From regular SNL short sketches to Super Bowl ad to feature film, MACGRUBER is the dumb aka authentically funny movie that flopped on arrival but quickly accumulated a cult following and increased recognition with home viewings, to where Peacock even produced a TV show to appease the fans. Which was, of course, underseen because they put it on fucking Peacock.1
Two of those fans are yours truly - having watched MacGruber when Netflix was still shipping phsyical DVDs to my mailbox - and Jon Stahl, writer of How Not to be a TV Writer:
Jon is joined us for a lengthy chat on what makes MACGRUBER function as a comedy, and why this style of comedy for comedy’s sake needs to make a comeback.
We also chat about Jon’s own writer-producer projects happening as I type, most notably Casen Pointe: True Crime Detective the webseries that just had it’s second episode drop last week!
Jon also has a 4-part micro-series hitting IG right now - UPSTAGE. Make sure to follow to see what he’s up to there.
MacGruber’s Origin Story
As for MACGRUBER, we cover the full genesis of the character and film, as reocrded in the Vanity Fair article “It’s So Dumb, and It Just Felt So Right”: An Oral History of MacGruber. You could pay for a subscription to read that, or just listen to our pod for free. We give you the highlights ;)
All Films and Shows Mentioned in this Episode
The Wines (and Kombucha)
Jon is living a mostly-sober lifestyle these days (boooo, jk, of course that’s healthy for anyone to jk BOOOOOO.)
As such, he chose a non-alcoholic beverage to pair with MacGruber, so not wine. But instead: Kombucha was a drink he didn’t like much at first (like most people when it comes to wine!) But the flavors slowly grew on him, until he loves the sour-tart, fruity herbal experience that most kombucha is. Just like MacGruber was a grower - “do I like this?” The character is actually pretty terrible. But then: “this is hysterical I love watching everything he does” (even though or maybe especially because he’s still terrible!)
Synergy Trilogy - raspberry, lemon, and ginger - is the perfect kick of all of the flavors listed above, to blend with that MacGrubery experience.
2022 Revelation Vineyards 100% Vidal Blanc
A Belgian mathematician and an Irish dentist walk into a bar…then walk out together, move to California together, fall in love with wine together, move to Virginia together, and buy a horse farm which they then turn into a vineyard together. Easy peasy. Like, where even is the story in that?
So short story short: they now make wine in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, including this Vidal Blanc, a hybrid grape that Virginia and most of the North East Coast loves (it makes an insane ice wine!)
Light, crisp, slightly honeyed in flavor profile, this is a refreshing, easy drinking white that you can sip with a comedy that demands little from you like MacGruber. The wine rewards attention - as does the movie - but neither demands it.
So the next time you’re f**king as hard as MacGruber and Vicki St. Elmo, or a Belgian mathematician and an Irish dentist, and the poor girl has to swat the beads of sweat dripping from your naked torso before they hit her in the face, make sure you have an open bottle - well chilled - of this refreshing Vidal Blanc from Virginia’s Revelation Vineyards. It’ll enhance the experience for you both, but won’t steal your attenion away. Or, sorry, sip it while watching MacGruber I forgot what I was writing about there for a moment.
Yes, Charles Fackam Hall2 Shaw. MacGruber is, naturally, a parody of MacGyver. The character is, essentially, the incompetent poor man’s version of that better man, so I thought: what kind of wine is usually highly regarded? And then what would the MacGrubery version of that be?
Four buck chuck Pinot, baby. Similar to Dallas’ pairing, this was relatively easy to drink and demanded zero attentiion. Surprisingly made with organic grapes, don’t ask me how. It’s riper and blacker than yoru typical Pinot, but still maintains certain expected Pinot characteristics, such as mild tannins, a certain acidity (though lower than in higher quality Pinots) and a distinct cola backnote that many American Pinots display.
Certainly, MacGruber would pair with a decent quality Pinot, too. So look for one $30 or over and you’ll be in safe territory. Dip under $30 and you’ll be enterting danger zone territory for most Pinots. Dip all the down to under $5 and somehow this is still drinkable. I don’t want to know how ripped off whichever vineyards got selling even this fruit this low, but what a very MAcGrubery thing to do. This CS Pinot is all thiings MacGruber in the shape of a fine wine.
Possibly the least subscribed-to streaming service on the planet. Let it go, NBC.
Fackam Hall was the back-up movie Jon was considering bringing to the pod. It’s a old-school screwball comedy, very British, very wacky, and don’t say the title fast in a British accent.
