The OTHER On Cinema at the Cinema Podcast
The OTHER On Cinema at the Cinema Podcast covers Tim Heidecker and Gregg Turkington's On Cinema at the Cinema. The show hosts Ramsey, an On Cinema superfan, and Caleb, who has never seen it before, watch through the show and discuss. And sometimes they talk about other things too. This podcast has it all! It has action, drama, comedy, suspense and dance.
The OTHER On Cinema at the Cinema Podcast
Episode 7 - Oscar Special 2
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In this episode of The OTHER On Cinema at the Cinema podcast, Ramsey and Caleb discuss the Second Annual Oscap Special, which Ramsey doesn't like much. Digressions include Joseph Stalin being a prankster and Doug Walker's The Wall.
A consumer of On Cinumer. Hey, hey, hey. This is the other On Cinema Podcast, a podcast in which myself Ramsey, an OnCinema super fan, talks about On Cinema with Caleb, who has never seen the show before. Uh today we're going to be talking about the second annual Oscar special, but before we get into that, Caleb, how are you doing?
SPEAKER_01I'm doing pretty well. Recruited quite a few people to communism at uh Pride this weekend. Hell yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Turns out gay people might be somewhat, you know, subject to negative things in this world and want a change. Yeah. Pretty pretty wild. Yeah, who would have thought?
SPEAKER_02It's funny you brought that up because I I had a digression about Dave and Busters. So it was my birthday this last weekend, and me and Caleb and some of our friends kind of I say ironically went to Dave and Busters, but I just wanted to go. I'd never been before. It actually was a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be. But they have this thing there called the human crane, which I did not know existed. The human claw. The human claw, sorry, yes, the human claw. So basically it's this toy claw machine, but they put an adult person into this like hoist, and then they put you into a ball flow full of inflatable toys and you you grab them out. And so I did that, and it was a lot of fun. And after I got out of it, I just thought to myself, for the first time in my life, God bless America, only capitalism could create the human claw. I really think that if you went back in time and showed Karl Marx the human claw, he would ever have written the Communist Manifesto.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, he would he would have to seriously reconsider his path in life, I think, at that point.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, he would have never written that. Joseph Stalin would have never bombed all those banks for Lenin. You want to know my favorite fun fact about Joseph Stalin? Uh, sure, yeah. He was a big prankster. Uh later in his life, when he was kind of going crazy and was just like blackout drunk all the time, he would do this prank where he would uh when he was out with his officers, he would slip tomatoes into their coat pockets and then push them up against walls, and then the tomatoes would burst in their coat pockets and they would just have wet tomato juice in their coat pockets. That's a true story. I'm not making that up.
SPEAKER_01I believe it. Yeah. I mean, robbing a bank to fund a revolution is a pretty, pretty epic prank as well. So I I believe it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, who who thought such a scamp would starve all those Ukrainians? Anyway, this is the other On Cinema podcast in which we talk about fun facts about Joseph Stalin. Anyway, so yeah, we're gonna go over the second annual Oscar special, and I'm just gonna say up top, this is probably my least favorite thing in the On Cinema catalog, and I think this is probably the worst Oscar special upon rewatch.
SPEAKER_01It has really good production value though.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, and I don't mean to be too harsh on it because it really sets up a lot of stuff that's gonna be very important to pretty much every other Oscar special going forward, but just kind of knowing how much better all the other ones are, watching this one, it just doesn't really work for me. Like, what did you think of it compared to the last one?
SPEAKER_01You know, the last one felt emotionally devastating, whereas this one felt just more frustrating in general. And by the end, it seemed like everyone, including me, was just kind of just kind of tired, you know, and just kind of out out of it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I totally agree. Um, we can go over more of that at the end, but before we do that, I felt like we should probably talk about things that worked. So we begin and we see the first appearance of Mark Proc. And this is their big new production, and it immediately opens with Tim just screaming at Mark. Yeah, yeah. Which is really gonna set the tone for the relationship going forward.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I bet. Mark and Greg are both kind of docile, uh, quiet people overall, and uh the the perfect, perfect opportunities for exploitation and and resentment from Tim.
SPEAKER_02So just at the beginning of this, everything already seems so tense. Like Tim and Greg look so awkward. I the sense I got was that things have just not been going correct today for anybody.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I mean, you know, the the pressure is on. They've got a big live event to do, and there's a lot of money on the line. $300 of money. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And Greg is dressed like Bilbo Baggins because it's Hobbit Ween. And Tim is obviously very much bothered by Greg's.
SPEAKER_01I mean, uh especially because Tim Tim really outdid himself. He dressed himself like a mob leader from Saints Row. So he he was looking his best, so I understand why he was frustrated with Greg, you know, wearing cut-off dress shorts.
SPEAKER_02Well, he was wearing, you know, hobbit pants. Yeah, hobbit pants. With those shoes, did you notice his his shoes?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I noticed his feet? I shouldn't say shoes, his fake hobbit feet. I feel like they need a dedicated props team to be able to even make those things. Whatever the hell, how I don't even know how they made that. It's so shitty that I think. Oh, yeah, like some Bigfoot uh shoes or something.
SPEAKER_02We get the first rendition of Oscar Fever. What did you think of Oscar Fever?
SPEAKER_01I thought the the instrumentation was uh sublime.
SPEAKER_02The funniest thing to me about it is just the really awful, like kind of discordinate mini guitar solo towards the end. Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01That was my favorite part.
SPEAKER_02Also, I don't know if you noticed this, but they kept cut cutting the mark who who couldn't stop laughing at Tim singing Oscar.
SPEAKER_01I I didn't notice that. Yeah, I did notice there were definitely a lot of little giggles through the whole thing.
SPEAKER_02No, every every time so Tim's gonna come back and sing Oscar Fever again, and like Mark can't help but start laughing.
SPEAKER_01I think uh yeah, when that song, when the instrumentation started and it's so terrible and upbeat, I'm like, there's actually no way to sing over this in a way that improves it in any way. At least not unironically.
SPEAKER_02So we get Greg's first segment, which is going to the Dolby Theater. Formerly the Kodak Theater. Formerly the Kodak Theater. I just love that moment when he's walking up the stairs and he just says, Oscars. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Eat and grin. That's my favorite part of the segment for sure. He's wearing a t-shirt, the the iconic hobbit head t-shirt. One of a kind. However, we get to see it in action more and realize that he created the t-shirt, like the design, while the t-shirt was probably flat on a surface. Because without oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_02Okay, just FYI. For any listeners, if you've ever heard screeching in the background, it's because I have a very strange Boston terrier who makes very strange noises when we're not paying attention to him.
SPEAKER_01Speaking of one of a kind, this this dog here is truly one of a kind. He'll uh he'll bite your hands if you don't pet him. And the irony is that if you go to pet him, you literally cannot be petting him until you're petting him. And so he will snap at you as you're going to pet him, which is what he wants. So you have to like be very fast. Okay, but yeah, because clearly he didn't like put the shirt on and make sure the design worked while like with the shirt on, like taping the letters on or anything like that. Because if you just place a design that spans the entire width of a shirt, you end up with what Greg is dealing with, which is the letters on either side are squeezing into his armpits. Normally, if he's just like walking around or something, it doesn't look like it says hobbit head, it says lobbit heel.
SPEAKER_02I did notice that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and then I don't know if you have a note on this, but when Greg said, and now here's a look inside the Dolby Theater, the camera pants, yeah, okay just a poster of the Dolby Theater on the wall. I knew they weren't gonna do this, but some part of me, the the intuitive, like having seen, you know, actual sh television show productions, was like, oh, they're gonna do a match cut to the actual theater from this photo. They did not. Nope, that was not gonna happen. But some part of me.
SPEAKER_02That would be way too professional for exactly Mr. Greg Turking.
SPEAKER_01They just zoomed in closer to it, making it more out of focus.
SPEAKER_02So then we we go to Larry Terman, supposed to be on the red carpet, and they can't get the feet of him. And I just really love the moment where Greg is really smug. Like he's he's looking really smug, and he says, same old Larry. Because he he hates Larry Terman. Oh, really? Well, yeah, because he was the guest host who uh who like made him look really stupid when he was like filling in for Tim.
SPEAKER_01Well, I didn't know if if Greg was just so hard-headed that that snark did not even penetrate, but I guess it didn't.
SPEAKER_02No, it was totally intentional, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I see.
SPEAKER_02What what do you make of the whole thing of Tim really wanting nuclear war to happen?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, uh I I Is that is that Tim really wanting nuclear war? Is that what's going on? I mean, you were you were telling me that Tim has a like a uh he wants to die.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean I don't know. It it it it's just so strange. I I was not really ca super plugged into the particular conflict they're talking about. Because, you know, we're we're still amidst the Ukraine and Russian war now, but that started, you know, way back in like 2013. But he just he just seems very insistent that it's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01Maybe this leads into what you've told me already, but yeah, it seems Tim is just kind of a miserable person in general, and if he were to die, he'd be less stressed out, I guess.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, because I mean he basically going forward is operating under the assumption that he's going to die in the next 48 hours.
SPEAKER_01Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. He says that a couple of times.
SPEAKER_01Oh, in the in this Oscar special, yeah. Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_02In this Oscar special specifically. Because he talks about how he's only gonna have uh a couple of glasses of champagne and then immediately is like, you know, fuck it, you know, we're all gonna die.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, where's he? I mean, I wonder definitely Alex Jones, right?
SPEAKER_02I I have to imagine, um, I, you know, I I'm kind of an Alex Jones nerd, but I didn't really get into his stuff. When I say Alex Jones nerd, I I find him to be a fascinating person because he's awful and obviously a grifter, but also I think buys into his own bullshit a little bit, which is confusing. But I I was definitely not plugged into him back way back in like 2014 or whenever this was going on. But yeah, Tim wants nuclear war to happen. He has a great line, he goes, if Tom Clancy was here, he'd have a lot to say about how Obamacare is handling the situation.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, Obamacare. Not Barack Obama, no, but Obamacare. Obamacare. He's got Obama derangement syndrome. He's got Obama derangement syndrome. Or Obamacare derangement syndrome specifically.
SPEAKER_02So Ellen DeGeneres is the host during this Oscars, and they keep bringing up that she's never been in any movies, and then they keep flashing like pictures of like movies she's been in. Uh which is funny because uh one of the movies she was in that they flashed pictures of, uh, the other on cinema podcast on the funny, the one of the hosts actually was a co-writer on that movie.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay. Yeah. Wow. Small world. I just wanted to mention that yes, there are there are at least two moments of Tim and his prescience, uh, which is obviously him predicting the war between Russia and Ukraine, and then also him not really appreciating Ellen DeGeneres, because uh, as we all know, Ellen de Generis is not very well liked anymore. She was at the time, though. She was at the time.
SPEAKER_02She was very well liked at the time.
SPEAKER_01No, I'm saying that that he was like not a big fan, at least of her hosting the Oscars.
SPEAKER_02But I I think that was for the wrong reasons. Not because it turned out she was a huge asshole. Well, but probably because she was a woman and a lesbian.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Broken clocks write twice a day, though. Yeah, that's true. Sorry, I don't want to defend hating women and gays. I don't know if we went past it, but Tim trying to navigate the giant news station style touchscreen.
SPEAKER_02I I didn't even write notes about that. Yeah, that whole thing is funny.
SPEAKER_01The fact that Leonardo DiCaprio's photos are all of him as a child, basically. And when he tries to exit out, it it incinerates the photos. That was pretty great. Them calling the desolation of Schmaug uh Hobbit 2, uh, while proclaiming them being huge fans anytime that they talk about the Hobbit 2 uh in a positive light, the the people behind the slides are just playing the barrel, the Looney Tunes barrel scene from it. Yeah, what the hell? I mean, this is not related to the uh show directly, but what the hell is going on with that barrel scene? Because you watch the movie, right?
SPEAKER_02No, I I've only ever seen the first Hobbit movie, and I thought it was terrible, and I didn't watch any of the other ones.
SPEAKER_01Similarly to how you can appreciate the spectacle of Alex Jones, I can appreciate the spectacle of Hobbit, and so that's why me and my friends went to see them in the theaters when they came out, because it's just like, what the hell are they doing here? But yeah, it was it was pretty wild to see that scene in the theaters. Everyone was just like nervously laughing because it was so just straight up absolutely bizarre. It was like, what the fuck is the decision making that leads to this?
SPEAKER_02Well, it seemed goofy because they keep replaying that scene, but it was also like so low res I couldn't really tell what was going on.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, it was it was very low res. It was like 360p and uh boxed. There were there were black boxes, you know, around it too.
SPEAKER_02So uh just skipping forward a little bit, um, we have a commercial break. Tim comes back and he he's starting to look a little bit drunk and a little bit crazed. And they're talking about the Chinese food place that's sponsoring the event and how they, you know, only contributed $300 and they keep showing the pictures of the Chinese food, and it looks so bad.
SPEAKER_01It I mean, it doesn't look like Chinese food. It looks like uh it looks like I I don't even know. I don't even know what cuisine you would call it. It looks like uh something. Oh man, I'm gonna be so rude here, but it looks like some sort of like Midwest like trailer trash. Brown hound. Yeah, it was like it was like uh some sort of mound of grain covered in gravy with like a mushroom and a brocc piece of broccoli next to it, and then like something that vaguely looked like spaghetti. It was harrowing to see. Yeah. And then the the images of the supposed restaurant where it looks like an abandoned strip mall with like a hole in the window. Yeah. Looked uh looked real appetizing.
SPEAKER_02We get into the Tim's Oscar fantasy, but before that, they're commenting on I guess Pharrell did a performance at this Oscar and they keep calling him Farrell. Farrell, which I thought was very funny. After that, we get we get into Tim's Oscar fantasy. So I'm just curious what you think about this, because this it wasn't like funny, it just made me feel weird.
SPEAKER_01It it reminded me of like because in the fantasy, he's just like up on stage yelling at everyone, basically, and for like five minutes, it felt like an eternity.
SPEAKER_02And he he starts criticizing movie critics, yeah, which is obstensively his job at this point. Well, yeah.
SPEAKER_01But he's he's criticizing because they're not uh they're not appreciating the right movies, and they're yeah.
SPEAKER_02Then at one point he says you don't have to listen to Obamacare.
SPEAKER_01It reminded me of like Adolf Hitler yelling at people for you know five minutes straight or whatever. Like it was just just this guy just up on stage just yelling.
SPEAKER_02But this is supposed to be his pre-scripted fantasy.
SPEAKER_01Yes, yeah.
SPEAKER_02So we're we're starting to see a bit of Tim's psyche here.
SPEAKER_01Or like the the uh kind of reference to that with uh like Pink Floyd's The Wall, you know, that one guy, the authoritarian guy yelling and putting everyone up against the wall, that scene. Have you ever watched the nostalgia critics The Wall? I've seen a lot of clips. I've seen someone break down it, but I haven't like come on, I'm not I I don't I guess I I haven't it's oh you gotta watch it. I have to just sit down and watch it straight.
SPEAKER_02I mean it's terrible, but that but I I'm bringing it up because that particular scene is just so god.
SPEAKER_01It looks horrifically bad. Yeah. Alright, I'll do it. I'll do it. We gotta record a podcast.
SPEAKER_02Yo, Doug Walker, if you're listening, you should come on the bot.
SPEAKER_01I'm sure he's a nice guy. I don't know, though. I heard some bad things.
SPEAKER_02I've read a lot of things about how he pretends to be a nice guy, but he's actually kind of a huge asshole. So after this, we get them getting Mark to do other impressions that aren't WC Fields. Which he's got to charge for, you know. Which he has to charge for. Uh you can see Tim breaking when they ask Jim they when they ask him to do Jim Carrey, and he does Jim Carrey as W C Fields.
SPEAKER_00Hell yeah. Um smoking. Smoker.
SPEAKER_02I don't think that's what WC Fields sounds like, though. I don't know. I've actually never looked it up. In this whole segment, there was another line I wrote down that I thought was pretty funny was when Tim mispronounces Jared Leto as Jared Lego, and then he says, I'd like to see him in the Lego movie, and then he just can't stop laughing. There's some some giggles. So yeah, Greg is getting more and more frustrated with Tim, and Tim says something to the degree of there's nothing better than Broken Promises, which is the name of a book I'm writing, Broken Promises.
SPEAKER_01Greg is getting frustrated with Tim.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, Tim is getting increasingly more drunk, and after a while, like Greg is starting to look kind of nervous.
SPEAKER_01Well, so is that particularly I mean everyone on set it seemed basically, but particularly the Lady Hobbit, because she was like all smiley at the beginning, and then like when Tim starts uh yelling, she looked uncomfortable and sad to the point that it made me like every time they where they would cut to the whatever the hell that offstage area, like the green room, quote unquote. It it like hurt my soul to see because it's like I know that it's uh I know that it's all fake, but like her playing the character, it's like if you're like a woman and there's like a 200-pound man yelling and and belligerent, it's like, well, you're in like danger if you don't get out of there.
SPEAKER_02Well, yeah, because the last Oscar special, Tim was fucked up, but he he wasn't really being aggressive or anything. Like he's he's being aggr and I think this is the first time we've seen him this aggressive, yeah. Like towards everybody. Because in the past it's been in like really short bursts and mostly concentrated towards Greg, but he's he's doing it to everybody. Yep. So you you don't know what's gonna set him off.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, he's uh he's a powder keg and and the uh the issue with that too is like thinking about those uh those hobbit people I'm sorry thinking about those hobbit people like I feel real bad for them because they're like kind of stuck there and they're like I can just the their internal monologue is like well if I get up and try to leave then he's gonna lash out at us so we kind of have to just like sit through this and hope that he doesn't uh take out his anger on us is sort of and that's what really made me genuinely feel pain in my soul.
SPEAKER_02I'll get more into this at the end but I feel like this one feels a little too real sometimes in terms of like everything just falling apart because I feel like it kind of actually was while they they were doing the production. I can't say for certain but this was the first one they did with this kind of budget so I feel like they were probably working stuff out. I don't know if you noticed every time they would like throw up a flash car to someone's name it would be wrong and I thought they were doing that on purpose but then I realized it was kind of like off there was like an off couple of seconds of delay and it was always the person they had on camera before and I don't think that was intentional.
SPEAKER_01I was wondering about that yeah especially I don't know if we want to get into it yet but the uh remembering previous Oscar recipients who had died all the names were all jumbled up and like they're that one I think was intentional.
SPEAKER_02Because that must that that would have been pre-recorded. Okay. But yeah so going on we get we get another Decker clip. What what'd you think uh what what'd you think of our second look at Decker?
SPEAKER_01I mean I'm I'm always I'm always down for Decker. Decker's my favorite part of the show so far still uh I love Decker. I want to see the full movie. I mean he's got two scenes done so won't be long now.
SPEAKER_02I think this rendition of Decker is funny but I think future Decker is funnier because it's more incompetent than what we see here and it's a little less like because like it is funny because Tim is like yeah I was torturing a 12 year old I had to shoot him right in the mouth which I thought was really funny but it's like it's not quite that on the nose yeah going forward.
SPEAKER_01Yeah that was that was quite over the top which he's like bragging about torturing a 12 year old it's like yeah I'm like yeah that's badass man his little twirl at the end that was my favorite part.
SPEAKER_02My favorite part was when he said I need your files on all your secret surgeon agents.
SPEAKER_01Secret surgeon agents and that was the cut they used speaking of of keeping great cuts in someone's production I feel like the pr the anyone involved in the production doesn't does not respect Greg whenever Greg's doing his own segment and then on top of that Greg doesn't give enough of a shit to so that's the perfect storm of like why every time Greg does something the production's like bad and messed up so then we got uh stump the host which is uh interesting Tim was doing pretty well yeah Tim was doing pretty well I mean he was even beating the the uh quiz itself yeah Lon Cheney Jr.
SPEAKER_02wasn't son of Dracula he was not the original Dracula um but Greg was right about pretty woman I looked that up that it only was nominated nominated for one Oscar. Really? Yeah okay I don't know yeah so going to the Sally Kellerman segment what did you think about this? Because I could not tell if she was on in on the joke or anything because like Joe Estevez and Jonnaprea are are very clearly uh understand what's going on. Yeah I feel like Sally Kellerman like it didn't understand what was going on at all.
SPEAKER_01Yeah I don't know I regardless she was a very good sport she's taking it all in stride. But yeah I mean I wasn't sure if if Joeste and Jonatha knew about it until a few episodes you know until they had appeared like a second time. So I don't know does uh does Sally Kellerman show up as uh next they they I I I don't even think they ever mention her again. So she might not have very well have been not been aware. To be honest, if I showed up like me myself you know king of media literacy if if I showed up on that show I don't know if I would be in on the joke either. Yeah. Like even if they explained to me what was going on if I show up to a production and it's actively falling apart even though they tell me it's going to if it falls apart to a certain degree and someone's yelling and like pissed off I'm this was a pre-Eric Andre world too. Yeah yeah yeah well he I think he had been around but he haven't he was not popular.
SPEAKER_02Maybe that this was the first season of the first season. It is funny I was watching an interview with him recently and he said the reason they were able to get away with so much of like surprising people so much was that so many actors will go on podcast circuits and they'll get no briefing about what show they're going on.
SPEAKER_01What? Who's that just seems like such a terrible idea.
SPEAKER_02But apparently it's like commonplace he he he basically said that it was like yeah we we will basically give them no information about it and they'll still just come on because that I guess that's the game nowadays you just go on to Bill Marr probably lures all his victims these days. Into what what's the name of his club whatever Club Random Club random he used to have a television program.
SPEAKER_01Now he now he's in a basement is the Bill Maher show not on anymore?
SPEAKER_02I don't think it is no yeah I mean I don't know who was watching that I don't know who that show was for at this point. Yeah I mean I mean who who are Bill Maher fans at this point? Like I know his fan base was mostly like annoying Gen Xers but I feel like he he I I think that's he's aggravating to every demographic of person. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01That's bizarre I I I'm guessing it's the you know whoever's still like kind of lingering on the hardest core I mean you know people people say like okay boomer or they'll call people boomers and I think most of the time at least at this point that's in regards to people that are Gen X most of the time because I think boomers are really old now right yeah yeah so yeah he's just like a Gen X boomer and so I think the only people probably that are like actual fans are probably they're not on YouTube.
SPEAKER_02Maybe I don't know. Look at uh look at Tim he's watching Alex Jones I thought the segment with Sally Kellerman just went on way too long and I felt like this might be mean to say but I felt like they they could have kind of messed with her a little bit more. Because like they weren't really like doing anything to trip her up or anything and they were just having kind of a normal conversation.
SPEAKER_01I mean there are a few there are a few jabs here like when they when they were talking about her and I forget who else it was but that were nominated for the Oscar and then the other lady won they're like oh and then Tim saying that he's glad that she's dead now.
SPEAKER_02There is that bit where Tim was like confused about whether or not she went to the Oscars with her ex-husband or not. So Sally Kellerman leaves there's some long awkward segments and then it cuts to Tim is he's eaten the Chinese food really like the clip where he's eating it and then he says there's something off about this and starts spitting it out.
SPEAKER_01So Greg's Oscar premonition clip uh it's interesting that Greg predicted that he would be at the actual Oscars.
SPEAKER_02And he hugs Peter Jackson hug Peter Jackson because of course him and Peter Jackson they're such good such good friends and colleagues it it also made me feel weird but in a different way than Tim's Oscar fantasy.
SPEAKER_01It's interesting that they're both so out of touch with reality that they both created their own monuments to how out of touch with reality they really are.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So after this, I mean everything's just kind of falling apart. Tim is just straight up his pants are down he's pissing on the floor yeah he's back at the control room with the touch screen TV he walks into the glass door and says just cancel the show and then it cuts back and Tim is just throwing Chinese food at Mark. Greg is hiding in the background from Tim Tim's getting increasingly more out of control. I did really enjoy Mark's actual WC routine at the end when he's like trying to do oh yeah like with the cane. Yeah it's not good but it was it was it was funny it was a nice reprieve from the chaos that's going on it was lighthearted entertainment. So they've been building up into into Oscar finale which I will say this is going to be a great tradition of the Oscar specials is that Greg always has a really terrible finale at the end.
SPEAKER_01Terrible?
SPEAKER_02Yeah come on he'd set up a whole demo dominoes uh of VHS tapes who else could do that well he needed 20 p a team of 20 people to do that apparently I've watched this one a couple of times I actually re-watched this one last year and I really don't get what Tim is doing right before Greg's finale where he's going into that weird Southern accent and he's going thank god for gumbo for being so delicious like yeah I don't know it really seems like they're improvising a lot of stuff here and some of it's kind of not landing super well at least for me. Yeah that kind of took me out of the reality of it because I'm just like why like that's not in reference to anything. No it's not a reference to anything.
SPEAKER_01This is very tenuous but I assumed that he was trying to I know this is very tenuous make fun of Greg oh this is how cartoonishly dumb I think you and your observations are that's all I could really even you know I'm truly trying to give Tim the benefit of the doubt here.
SPEAKER_02Tim the real life comedian yeah yeah I'll I'll go into more thoughts about what I think is going on with that at the end. But yeah so we get Greg's finale he said he's been working on it for a long time um it took a team of 20 people to set it up and he claims he used 500 tapes to set this domino thing up there's maybe 50 tapes. Yeah that's I mean there might have even been upwards of uh not a hundred but somewhere between 50 and 100 maybe yeah and anyway it's just uh one of those domino things that spells Oscar incorrectly with an E. And I love that Tim says if you spelt it correctly all the tapes would have fallen down. Yeah and the the show just kind of fades out um and then there's a little video montage at the end which I think is the first video montage we get from Vic Berger but oh that's Vic Berger.
SPEAKER_01Yeah heck yeah I felt really good when I saw the Hobbit people leaving because it meant that they were gonna be probably safe after that that they were not in danger of physical injury from Tim. Yeah and that's when I could like relax.
SPEAKER_02But yeah it does just kind of peter out I have some final concluding thoughts but if there's any other notes you want to go over before that.
SPEAKER_01The hard cut to Sally Kellerman silently staring at the TV back to camera and Charlie Chaplin quote unquote texting another another fantastic shot another framable piece of art and then during the Oscar Oscar recipients who had dived remembrance slideshow the fade from Steve Harvey with hair to him without hair looking literally exactly the same was pretty hilarious.
SPEAKER_02That wasn't Vic Berger though was it or was it no I think that's the producers Vic Vic Berger does all like he'll do I think that this is the first one we saw but he does these pre-recorded kind of mashup videos.
SPEAKER_01Okay cool.
SPEAKER_02Which is the one they showed at the end. Anyway so my final thoughts on this like I said at the top I I really do think this is probably one of the weakest pieces in the on cinema catalog and I don't want to shit on it too much because ultimately I think it's because this was the first time they were doing anything at this scale and they were figuring a lot of stuff out but ultimately like I felt like I felt really unfocused um there was some really strong moments but it really lost a lot of steam.
SPEAKER_01I was wondering what the point was like there's always because with the first Oscar special there's a very clear point to it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah they have like a narrative I feel like set up and I was gonna say I I like the the first Oscar special a lot more even though it's you know smaller scale but ultimately I mean it was a smaller production so it's easier to keep it more focused and it also kind of feels like more of a piece of outsider art which makes it a little bit more in interesting. But yeah like I said this one starts really strong. I felt like they had things kind of pretty blocked out but then after around the 50 minute mark it really dips in energy and I just think there's just way too many scenes that are meandering and it's mostly Tim just kind of being drunk and ranting at people that go on way too long. Like I think if they shaved like maybe half an hour 40 minutes off of this it would have worked a bit better. I will say tonally something that's interesting about this so all of the Oscar specials they always kind of simulate this feeling of the production kind of falling apart. Yes and it actually like feels like the production was like falling apart in this one a little bit. Yeah and I feel like that kind of contributed to the the sense of awkwardness to it which you know it's interesting but I I I don't think it really works. And yeah going forward e even the weaker Oscar specials because they they have some really big highs with the Oscar specials they're not all made equally but I think all of them going forward are a lot better than this one but they just have so much more momentum to them and it feels like they know like where it's going and they've decided beforehand you know these are the the points we're gonna hit really strong where this one it just doesn't feel that way. It even felt that way more so in the first one than the first one you mean no I mean I felt like they had a better idea of like absolutely where it was going in the first one than this one where this one seemed really off the cuff.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. You can blame production problems all you want which obviously contributes but like I don't know I just watched this film Killer Bean I don't know if you're familiar with it Killer Bean? Killer Bean. Killer Bean Forever okay buddy speaking of Goliath loves that movie.
SPEAKER_02Yeah Goliath I thought Killer Bean was a video game.
SPEAKER_01Oh I mean they just released the video game oh it's based on a movie it's based on a movie interesting that movie is literally made by like one person and it doesn't it doesn't have you know I mean there's no budget. The production values non-existent basically but you know it's a well written tongue-in-cheek movie and so it works. And it's like if they would have really ironed out you know what the narrative was going to be for this Oscar special despite all the production issues it would have worked a lot better.
SPEAKER_02Yeah and I think I think maybe in the first one w we're maybe assuming they blocked a lot of a lot of it out, but maybe they didn't but it's easier to improvise just two people sitting in chairs and then edit that into something concise. Where when you have a full production with like multiple cameras and shots and things going on that's gonna be like if you're just straight up improvising that entire thing it's gonna be way harder to edit that into something coherent.
SPEAKER_01Yeah agreed yeah it is I I didn't even think about it the first time I'm like uh watching it yeah they have what Tim Greg Two Hobbits Mark and then whoever's off screen so that's oh Joe John and Sally so they have nine people bare minimum on this production so and they have like lighting rigs and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah um lots of stuff yeah so much more complicated but that being said um pretty much every other Oscar special going forward I think is a lot stronger than this one I think they just only go up in quality from here and then they hit some really strong points and it kind of goes up and down but they they stay really strong. But yeah I think that's all I got for it. Do you have anything else to add?
SPEAKER_01You know WC Field's gut was uh incredibly rectangular.
SPEAKER_02Yeah it looks like he just has like a ream of paper underneath his shirt. Oh another thing I wanted to bring up was Greg just keeping keep bringing up uh Tim's drinking and he's he says to Mark he's like so uh did WC Field's drinking contribute to his death and Mark was like oh yeah he definitely died from uh cirrhosis of the liver I like that Mark was being like the uh he was like being like the fact checker for a lot of like they're like asking him questions because you did impressions as this person so you must know.
SPEAKER_01I mean there's a lot of little things that are very funny but yeah overall not the strongest uh narratively yeah I felt like it was like a retread of the first Oscar special but just like with higher production values in a way yeah I I think that's fair.
SPEAKER_02Well next week we're gonna get into season five I'm excited about it. I think that's kind of when the show I feel like I say this every time you say this every time it it really starts like the next couple of seasons like it's just it's just gonna keep building and building and building but we're also gonna talk about the first season of Decker.
SPEAKER_01Yes alongside sorry listeners I love Decker.
SPEAKER_02I I forget that you had watched Decker but you had not watched on cinema I hadn't watched Decker but I had seen clips of it's not gonna be the adult swim version of Decker if that's what you're expecting. It's gonna be the I don't know what that means so okay just to explain there's there's two there no there's actually three seasons of Decker that exist ex like specifically in the on cinema universe and then Adult Swim commissioned like a separate Decker show which they actually don't reference super too often on the sh on on on cinema but a bunch of on cinema references bleed into the later decker seasons. Oh okay um which is pretty fun but yeah so yeah we're gonna talk about season five and the first season of Decker also one of the Oscar recipients that they that died and was in that slideshow his last name was Decker too I I yeah I noticed that too and I was like oh I'm surprised they didn't make a joke about that.
SPEAKER_01They didn't make a joke about it.
SPEAKER_02They just had it and they let oncher uh cool well yeah uh thanks for listening guys we have an Instagram it's the other on cinema podcast on Instagram if you want to hop on there and tell us to keep it about the movies but until next time I'm bad at outros bye but but