And I distinctly remember him writing scenes furiously and sending them to me and Andy when we really weren’t up yet. And we had a couple days where Seth Meyers would come in to write with us. Taccone: I remember the writing process, because it was the three of us in a room in Lorne’s office at the Paramount lot. The first task was tailoring the script they inherited, which was initially written by Pam Brady, for their own comedic sensibilities. And a decade later, Hot Rod is now a veritable cult classic, worthy of its own oral history. Just last month, Samberg - a Golden Globe winner for Brooklyn Nine-Nine - starred in the HBO comedy special Tour de Pharmacy, which The Lonely Island produced. It didn’t hurt their careers, of course they put out viral video after viral video at SNL, and now they have a growing empire of their own TV shows and movies. The movie is a festival of ridiculousness, with non-sequiturs and movie spoofs, and above all else, incredibly sincere characters doing remarkably stupid things.Īnd yet despite the cast and rising stardom of The Lonely Island, the movie got mixed reviews from critics and fell short at the box office. Sissy Spacek plays Rod’s mom, and Ian McShane agreed to be the foul-mouthed step-dad. Rod’s wonderfully idiotic crew featured what is now an A-list of comedy stars, including Taccone, Danny McBride, Bill Hader, and Isla Fisher Will Arnett and Chris Parnell also have small but crucial parts. The premise was already a twisted one: Rod decides to perform a crazy motorcycle stunt to raise the money necessary to get his asshole step-dad a heart transplant … just so he can finally kick the step-dad’s ass during their weekly brawl. Lorne Michaels, their boss, went to bat for them despite their inexperience, lobbying for them to read, re-write, and produce an old script about a man-child who dreams of becoming a famous daredevil. Samberg, Taccone, and Schaffer were in their late 20s and had only been on SNL for one year when Hot Rod came about. LOS ANGELES - JULY 26: Director Avika Schaffer (L) and actors Andy Samberg and Jorma Taccone pose at the premiere of Paramount Picture's 'Hot Rod' at the Chinese Theatre on July 26, 2007, in Los Angeles, California. It also gives us a quick glimpse into what the Hot Rod writing process must have been like: three dudes, friends since junior high, yes-anding and gleefully one-upping each other until the dumbest - and strangely genius - idea emerges. Everyone laughs, which is really the only confirmation he needs. Now everyone calls it that.”Īnd then Andy Samberg, who starred as Rod, the titular wannabe stuntman, advances the conversation: “Vancougar Mellencamp, right?” he asks. Then Jorma Taccone, who co-starred in the movie, chimes in: “We, of course, immediately started calling it Vancougar, which spread like wildfire. The question is a basic warm up, meant to jog their memories about Hot Rod, a movie they made over a decade ago and released 10 years ago today.Īkiva Schaffer, who directed the movie, reflects that spending the summer making the movie was a lot like going to sleepaway camp, because it was shot in Vancouver, far from both the group’s California home and Saturday Night Live’s home base in New York. And of course, a memorable villainous turn from Will Arnett.As soon as all three members of The Lonely Island join the phone call, the riffing begins. The comedy is a brash mix of slapstick and surrealism juvenile humour and irreverent musical interludes. His means of doing this? Clearing 15 school buses on his dirt-bike. The plot revolves around the hapless Kimble, who dreams of being a stuntman and attempts to raise $50,000 for Frank’s medical bills. Ten years on it is heralded as one of those belatedly popular oddities. Thanks to TV broadcasts and the subsequent pop culture success of star Samberg, Hot Rod has enjoyed something of a rebirth. “Poor certainly describes the quality of the filmmaking,” raged A.O. The star hit back at criticism of the movie at the time: “They were cruel, but they occasionally do that, they pick some comedy and decide to just go to town on it.”Īnd the critics were damning. Then there’s veteran British actor McShane as disapproving patriarch Frank, who delivers scene-stealing turns.
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