39:34
Speaker
There are fewer callbacks. We get a few little callbacks in this one. I mean, most notably, the return of Cousin Eddie. this is but Is this, like... It seems to be kind of like a ah movie sequel pattern is is like you have the original big hit and then you have a sequel. That's maybe a little out of the, you know, not like kind of plays by different rules.
00:40:00
Speaker
And then like that doesn't like people are like, yuck. And then you have the third movie where they're just like, all right, we'll just do the shit we know you like. That's exactly right. I think there is some of that here. Indiana Jones does that. Star Wars does that. Like, it's just like, you know, it's just like, okay, okay.
00:40:17
Speaker
Like, not to say that people didn't like Empire Strikes Back, obviously. um But like start like, you know, A New Hope and Return of the Jedi are kind of similar in some ways. Well, they're like poetry. but Yeah.
00:40:28
Speaker
but ah But like Indiana Jones is yeah probably a better example of like Temple of D. Of course, corrections. Like we tried to to take a big swing here. It wasn't as well received. Let's get back to what we're doing. yeah I mean, this is already starting to, we're starting to see bits of that.
00:40:45
Speaker
um But as we return home, ah we we we get our snowy wilderness tree. Audrey goes through her hypothermia.
00:40:58
Speaker
uh we get home and we meet a a couple of characters who are for me for my money one of the best parts of this film there you know and this is i think this is part of also the uh like ah like for for some people, I think, where they they might bounce on it.
00:41:23
Speaker
Where, like, for for me, ah Todd and Margot Chester, their yuppie neighbors, with their CD player. Obnoxious.
00:41:37
Speaker
the This was one of my notes when I was watching it. Like, also, theyre their home looks like... um like the interior of a home as photographed in a Sears catalog, you know, like everything is very modern, but it's extremely sterile and nothing looks lived in. Yes. Which is, which is pretty funny.
00:42:02
Speaker
Whereas the Griswold home is quite the opposite. right It's, it's good. It's all brick and rack. And yeah, um but But I think where where some people, like, and I remember the first time I i was like, leave these nice people alone. They're just a pair of dinks that are living that lovely double income, no kid lifestyle. Let them live their their life. Let them wear their shiny running, like tinfoil running outfits. That's right. Enjoy their obscenely expensive 1989 CD player that probably cost $600. They're exotic foreign drinks like margaritas and yeah things like that. i mean
00:42:44
Speaker
I'm guessing you're a little too young to have properly hated yuppies. Yuppie hatred was was definitely yeah on its way. they but didn't even know what a yuppie really was, but I knew that they were deplorable.
00:42:58
Speaker
Yeah, Yuppies were thoroughly, ah like by the time I'm in college, I don't know who we hated in the 90s. I'm sure we did hate someone. You gotta hate someone. Oh, yeah. we yeah but um um ah But like by the time I was in college, it was like ah ah the, it was hipsters was who who we hated. how we hated them. Take those skinny jeans off and replace them with much more spacious jeans. That's right. that's And I was constantly yelling.
00:43:30
Speaker
I remember. Yeah. I remember you tell me about this. You said like, just like a lot of altercations over people's, the skinniness of people's genes. Um, but no, mean, yeah, we've got a couple of yuppies here played by, uh, we have, uh, Nick Nicholas guest is Todd and the incomparable Julia Louis Drafis as, uh, as Margo just, I mean, she's, she's fabulous in this. She is bringing all of the energy you want to see, from her performance. She, I, you know, she's, she's always good.
00:44:05
Speaker
She's always good. I will say that Nicholas Guest is very like he has some of and we'll we'll get to this later, of course. He has some of the great deliveries of this movie. Yeah. Did you know like I know that you're you're into ah adventure games, Jess. Did you know that he's in Freddy Farkas?
00:44:29
Speaker
He is. He's he's the the voice of Sreeny. Oh, no. Yeah. So actually, no back we're I'm less excited about that. oh no. Oops. Well, that's why we don't talk about adventure games on this podcast. It's problematic. Yeah, we only talk about the thoroughly unproblematic person, Cornelius Chevy Chase. Chevrolet Chase, yes. um and we i mean, again, they're they're sort of positioned as, you know, asshole yuppies. We're supposed to hate them, but like right away. His brother is Christopher Guest? Yes.
00:45:08
Speaker
Oh. yeah i didn't know that huh yeah yeah huh yeah is he in any i don't think he's in any of his brother's movies what a rude thing that is kind of rude it's kind of rude it's good maybe he just improvises his cast uh so you know just makes up on the spot so it's like you know thanksgiving it's like well you can't pick up the fucking phone don't know. that's Pretty funny.
00:45:38
Speaker
You should treat your guest like family, especially when you're, when your guest is family. i mean, um yeah, that's what we do at Olive Garden.
00:45:49
Speaker
where I'm currently working a second job for the holidays to make a little extra cash. That's where he got the carnitas. um That's right. Classic olive carnitas Italiano. They're just carnitas with marinara just dumped right on They're delicious. I mean, he gets the, he gets the tree in the living room. It doesn't fit. He cuts the rope and we get, get a good comedy bit. The, the branches are just blasting out the windows. It's as it expands from the ropes, it's far too big for any, any human home. Uh, as, as Chevy's trapped in the middle of the tree, we get the like very full, lots of sap in here, uh, kind of bit, which sets up,
00:46:30
Speaker
the fun physical comedy scene with Clark and Ellen in bed together. yeah Where Chevy is do a little bit of a business with sticky fingers. He's reading a magazine. The pages keep ripping out because he's still covered in so much. sense yeah Yeah.
00:46:43
Speaker
you know, it's hard to get sap off your, your hands. that's what I think that's what that scene is getting at. I think that's like... It's it's hard to do that. Yeah. All right. So then what the the next is, is we go into his office, right? Is that when we Right. Yeah. We're Clark. Clark's at work. Downtown Chicago.
00:47:03
Speaker
Looks beautiful. Get to see the Christmas tree. Yeah, we learned that Clark is expecting a Christmas bonus. We learned a clip. You should looking a nice, fat Christmas bonus this year, huh?
00:47:15
Speaker
Word is you're an excellent choice to be named Food Additive Designer of the Year. Nah. Not kidding. What a thankless role this guy has. This is a recognizable character actor. I forget the the name of Sam McMurray.
00:47:31
Speaker
He's a fint. Is that Fred's son? I'm I don't know. I mean, if you need a smug guy in your movie from the eighties and nineties, though, he is like, he's related to Fred, your number one smug actor mcmur to, to go with. Uh, but yeah, even he's not even really that, that, that smug in that. Like he just is like there to, to kind of, um, um,
00:47:59
Speaker
he's He's just there to set up like this bonus. talk like Yeah, so Clark doesn't just have to deliver that to camera. Yeah, and we find out here that Clark is planning to use his bonus check to put in a pool. That's going to be a big driving theme We also meet his boss, played by the one and only...
00:48:17
Speaker
uh wow but uh yeah so we've uh we found out he wants to put in uh the pool we meet mr shirley his boss who is sort of your standard uh mean boss who uh yeah i mean just he's main boss he's just kind of he doesn't really have that much like brian doyle murray like like always seems a little wasted like he he might be one of the most wasted character actors to me because he's he's a very funny guy yes and i just think he's constantly in kind of uh like kind of thankless roles and this is again like a thankless role and even like you know towards the end like it's just like yeah this guy's kind of a dick
00:49:03
Speaker
Yeah.
Clark's Christmas Challenges
00:49:04
Speaker
I don't know. There's not very much going on with him. This bonus plot, like, I mean, I think this is one of the other kind of crazy things when you watch this movie is like, it makes you feel like you're Frank Grimes where you're like Chevy chase is supposed to be like this every man, but he's this every man that like lives in one of like the, the wealthy Northern suburbs of Chicago. He's expecting what? $7,500. How much? Yeah. Yeah.
00:49:28
Speaker
How much was it for a ah bonus in 1989, which is, I think like $20,000 today. Like what is his base salary? That's a great question.
00:49:42
Speaker
and Why, why isn't that discussed? Maybe it's in all of the novels and yeah, it's probably in the novelization. Like in the art RPG source books and stuff like that. It's, it's, it's, it's just like, I can't,
00:49:55
Speaker
he can't be every van if he's waiting like like if i got a bonus that was 500 in 2025 dollars i would be like wow this kicks ass let's party that'd be amazing yeah no absolutely i mean drinks are on me like so this is when we go across the street to uh montgomery ward right Yes, yes. this is We are now on the shopping trip. We have a fun bit of business here where Chevy is shopping. She's a beautiful woman.
00:50:31
Speaker
He's at the lingerie counter where he sees Mary played by Nicolette Scorsese. No relation. Oh, okay. So this is like, like yeah that McMurray guy. they Yeah. hang out Apparently Christie Brinkley was asked to reprise her role from the original vacation, but turned it down. So this is a new character here. And she has, she's got a, she's a character.
00:50:55
Speaker
Yeah, she has breasts, which Clark has apparently never seen before. This is his first time. it is Yeah. Seeing a pair of clothed breasts and he loses his mind. That is her character. right, here we go. It is a bit nipply out. I mean, nippy out.
00:51:12
Speaker
What did I say? Nipple? There is a nip in the air, though. Can I take something out for you?
00:51:29
Speaker
just i will say that i do love to hear a lou costello yeah yeah there's the the easy yeah yeah yeah no i mean it yeah i mean what i mean he's doing all kinds of chevy chasing here he's dabbing his forehead with a pair of panties from the counter yeah he implies his wife is dead at one point before they're divorced yeah I think he has this like crazy run at one point toward the end where like, I mean, first you get a little like understandable. I mean, you've probably been in this situation, Ben, when you're confronted with a beautiful woman and you just start accidentally dropping the word nipple into your conversation and stuff like that. He's acting as if he has never seen
00:52:13
Speaker
ah ah like he yeah behaving like someone who's never seen a woman before. yeah so so we, we, we go back, we go back home.
00:52:25
Speaker
We go back home this is and the parents arrive. Now, which, which parents get there first? it's Oh, it's both. Yeah, they both arrive at the, yeah, it's like, it's like this, they're at the door together.
00:52:37
Speaker
um They storm in. we get like this fun, chaotic scene with a bunch of closeups where yeah everyone's saying their hellos and and kissing and we get like the cute dynamic that's going to play out through the rest of the film where Clark's parents absolutely adore him.
00:52:53
Speaker
Like they, like his mom, especially just thinks he's the greatest thing ever. but His yeah dad seems like kind of like is very warm to him. Yeah, absolutely. Uh, the parents immediately began oversharing about their various moles and hemorrhoids. I thought this was a good gag because that's what happens when you have old parents. Uh, that's right. And I will say, uh, you know, uh, behind the scenes trivia from this scene, um, there's a fair bit. rights they they did that's the thing all the actors uh actually they were stage hemorrhoids hair and makeup did them um but uh there's a a lot of camera shake in the scene as we're sort of like you know close up hugging and kissing everything apparently as this was being filmed a small earthquake uh took place and that camera shake is actually a result of the tremors and they liked it and left it in huh i i'm gonna i'm gonna call out here one of uh
00:53:46
Speaker
So ah Nora Griswold, Clark's mom, is played by the great Diane Ladd, Laura Dern's mom, and ah like the the villain in one of my favorite movies, Wild at Heart.
00:54:07
Speaker
and So I just wanted to call her out because I love Diane Ladd. She's such fun... like a ah fun uh actor in in everything and in this uh you know she just plays a nice woman she's also yeah she's only six years older than chevy chase that's hollywood baby she's she's not that like she's they they just how old is clark griswold now we know how we could pinpoint how old chevy chase is in this film how old is clark griswold
00:54:41
Speaker
I think he's probably pegged. So he's got, he's, he's ah got two kids who are both like what? She's probably 15. Like Audrey's probably 15, right? 15 about. Yeah. That's probably a good guess. and he is like kind of middle management.
00:55:01
Speaker
Uh-huh. So I would say he's supposed to be. probably late like probably ah around my age which is okay like late 30s or probably like up to 45 okay that checks out yeah what like what what do you think that sounds about right to me too yeah no that makes sense that makes sense um so now the grandparents are here and uh we move on to in a lot of ways i think maybe the element of this film that has the
00:55:35
Speaker
the most lasting legacy oddly enough we get our first scene of clark griswold versus the christmas lights um clark is going to decorate his house and he has acquired what is it 250 000 imported italian twinkle lights uh that are going to go out they're not doing the twinkle That's right. He's got rust there to help him untangle. And I will say, think Johnny Galecki and Chevy Chase actually have pretty good chemistry in this film.
00:56:06
Speaker
I think that they play off of each other pretty well. um This is a long pre-presentation Big Bang Theory, Johnny Galecki. This is a pre-David on Roseanne, Johnny Galecki.
00:56:20
Speaker
Yeah, he's a he's a kid. He's little kid. He's a baby. He's he's a practically a baby. But Chevy climbs up his ladder, starts putting up lights, and now we get a big chance to do some physical comedy. And this is actually...
00:56:31
Speaker
My favorite moment in the film, what comes next? Of course. Clark is hanging on the ladder backwards now. Right. He's on the wrong side of the ladder that's still leaned against his house. Yeah. And he has this bit where he can't decide to right himself if he should put his hand through the rungs of the ladder or around it.
00:56:49
Speaker
So Chevy Chase guy has like a back and forth a few times. This little tiny physical comedy moment that is incredibly Chevy Chase, but also feels... very real it's like just a small observation i think that he he really makes uh makes a pretty good gag out of it's a blink and you miss it moment but just the for me this feels like it rings true yeah eventually not falls clark's been decorating for a while he so suffers one more mishap he uh slides off the roof uh grabbing the gutter as he goes down and ben uh what do we have here They, ah the the the gutter ah spins out and ah like a missile of ice from the gutter shoots out.
00:57:36
Speaker
Through the window of the hated yuppie Chesters. Oh, man. It's a classic locked room murder mystery.
00:57:47
Speaker
It's who killed the CD player? Who killed the expensive stair equipment? There's no murder weapon. It's so funny because it really it really kind of emphasizes what a rich person gadget this is because you see the innards of the CD player.
00:58:06
Speaker
And like of this, you know, fancy hi-fi like stereo system. And it's all like, yeah, like green circuits and like chips and things. And you're just like, oh, oh, they, of course they don't computer things that play music. I hate them. I hate them. I hate them.
00:58:25
Speaker
And so, yeah, they, they, they, they later, come in am i jumping too far ahead oh you're perfect uh to to figure out what broke their their beautiful uh stereo and uh but of course all the all the the ice is melted well obviously something had to break the window something had to hit the stereo and why is the carpet all wet todd i don't know more That's so good. That line delivery is just marvelous. I don't know, Margo. One of my favorite ah podcasts, the podcast Greatest Generation, yeah Star Trek podcast, uses I don't know, Margo, all the time.
00:59:16
Speaker
And I'm just going to wager that someone in this in this film has been in Star Trek. Well, you usually safe to assume i i ah you know, one of the the less offensive ah video game roles that Nicholas Guest was in was he was the voice of Lieutenant ah Felix Savalai in Star Trek Bridge Commander.
00:59:41
Speaker
there you have it so there you have it but also yeah i mean i'm sure i'm sure the rest of them were probably you know and pretty much everybody was i bet i think probably chevy chase was in several episodes of star trek i don't know actually chevy chase was probably in like yeah he was he was he had dax briefly briefly he was he was a dax yeah it was weird because he insisted on being chevy dax like he wouldn't like take a character name And yeah, and he refused to have the dots.
01:00:08
Speaker
Yeah, which made it really awkward. They gather outside to light the house. We get Clark asking for a big drum roll from everyone. The grandparents can't do it, which is fun.
01:00:19
Speaker
We get some odd trilling sounds from them. ah Chevy busts out a little bit more singing, joy to the world. ah And when he prepares to light the the lights, nothing happens.
01:00:32
Speaker
Ellen's parents are incredibly mean to him. ah Don't know what that's all about. But yeah I think the lights in lot of ways are the film's most lasting legacy. I feel like the idea of decorating a house with this many Christmas lights seemed ludicrous in 1989. Oh yeah.
01:00:51
Speaker
oh yeah And now if you drive through any like suburban neighborhood, oh yeah this is like the norm at some level for a lot of houses. So I am going to say, because I've been looking, Miriam Flynn,
01:01:07
Speaker
whose cousin Catherine yes was in an episode of deep space nine there you go um she was a midwife in the seventh season episode covenant at zero recollection um that so far I'm not finding a ton that's remarkable Here we go. this is This is a big one. Frank's wife. the ah the Frank Shirley, the the boss.
01:01:37
Speaker
We see her. That's Admiral Necheyev. Oh!
01:01:44
Speaker
All right, anyway. anyway so yeah all the light So, we'll come back to the lights. We'll come back to the lights. For now, we get a fun little wistful scene that comes up next. We get the attic scene.
01:01:58
Speaker
I will say as someone who has one of these at addicts that you have like the hatch, you pull down with a little chain and everything. I have never once in my life pulled that down without thinking of yeah this ladder popping out and just absolutely clocking Clark in the face. This is going to be first concussion of the film here. That's all right.
01:02:17
Speaker
Yeah. Start the tally. Here's a question for you. What irrational fears have like movies and television like and I and ah it feels like this is too big a question to answer and like one because like you know i think the one that everybody brings up whenever this question comes up is a fear of quicksand yeah um because it's like in like cartoons and like kids media like just lousy with quicksand um And so, yeah, that's just kind of funny that that is, because I can absolutely see it. Like you see a thing like that as a kid and it imprints on you.
01:02:55
Speaker
Yes. Watch out for those fucking attic doors. Yeah. Yeah, they'll yeah they'll they'll get you. That ladder's coming out, and it's coming out fast. It's coming out hard. ah He gets trapped in the attic. He goes up to to to hide some presents, and the attic door gets closed behind him.
01:03:14
Speaker
We have some more physical comedy. He steps on a loose board. He smacks himself in the face. If he wasn't concussed before, he definitely is now. He could also step on a rusty nail in there at some point. like that's yeah That's in the cards.
01:03:27
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. um Yeah, I mean, not long after this film ends, he dies of tetanus. It's really tragic. Yeah, Vegas Vacation is actually... He's a ghost in that. it's yeah Yeah, it's a lot like Sixth Sense. It was actually, you know, a lot people know this, Vegas Vacation, directed by Night Shyamalan.
01:03:48
Speaker
lot people don't know that. Yeah. um When we get a melancholy, wistful moment here, Ben, what does he find? He finds old reel to reels of ah like family videos and of like the, the, the big thing of this, this movie, one of the big things that Clark is after in the film other than like this perfect, like, you know, this massive bonus that will get him the in ground pool is he he wants this ideal Christmas.
01:04:22
Speaker
Like he feels the weight of being this American patriarch, uh, uh, that must be the provider, um, that,
01:04:36
Speaker
that that does this and, and and you know, and that that's kind of the the thing that drives him insane is that he must have this vision and absolutely no one will cooperate with him on it.
01:04:50
Speaker
And he's an asshole. So that's why. But he finds these... these ah film reels of ah a family Christmas and he watches them and he cries.
01:05:05
Speaker
Here's a question for you, Jess. Did you ever watch, did your family have old built family film reels? We did not. Like, I don't know that there is such a thing as a family film of me until... I meant to... I owned an iPhone. Like, this is... Oh, like, previous generation? Yeah, this previous generation. Well, I think you... I think that's him as a kid. is, yeah. Yeah, because it's... I think it's like...
01:05:33
Speaker
yeah because that's from him as a kid because when i so my dad had family film reels from like from this start like because i think that's like supposed to be like the 50s or so right yeah i think so yeah it's 59 that's it's christmas 59 oh because that's the name of the story the story yeah that's what's on the rail um ah So my dad had ah film reels and we would watch them every New Year's. He would pull out ah this old like a film projector and and thread up these old ah film reels.
01:06:09
Speaker
And we i would see my my dad as like a little kid with his sisters in the And in... and ah like ah in uh downtown bridgeport connecticut and um in uh like uh at hampton beach new hampshire which is where they would go uh vacation and it was always like when i was a little kid it was like the special little tree getting to see that so yeah you know for me like when i saw these scenes as like a 12 year old it was like my honest reaction was
01:06:51
Speaker
how rich do you have to be to have a means of recording video of yourself at any point in in your, like I, my family didn't have any old film reels or anything. Like I didn't know anyone who i like had looking at this sort of stuff.
01:07:09
Speaker
My grandparents were not wealthy by any means. Like he collected, like he was an itinerant worker and like he like collected tolls. Like yeah when that could be a full time, you know, when that could be a job.
01:07:23
Speaker
It was like, oh I'm a toll collector. um And like he was like a security guard at a record press and um and some other stuff. and And so i don't know.
01:07:37
Speaker
if he owned it or bought like i'll have to ask my dad but i just assume this is like a rich person thing don't know that it was necessarily i think that just it was so far from anything that my family would ever consider owning just assumed it must be but yeah this like does this scene work for you do you think this is tonally is it does it help the movie is it existing separately from the movie almost Well, so much as movies vignettes, everything is all. Yeah. It's all vignettes, which makes it perfect for like playing on TV. like Yeah. You kind of walk in like presents.
01:08:11
Speaker
Yeah. Or looking at your phone or whatever. Like you can kind of check out, check in. I mean, this is probably like the boring part of the movie for kids, right? Like this is the part, like, because it's not funny. There's no gags. He watches this cute little video. He tears up until he falls through. Like they open up Beautiful Ray Charles song, spirit of Christmas. And, um,
01:08:31
Speaker
you know, I think this scene like kind of fails because it is kind of boring, but I think it, it like, you know, John Hughes is a massive sentimentalist. Like yeah you watch a lot of his movies and like, even like the most ridiculous, like, you know, he, he likes to have a little heart in them. So that that's what, oh yeah but also I think this,
01:08:58
Speaker
this the scene the the function it's supposed to provide is that this is letting you know this is what he wants yes that's right i think like he's looking at this and ah he's looking at this and he's seeing like why um like i think i i saw like you know people were were posting about this the other other day like there was you know like some tiktok memes or something where like people are like you know now i'm an adult why isn't christmas magical anymore it must be something wrong with now saw this too yeah that's and like everybody's bagging on it because it's like no it's like you're the grown-up now like yeah your job is to make christmas special like it's not the same post yeah do you think that was like
01:09:49
Speaker
that is there someone really unselfaware enough to have like, Oh, absolutely. There's people that believe that shit. Like, they're just like, you ever know? It's like, why don't we like, you know, they you I remember when I was a kid and I got a Nintendo 64 and, uh, and, uh, I was really happy about it. Now, uh, you know, um like I have a sandwich and i don't feel that way. What happened? And why does a fun dip taste good anymore? Yeah. It's like, it's because you were six and now you're not dipshit. Like,
01:10:18
Speaker
And I saw that. I really wondered, like i looked at the original message like that feels like trolling. But now I think there are people who probably is like, I just don't understand. They, they make Christmas woke. It's just not the same anymore.
01:10:31
Speaker
And, um, uh, so, I mean, I think like, you know, that's the purpose of the scene. Yeah. Yeah. uh you know maybe it's a fault of the the you know because you know who is good at this sort of thing is christopher columbus and so maybe he would have been able to make this scene ah work a little bit better because it is missing something it is and i wonder if it's undercut by the slapstick
01:11:04
Speaker
immediately before and after feels so tonally out of place like because it it just feels like it's like well this movie had like it's a christmas movie of course it has to have a scene where somebody tears up because they think about christmas like yeah you know it it it just feels like it's checking off a box and and i think there's a version of this movie where it works uh better as opposed to being like the part where like you know you go to the bathroom Yeah.
01:11:35
Speaker
Yeah. No, absolutely. Yeah. no And eventually it's interrupted. Ellen comes home. She opens the attic door. Clark's been sitting on that unwisely. Well, it's pretty fucking stupid, Clark. Yeah. Come on. what How do you think this is to end? He comes crashing back down. Probably yet another, like maybe broken pelvis.
01:11:53
Speaker
Probably another concussion. He probably had like three concussions within an hour here. more lights. yeah we're We're back out. It gets flipped on. It's blinding. There's the gag where the city has to shift over to auxiliary nuclear power to accommodate, uh, this very brightly lit house.
Cousin Eddie and Family Dynamics
01:12:10
Speaker
Um, Yeah, the Chesters are blinded by it. Yes, they're stumbling around their apartment or their home, or rather. ah It goes off again because someone flips off the switch. Clark flips out. He beats the shit out of a plastic Santa lawn ornament and his sleigh. There's a funny bit where he knocks all the antlers off the reindeer in anger. Here's the person.
01:12:37
Speaker
Yeah. Do you think that Clark's rage would work better if it kind of like, kind of like gradually built up?
01:12:48
Speaker
Because he pretty much like starts at like eight and ends at 10. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. I mean, like right from that beginning scene with the rednecks, he's already like at a heightened place. And here, yeah, I mean, he's already like, i mean, he's like in a physical altercation with a lawn ornament. Chevy Chase actually broke his pinky finger filming this. Oh, just like Orson Welles during the the scene where he destroys ah the the room in yeah in in Citizen Kane where he smashes his hand open. Yeah. And a take because. That's right. and Apparently breaking his pinky finger also improv'd.
01:13:23
Speaker
Wow. He's, he's the master. That's right. That's why they've always said he's one of the most talented improv performers to ever come through SNL. But, uh, so he flips out. I mean, but mean, broken pink pinky pinky. He was never in a Christopher guest movie either.
01:13:39
Speaker
no odd Maybe they blacklisted the cast of Christmas Vacation. yeah maybe. Well, other than Brian Doyle Murray. Ah, you're right. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure a few back pills will take care of that broken finger. It's okay, Chevy.
01:13:54
Speaker
You'll be fine. As always, Chevy Chasers is brought to you. That's right. sure As always, Chevy Chasers is brought to you by back pills. There's nothing they won't fix. um So finally, they light them up. We have, you know is Hold on.
01:14:10
Speaker
I'm still looking at Wikipedia. Brian Doyle Murray is in Jade Empire. know this? No.
01:14:20
Speaker
ah did you know this no Brian Doyle Murray is in the game by Bioware Jade Empire as a key key. The promoter or queen. That makes sense. I know that. Yeah. Yeah.
01:14:39
Speaker
That makes sense. Okay. It checks out. Doyle Murray. Is that a big role? Like, because I know you've played that game, right? I don't think it is. I think it's just like someone who's like a fight promoter. If I recall, like, yeah,
01:14:53
Speaker
and They got Brian Doyle Murray. i mean, you know, he's, he's powerful. He's got, he's got some sauce. And then we have the arrival of the last.
01:15:05
Speaker
of like well not the last ingredient we still have one more bit yeah we've got we've got some lovely freaks uh they were coming but before all that cousin eddie his wife katherine uh and their family arrive in the rv uh we have randy quaid reprising his role as cousin eddie from the original national lampoons vacation And if you don't know cousin Eddie, but how would you describe cousin Eddie? He's like, yeah, he's a redneck like bumpkin. He's got a big personality. He's got, ah they, they give him a little bit of a twang. Yeah. he's He's like kind of, they, they throw every kind of signifier of like, like, you know, the last person, person,
01:15:55
Speaker
like upper middle class suburbanite yeah would ever want to spend any time with. That's right. that's right like And Randy Quaid's great in this role. i mean And Randy Quaid is great in many ways, including his political views and how he I was going to say, i I assume that today, whatever he's up to and whatever he believes, I'm completely on board with. um Just knowing how much I love him in this role. so yeah I love him so much in this role. Come on the pod. must be a good guy. Randy Quaid yeah, I mean I'd love to hear your thoughts on Hollywood I'd love some politics. Yeah just anything you want to talk about i have a a clip here of him introducing his kids If you don't remember this here is Rocky Have you got a kiss for me? You better take a rain check on that art. He's got lip fungus ain't identified yet and
01:16:46
Speaker
You remember Ruby Sue oh yes that Oh my gosh. Her eyes aren't crossed anymore. That's something, ain't it? She falls in a well, eyes go cross. She gets kicked by a mule, they go back to normal.
01:17:02
Speaker
I don't know. the the I don't know. but that's the That's a very good delivery. i don't That's a good shit yeah good that's ah that's a it's a good line paired with a good delivery.
01:17:17
Speaker
They also have their dog Snot, who apparently has a real set on him. Everything with that dog. that dog the What do you say the late 80s and early 90s family films had a thing for like gross dogs?
01:17:35
Speaker
Yeah. kind of like, you know, meaning it's apotheosis in Beethoven. Yeah.
01:17:44
Speaker
yes there you go absolutely and and and and yes am i patting myself on the back for saying meeting its apotheosis and beethoven absolutely absolutely yes yeah no i mean no well played uh this is why you co-host a film podcast absolutely But I mean, yeah, so now Eddie's there and this is just going to, you if Clark is desperate for the perfect family Christmas, we've now thrown the ultimate monkey wrench into this as Eddie's tenement on wheels is parked out in Clark's driveway.
01:18:20
Speaker
ah And Clark, again, just immediately, starts being a real jerk to Eddie. Like, you know, it's like he's asking if you're surprised and what Clark's line is. If I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn't be more surprised than i am now. And the next scene at one point, he fantasizes sort of absentmindedly about maybe driving Eddie out to the middle of nowhere and leaving him for dead.
01:18:45
Speaker
And hes he's saying all this in front of Eddie, who, you know, it's just like, I guess Clark is so much more clever as, ah you know, as a. Eddie is like a golden retriever. you Yes, he absolutely is. He's, you know, and and he he loves Clark.
01:19:03
Speaker
He absolutely does. He adores Clark. and it yeah and clark just absolutely hates him yeah hates everything about him just because he's poor that's exactly i mean yeah he committed is the sin of being poor why couldn't he be i like why couldn't he be getting like 7 500 you know 100 dollars he's holding you out for a job in management This is why, but yeah, I mean, he committed the grave sin of being poor. Yeah, no, I mean, so Eddie's there now. And again, we have the funny bit, like another callback to the original National Lampoon's vacation. They're drinking eggnogs.
01:19:47
Speaker
out of the marty moose mugs uh they're the like moose antler mugs that's the uh that's the mascot of wally world did the did your dad when you were watching in the movie theater in 1989 like kind of nudge you like i like yeah that's why about five years ago i bought him a set those mugs i bet you did i did yeah yeah of course i did yeah and So yeah, i can drink out of those anytime I visit my parents. It's ah it's quite lovely. um
01:20:20
Speaker
So yeah, Eddie's here now. he says that he's he's not leaving until next month, which again, I mean, puts a real damper on Clark's whole vibe. during During this scene where he's drinking the the eggnog, this is ah this is when he also talks about his his other kids that aren't there with him. Yes.
01:20:39
Speaker
So I have another little clip here. And the older boy, bless his soul, is preparing for his career. College? Carnival. You gotta to be proud.
01:20:50
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Yeah, last season he was a pixie dust spreader on a tilted whirl. He thinks that maybe next year he'll be guessing people's weight or barking for the yak woman.
01:21:04
Speaker
um what's pixie dust on a tilt-a-whirl? I know what a tilt-a-whirl is. so The pixie dust is going to be the dust that like janitors put down at school when someone would vomit. Oh, that's, yeah I see. Oh, that makes much more sense. I was like, what the fuck is pixie dust?
01:21:22
Speaker
Yeah. All right. No, I mean, that's my read on it. as some of that being like makes some that makes um That makes sense. that that That totally makes sense. Barking for the Yak woman is very good.
01:21:35
Speaker
Yeah, you know, and we're doing some fun physical comedy here. I don't know what that little like pinwheeling thing that Eddie keeps like breaking and knocking apart while they're having the scene is some like the shit that you have out during Christmas. Yeah, just like it's Christmas brick and brick.
01:21:51
Speaker
Fucking. Yes. Yeah. After this scene, we pop back over to Clark's work. One of my favorite visual gags, i don't know if you noticed this, Ben, but he goes to drop off a gift for Mr. Shirley. And there's a table of other gifts from employees at this scene.
01:22:05
Speaker
And all the gifts are shaped exactly alike, wrapped in different paper. They're all a weird L shape, like that one Tetris block. Um, so everyone has gotten him the same thing. I did notice they all got him. the Yeah. thing Yeah. Which is kind of a fun bit, but again, we get the boss a gift.
01:22:24
Speaker
No, they're supposed to get me a gift in the form of a paycheck. But i mean, we get more Shirley's, uh, you know, a mean boss who can't remember Clark's name because of grease ball at one point.
01:22:35
Speaker
Um, here's another thing about, Is that they kind of code him as kind of like a Chicago guy. Like he's got a raspy voice and he calls him a greaseball. And he's kind of yeah like, but then also he's like this rich, like, i think they needed to kind of pick a lane for him. Like, especially given like the blow up, like, why isn't he like kind of a snoot?
01:23:02
Speaker
versus like this this kind of like working class like kind of yeah Chicago guy maybe that's just what you get you know living here you do meet guys like that yeah are like wealthy and so yeah you know it's like I live here you'll you'll meet like you'll you'll meet guys that look and sound like Brian Doyle Murray who are you know millionaires like sure but Do you think maybe that's just like once you cast Brian Doyle Murray, that's what the part becomes because i don't know if there's anything scripted necessarily. i mean, greaseball, I guess really is is like Chicago. I would love I would love to see Brian. Well, he would call him a jag off here. But really? Yeah.
01:23:38
Speaker
But, um ah you know, I would love to see Brian Doyle Murray try to put out a character. It isn't Brian Doyle Murray. you know I can't believe Snooty would be hilarious. Like, ah yeah, like, ah you know, maybe ah have him try a British accent.
01:23:56
Speaker
and
01:24:00
Speaker
about
01:24:04
Speaker
i can't even come close to that cheerio i know yeah know i wasn't even i don't know um doyle murray is just that voice right like it's yeah that's just that voice and that incredible like he he has that like that, that kind of pissed off Murray look.
01:24:24
Speaker
Yes. Which obviously Bill has, but you'll see like, you know, if you see something with Joel Murray, because there's a million, million Murray's they all have, like, you know, they all have have a very Murray Christmas. Very good. Um, they all have very similar expressions.
01:24:39
Speaker
But like, you know, but Brian Doyle, like it always seems like you're just getting that voice. You're getting that, that, that rasp and that look. Yeah. Oh yeah.
01:24:49
Speaker
And it's always all about. and, in and you know, and I'm sure people love that rasp in Jade Empire. It was perfect for it. Perfect for it.
01:25:02
Speaker
why like when When you start to think about like supernatural mythologically tinged martial arts fantasy, you think Brian Doyle Murray.
01:25:15
Speaker
Then the sledding
Slapstick Comedy and Office Subplot
01:25:16
Speaker
scene, the saucer sledding. We have a non-caloric silicon based kitchen lubricant. Clark has applied it to a saucer sled and he can't go because he's got a plate in his head, right?
01:25:28
Speaker
That's a good guy. Every time Catherine would rev up the microwave, he'd piss himself and forget who he was for an hour. That's another thing. There's a lot of plate in the head humor in the the early 80s and We don't get that anymore. there always that lot of play on a thing? Maybe. Because in oh god in Pete and Pete, the mom had a plate in her head. and that was really often like a plot device. Yeah.
01:25:56
Speaker
Yeah. You don't hear it much anymore. yeah You know, you just don't hear about plates and heads is that much anymore. And Christmas isn't as much as is magical anymore. Yeah. I mean, when I was a kid, we used to laugh and laugh about severe head trauma. I mean, Dana Carvey even had an SNL character based on it. And now um where are we? It was it was such a joke.
01:26:22
Speaker
It was such a joke. back
01:26:27
Speaker
ah But now nobody has fun with it anymore. Yeah. that I'm going to reclaim it as comedy. to but oh god all right anyway so yeah i mean clark's greased up his uh sled he's gonna set a land speed record he shoots off with a streak of fire like he's a delorean hitting 88 miles per hour something and we get this uh low ramp blue screen scene of chevy chase spinning his way down a mountain what's that that wasn't real
01:27:00
Speaker
No, I don't think that was. Well, I think there were some, some long shots of possibly a stunt man, yeah but Chevy chase did not some fun music here. Yeah. The, the, the music for this movie, I would be remiss remiss if I didn't point out that the, the, the music in this film is done by Angela badly menti, David Lynch's collaborator. Yeah. So this is a Lynchian film in a lot of ways.
01:27:30
Speaker
in in one way well a lot of ways if you think about it yeah um we yeah I mean, and what I remember most about this thing, Ben, this will surprise you, considering it was 1989 and I grew up in rural America.
01:27:46
Speaker
This was the first time I ever saw a Walmart. He crashes into a Walmart parking lot at the end of this sled ride. And that's the first time i ever saw Walmart in my life.
01:27:56
Speaker
I didn't see Walmarts until ah probably the late 90s, like in person. Yeah. But you'd think like I would have been in Walmart country. I would have thought that. Yeah.
01:28:10
Speaker
Yeah. 89. First time I'd seen one. It was, I was like, what's this place? did They sell walls there. Is this when we then go right to the the Walmart scene?
01:28:22
Speaker
No, we have we have an important scene before we get there, Ben. Oh. We have the pool fantasy. We have the pool fantasy. Clark is wistfully looking out the mirror, imagining the pool he's going to have someday. We have Maliki Likimaka by Bing Crosby and the Andrews sisters, a nice Hawaiian-themed Christmas song.
01:28:44
Speaker
ah The whole family is there. They're enjoying this pool. Clark is imagining what it'll be like. Eventually, Eddie shows up in his fantasy. He's wearing a Speedo, which bums Clark out a little bit.
01:28:55
Speaker
But this fantasy gets a real upgrade. Ben, what replaces Eddie in his Speedo? Why? It's that beautiful woman from ah Montgomery Ward.
01:29:07
Speaker
He's been thinking about her for the last several days. where From ah Marshall Field. um Yeah. Yeah. yeah Mary is back from the lingerie counter. ah Clark lusts after her at the window.
01:29:21
Speaker
um She nearly reveals her naked breasts to him in this fantasy ah when he's interrupted by Ruby Sue, ah the the daughter of Eddie and Catherine. This is, yeah, and and this is when she reveals that she doesn't think that Santa's going to come and give her. That's right.
01:29:43
Speaker
Give her presents, which then takes us, right? we're Oh, yeah. we Well, we talked about one more important scene. we have Yeah, we're back. We have the next morning. It's chaos.
01:29:55
Speaker
you Clark has his Blackhawks jersey on in this scene, and I remember as a kid, like, thinking – wearing in a hockey jersey looks really cool. I'd like to be a hockey jersey guy.
01:30:06
Speaker
But now I fear that Kevin Smith has ruined being a hockey jersey guy. I just don't think you can do it. I think he can do it again. I think you think i i think it's i think you you can do it. I think you can own a hockey jersey that I've never worn out public.
01:30:21
Speaker
ah Matty Ducks, Gordon Bombay um hockey jersey. Okay. I have an Emilio Estevez, Matty Ducks. Jersey, you know, but I'm ready to wear it out. I just need the right occasion. I don't get invited to enough Christmas themed Mighty Ducks parties. um But this is also the scene where we get to see Eddie empty in his chemical toilet into the storm sewer. Yep.
01:30:50
Speaker
We have the iconic line, ah Merry Christmas, shitter was full, as as Todd and Margo observe him in his robe, just emptying sewage straight into the storm drain.
01:31:04
Speaker
This will eventually ah turn out to be a major plot point. A major plot point. but You know, li it's a checkoff shitter. Yeah.
01:31:16
Speaker
ah Merry Christmas. Shitter was full. Yep. Uh, Ben, now we're back at Walmart. And, uh, this is, this is when, and I think, I think, uh, Clark and Ellen talk a little bit about also about how, uh, like somewhere in there about how, yeah, they have a little conversation where she says, yeah, she also maybe heard from Rocky or Catherine that maybe they didn't have money for the, uh, for the Christmas presents either. But, um, but anyway, um, so yeah, they go to Walmart and, uh,
01:31:49
Speaker
already uh cousin eddie is loading up the cart with uh dog like enormous bags of food and then uh like he you know kind of come comes up that uh he he can't he can't get gifts for his kids and you know he demurs and clark insists so ill i'll i'll get you i'll get you gifts now come on if you don't tell me what they want i'll go out and get it on my own
01:32:24
Speaker
This is a... Here's a little list. Alphabetical starting with Catherine. And if it wouldn't be too much, I'd like to get something for you, Clark. Something really nice, huh?
01:32:39
Speaker
ah yeah and and so it's yeah and he's also wearing an amazing leisure suit in this uh this scene one of two he will wear uh in the film uh his costuming's great like in that earlier scene back when they were drinking eggnog
Christmas Dinner and Holiday Disasters
01:32:55
Speaker
he's wearing a white sweater and his dickie is is like turtleneck dickie is visible through the white sweater yes um the crotches of all of his pants uh are remarkably tight and revealing i don't know if if you keyed in on that at all, but it's kind of a funny costuming choice throughout a lot of the film. Eddie's costumes. Yeah. Just wonderful.
01:33:17
Speaker
Uh, so, so yeah, he, uh, Clark has been scammed into to buying gifts for his, but poor cousin yeah there you go but clark offered clark wanted to do the right thing here and clark is still trying as much as he hates eddie and would like to leave him for dead if that were possible uh he's still trying to do the right thing he wants this to be the perfect christmas even for these uh these kids who he doesn't seem to hate
01:33:48
Speaker
So now ah we are, ah I believe this is when we're, we're it's at Christmas Eve now. Is that right? Yes.
01:33:59
Speaker
And we, we have Aunt Bethany and Uncle Louis around. Aunt Bethany, the voice of Betty Boop. Yes. May Questel. This is her final movie.
01:34:11
Speaker
Yeah. And William Hickey. Both of them are very good in this. Bethany has dementia. We're going play that for comedy. anyway I wish she had a metal plate in her head um ah This is I will say the the the gag of her um ah they the the So you know they all have Dinner together and they ask Her ah to To say grace They want you to say grace The blessing
01:34:51
Speaker
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation, unprovencible, with liberty and justice for all.
01:35:09
Speaker
You know,
01:35:12
Speaker
ah you know it kind of makes you think perhaps, you know, in this this film that that is about Christmas but is completely bereft of any faith and his objective is to get money, what are they really worshiping in America?
01:35:35
Speaker
Jess. That's a great question. That's a really great question. bit with... with him asking her to say grace and then following it up with the blessing be is absolutely.
01:35:56
Speaker
If there's a line that my wife, Courtney and I quote constantly, like anytime one of us has said something to the other, like two or three times, the other hasn't heard it or understood what we're asking.
01:36:09
Speaker
We will inevitably just turn to the other and go that blessing while pointing their face. Like a uncle Lewis does. Yeah. that's like our code or it's like why are you old not paying attention ben do you think that the lighting that clark does on the house are the thousand points of light that george bush talked about yeah yeah there's because this film contains a lot as yeah i was indicating it's it's yeah it's a film that stands up to many deep reads and
01:36:43
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. um Catherine has generously agreed to prepare the turkey for Christmas Eve dinner. And I'm sorry to report, Ben, she's overcooked it.
01:36:55
Speaker
It cracks open when Clark begins to carve it. And it looks like something from an Aliens movie. Yeah. It's like, it just like, Like this opens up into like desiccated bird. um I mean, it's, yeah, it's empty. And I think the organs are still in there. Yeah, the organs are still the, the yeah, they did not remove the bag with all the organs and shit in it.
01:37:22
Speaker
And um the, you know, and this this is, I've been thinking about this. So then you see them all eat because they everybody is going to eat and and be polite.
01:37:37
Speaker
They're like dipping the turkey in water like they're Joey Chestnut or something.
Film Reflections and Cultural Impact
01:37:41
Speaker
and And you hear crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch. And I was thinking when I watched this, I was like, I would you i would eat crunchy turkey.
01:37:51
Speaker
Like the crunchiness actually took it from seeming unappetizing to... Appetizing to me because I was just like, interesting. I was like, yeah, crunchy. Like, because those are pretty satisfying sounding crunches. They don't, it doesn't even seem like it's jerky.
01:38:11
Speaker
No, I mean, it sounds like they're having Rice Krispies. Yeah. And so that actually sounds, you know, like, like, like fried chicken, you know, like turkey chicharron. Yeah.
01:38:25
Speaker
Yeah. Ooh. Yeah. I had a low fat and delicious. Yeah. That sounds wonderful. Um, so yeah, that's what I was thinking when I was watching. it was like, you're watching the scene. You're like, I'd like to get me some of that. yeah Give me that desiccated moisture free Turkey.
01:38:46
Speaker
and then, I mean, this is sort of where, during Christmas Eve dinner, shit hits the fan, right? This is when the wheels come off. We have a cat that bites into the Christmas tree lights, electrocuting itself, leaving a scorched cat carcass also desiccated of the rug. Right. Um,
01:39:09
Speaker
Lewis lights a cigar in front of the very sappy tri Christmas tree, which bursts into flames as does uncle Lewis sappy, much like Clark watching the family films. Once again,
01:39:24
Speaker
Layers and layers. So at this moment, the messenger arrives with the bonus. um and And again, Ellen's dad's kind of a jerk. He asks if it's a letter confirming Clark's reservation at the nut house. I think this is the point where Clark probably needs to tell him to shut the F up. but He basically does in just a minute. So yeah.
01:39:46
Speaker
Clark announces his big pool surprise. He tells everybody he's going to fly them out if there's enough money left over so they can christen the new pool. But of course, it's not a bonus check. It's a what, jam of the month?
01:39:59
Speaker
Jelly of the month club, the gift that keeps on giving you know i'm the whole year. and I wouldn't mind being in a jelly of the month club.
01:40:08
Speaker
You know, i wouldn't like it if they were boring jellies. I mean, I like i would rather have $7,500, but somebody was like, i signed you up for the jelly of the month club, I'd be like, oh, cool.
01:40:25
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, if if you didn't tell me, I'd do this instead of giving you $7,500. If you said- Those were the two choices. Yeah, if those were the choices, I mean, I bought a lot of fucking jelly with $7,500. lot of interesting jelly, too. A lot of jellies that may be banned here in the United States. Exotic jellies. Yeah, sex jellies. Yeah, sex jellies. Jellies, you know, made by the most dangerous game. Yeah.
01:40:52
Speaker
You know, like ah the jelly that you have put... Are you talking about human jelly? Yeah. The jelly that you have to drape a napkin over your face because you're supposed to hide as you eat this jelly. Jellies that are only available as suppositories. Jellies you have to shoot up. Yeah. I want all the... jell Yeah, I'd be getting like dangerous jellies with 7,500 bucks, but...
01:41:18
Speaker
Give me the dangerous jelly. of ah But I get some jelly made with like blowfish toxin, ah you know, just like prepared by the finest ah sushi jam maker in all of Kyoto. And just be like, this is fine. He prepared it properly so I can eat this, this blowfish jelly. So Clark can't tolerate that he got this gift.
01:41:47
Speaker
So he's disappointed. Yeah, he's just a little sad about it. but He's just a little upset. ah And so he has a couple words.
01:41:59
Speaker
I want him brought from his happy holiday slumber over there on Melody Lane with all the other rich people. And I want him brought right here with a big ribbon on his head. And I want to look him straight in the eye and I don't want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey shit he is.
01:42:29
Speaker
Hallelujah! Holy these shit! Where's the Tylenol?
01:42:37
Speaker
the where's the that's why is is that's why the line my mom quotes the most hallelujah holy shit where's the Tylenol is the one that i hear most out of her which is i appreciate that i'm getting a tour of all of your family's favorite lines yes yes yes um i know what your favorite piece is is that's right the the little bit of uh business with the ladder um uh courtney's uh blessing
01:43:05
Speaker
do we know have Have we not hit your dad's favorite part yet? My dad's favorite part is when Chevy Chase... sings joy to the world as he's plugging in the lights. Pretty early.
01:43:19
Speaker
yeah so Yeah. I don't know why, but he really just loves him. The joy to the world sort of, you know, again, like silly singing that Chevy Chase insists on doing, but this rant is, is wonderful. I mean, this is Chevy Chase's big moment. I think in the film, it's safe to say, right? I mean, this is, this is why it's all been building to,
01:43:38
Speaker
Uh, Clark has lost it. He goes out in the yard to cut down a new tree, smashes Margo and Todd's window as it comes down. Uh, he's carrying around a chainsaw kind as an accessory at this point.
01:43:52
Speaker
Well, I think this is time for one of our, uh, uh, Jess goof them ups, where I've spotted a ah little bit of a, I would say continuity error here. um When Clark starts up the chainsaw before, before sawing the new post off of the banister.
01:44:13
Speaker
If you'll look in that wide shot, ah the chain isn't moving on the chainsaw. oh They didn't trust Chevy Chase with the working chainsaw. They had that over for the close-up shot to a stuntman. Probably trained in chainsaw usage. a real chaina I can't believe that. That's ridiculous. yeah More shit breaks loose.
01:44:35
Speaker
Now there's a squirrel in the tree. Gets loose, causes more chaos. How it survive the fire? what work five with What fire? When Lewis set the tree. Oh, no, it's the new tree. It's the new tree. Never mind. It's the new tree. Come on. You've seen this movie every year since 1989. It's getting late. It's getting late. ah People don't know we cut like a 45-minute digression on on Cousin Eddie's leisure suits. Mm-hmm. no that's saying and um this is this is gonna be maybe our longest podcast uh and
01:45:11
Speaker
so there's a squirrel in the house that causes an enormous amount of chaos a lot of running around yeah the dogs chasing it destroying like everything furniture yeah everything ah Luckily, um right as they're chasing the squirrel out the front door, Margo arrives from the next Oh, they hated Margo. Another yuppie. She gets hers. yeah She confronts Clark at the wrong moment just as he opens the door.
01:45:41
Speaker
Snots is chasing the squirrel out of the house. She's basically mauled by Snots, the dog. i mean, this is an easy lawsuit, right? And yuppies love suing people. mean, there's a variety of lawsuits that the chesters like yeah absolutely have the griswolds dead to rights on and they can't even plead yeah poverty because they're just about to get a whole lot of money in about like 30 minutes yeah no i mean it's uh yeah again i know we're supposed to think margo got hers here but i mean this is really unfortunate she's pretty beat up uh as a result of this dog attack she suffers
01:46:21
Speaker
It's not funny when you think about it's like she was just like attacked by a dog in real life. You'd be like, Oh my God, you were attacked by a dog. Yeah. If someone told you that it's like, but here and words it's just like, that's hilarious that yuppie just got, you know, attacked by a dog. So following the conclusion of this, this is when the family decides to throw in the towel and yeah everybody's getting ready to leave yeah um everybody's saying clark it's over uh nice try get out of here nice try it's over it's overdude yeah over it's over and of course clark points out not according to santa's watch it is which is a pretty good block yeah but there there's one more surprise for clark under the tree
01:47:07
Speaker
what Yes, that's right. Yeah. And what is that, Jeff? Eddie has kidnapped Mr. Shirley, which is almost like a callback to the original vacation there where they took John Candy hostage at Wally World and made him, like, take them on all the rides at gunpoint. ah So, I mean, they say this is their first kidnapping, but probably only legally. I mean, they have taken a hostage before, which isn't all that different. um But...
01:47:37
Speaker
Mr. Shirley learns what has happened with the the Christmas bonuses. He has his Ebenezer Scrooge moment. He realizes it was wrong.
01:47:49
Speaker
People count on these bonuses. I switched them out for Jelly the Month. um I've done the wrong thing. And right about then is when the SWAT team arrives. I will say, this is a pretty half-hearted ending.
01:48:05
Speaker
Mr. Shirley just going like, ah, you know what? Yeah. Have a lot of money. Have all your money. And you know what? 20% on top of that too. Yeah. and And, like, you're just kind of like, all right, come on, man. That's stupid. Like, you know, he's done nothing to deserve this.
01:48:24
Speaker
And then, But the movie does redeem itself by, by having a SWAT team break dramatically, like swing through yeah the, the windows on ropes. Yeah. Like ah is the, the drop, like it is so, it is pretty funny.
01:48:48
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, yeah, they eventually, I mean, yeah, the SWAT team shows up. The whole family is gathered together. you get the cute bit with them, like yelling freeze as, as police do. And Ellen is holding Clark's Christmas package.
01:49:04
Speaker
Without that scene, if you will. Yeah. That's kind of fun. But we got a heartwarming ending. Like the cops find out that he was a jerk boss and they're like, Oh, that negates the crime you committed. Yeah. um he's not he's not pressing charges and uh therefore all this criminality is out the window and again everything from margo and todd is probably go be a civil suit uh i would think uh so then they everybody is happy and they all hang out and uh like and enjoy each other they and then they they go outside
01:49:37
Speaker
to look at was there an aura oh they they see is this like is that Santa no that's the gas yes yes and Lewis lights another cigar near the sewer gas we have another explosion it launches the Santa's sleigh ornament into a low orbit yep and and at that moment we hear this
01:50:18
Speaker
through the night that our flag was still there
01:50:49
Speaker
And for all of our Patriots watching, I do want to note that Ben and I did remove our caps for that. ah And also you aren't watching, you're listening. So, but yeah, but you know, once again, like there, there's no religion in this and in the spaces where there would be religion, they sing, they say the, the pledge of allegiance and the national anthem.
01:51:10
Speaker
What does that make you think? o And I'm, I'm asking the listeners too. what What have they taken out of Christmas? What does that, what is, what are they trying to say?
01:51:22
Speaker
Use your mind. Yeah. Yeah. Read between the lines. Apotheosis. Yes. Beethoven was the apotheosis. Exactly. Like Ben said, exactly. I've been said, but this is how the film is. We get this, like, I don't know. Like we have, as the film ends, we, we have like Clark standing outside admiring his home after this Christmas has gone completely awry.
01:51:50
Speaker
um and, um, the camera slowly pulls back from him. Is Clark happy with his Christmas at this point? Has he simply chosen to accept this chaos is his lot in life.
01:52:03
Speaker
Did he get the Christmas he wanted or did he just get a Christmas bonus?
01:52:09
Speaker
I mean, everyone's happy at the end and everyone, that's right. All the cops stay and celebrate too. Like every, it becomes like, it's one of those. So he does have, he, he kind of gets what he wants.
01:52:22
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So it all works out. Yeah. He's got the Chicago police force there. No, it one it's probably the Wilmette police. I don't know what their patch, their patches might say, but that's well, you don't think they would have to borrow Chicago's like SWAT team. Oh, that's probably true. This isn't just like traffic cops. Yeah, that's probably true. Yeah, I doubt. These guys are like still team six.
01:52:47
Speaker
Evanston probably has. a like which is the the like thell like the small like city directly to the north of Chicago, they probably have a SWAT team, right?
01:53:02
Speaker
I don't know. I mean, nowadays, yeah, almost certainly. like like Thanks to the Iraq and Afghan wars, everybody has a SWAT team and they all have tanks and stuff. And we've never been safer.
01:53:14
Speaker
That's a good point. So it's a good point. Yeah. So think about That's point. That's a great point. I'm going to say the pledge of allegiance. yeah All right. So the theys that's the end of the movie, ah you know what I think is interesting about this one? Like,
01:53:32
Speaker
critics didn't give this film great reviews. Like Robert Ebert gave it two stars. Roger. I think it had mixed reviews at best and probably rightfully so. I mean, it's a fun little movie, but you know, it, it's a, you know, I don't think it's a great film in a lot of ways, but i think what's fascinating to me is certainly it being a holiday movie, it's completely surpassed,
01:53:57
Speaker
the original national lampoon's vacation in terms of like cultural longevity. This is the most, this is, this is absolutely the one that gets the most play for sure.
01:54:09
Speaker
And I would argue probably vacation is a better film in a lot of ways. Well, you know, when we get to it on the, uh, when we get to it on Chevy chasers, I'll, I'll let you know what my, my thoughts are.
01:54:23
Speaker
I don't know that Chevy Chase ever quite pulls off being a regular guy exactly in anything he does. i mean, even in a role like Clark Griswold, which is supposed to be as kind of every man as any role he ever plays, he still has to be smarter than at least some of the people around him and has to let them know that in these roles, which again, i think it's just like you're writing a role for Chevy Chase. and I'm guessing most of the roles Chevy Chase played in his career were either written for him or rewritten with him in mind once he was cast. um
01:54:57
Speaker
You know, I think that you're just going to get some of that because that's his shtick. Yeah. He's, he's always going to be the country club guy, whether he's playing, you know, his role in Caddyshack or not.
01:55:10
Speaker
Yeah. So, I mean, you know, like I had a good time with this, but this is a movie, you know, made wrap presents during. Yes. That like, this is a ah movie, like I recently watched, um rewatched. So I married an ax murderer. I think I was talking yeah about this.
01:55:32
Speaker
Yes. And love this movie. It was interesting to me because i hadn't, um, Like, I don't have a recollection of actually ever watching it in order and entirely. Like, it used to, like, in 1996, 1997, it was in heavy rotation on Comedy Central.
01:55:57
Speaker
And so I would just watch like 10 minute segments of here and you're in there. And eventually I saw all of it, but it would just be like, I would see the last 10 minutes and then I would see the first 10 minutes and I would see like, and, um, and so it was interesting to watch it all at once. And this movie is even more like that movie isn't even that episodic. Um,
01:56:23
Speaker
Like it it has it just a straightforward narrative. Yeah. Like this, you could just watch like this could be broken up into like three, three or four like little sitcoms.
01:56:35
Speaker
Yeah. I mean almost feel like within the act structure of this, you could shuffle most of the scenes and it wouldn't, I mean, like you have to have,
01:56:46
Speaker
Eddie arrive when Eddie arrives, you have to have like, you know, the, the meltdown on Christmas Eve at some order. But beyond that, you could kind of drop that scene with him flirting with Mary at the lingerie counter, the sledding bit, all of that could kind of just slot in anywhere in that film. And yeah, i mean, it just sort of, it is very much,
01:57:09
Speaker
As you said, I think the perfect way to describe it, you know, a ah film to wrap presents to you. It doesn't require a lot of your attention. There's some good sensible chuckles spread throughout. Yeah. Sensible everyp magazine of the, of the film. who Who's the, who's the MVP?
01:57:25
Speaker
Is it Chevy?
01:57:32
Speaker
Um, I mean, Quaid is pretty funny in this. Quaid's pretty good. boom Yeah, sure. It's Chevy. Yeah, it's Chevy.
01:57:43
Speaker
It might be Chevy in this one. I think that that Chevy may have it. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you everyone for tuning in for a special ah extra long Christmas episode of Chevy Chasers.
01:57:59
Speaker
You know, if you enjoyed this, be sure to give us a ah five star rating wherever it is. Send us an email at quest quest podcast at gmail.com. And again, we're getting that fixed. We're getting that fixed.
01:58:10
Speaker
And ah join us next week when we watch the premiere of the Chevy Chase show. See you then.
01:58:28
Speaker
The Chevy Chase Show is... know, this is kind of the music that feels like you... Very MPR-y. Yeah, it's like you say credits. Made possible by a generous grant from the Carnegie Foundation.
01:58:43
Speaker
It's also made possible by a large donation by Chevy Chase.
01:58:52
Speaker
And listeners like you.