After Adam McKay and Will Ferrell’s Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundyproved they werea force of film comedy to be reckoned with, there was a lot riding on their follow-up. Fortunately, their NASCAR-centered absurdist gem Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby turned out to be just as fresh, just as inspired, and just as hilarious as its predecessor— maybe even more so.
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The film is essentially a feature-length political cartoon about an arrogant American NASCAR driver who is tested by a more skilled French Formula One driver. Here are the 10 funniest scenes in Talladega Nights.
Saying Grace
Before settling down to a bountiful mealconsisting of KFC, Coca-Cola, and Domino’s Pizza, Ricky decides to say grace. Cal and the family all bow their heads in prayer as Ricky describes Jesus as a baby.
Carley and her father protest this, telling Ricky to pray to the adult Jesus, but Ricky says that the baby version is his favorite. Cal explains that he thinks of Jesus as wearing a tuxedo t-shirt, “because it says, ‘I want to be formal, but I’m here to party.’”
“Help Me, Tom Cruise!”
Ricky Bobby appears to have taken Tom Cruise’s links to the Church of Scientology as a sign that the actor himself is an actual deity. When he crashes his car and runs around the track attempting to put out an imaginary fire, Ricky cries out for the help of gods from various religions, among them Tom Cruise.
Ricky Drives Blindfolded Into Somebody’s House
When Ricky’s dad comes back into his life and tries to teach him how to drive again, he blindfolds him and tells him to drive down a street. The idea is that the car will tell him where to go.
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However,Ricky starts driving and quickly swerves off the side of the road and crashes into somebody’s house. He's pretty embarrassed, because he really thought he was feeling something through the car.
“If You Don’t Chew Big Red, Then F*** You.”
Early in Talladega Nights, we see Ricky and Cal recording a series of ads for their corporate sponsors. None of these ads are subtle in their message to consumers, but one of them is shockinglybrash and on-the-nose. Thatad sees Ricky holding up a pack of Big Red and saying, “If you don’t chew Big Red, then f*ck you.”
Glenn’s Fake Death
David Koechner, Ian Roberts, and Jack McBrayer all provide strong support alongside Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, and Michael Clarke Duncan as members of Ricky’s pit crew. At the end, the crew pretends that Glenn died in order to motivate Ricky to win, but he spots Glenninconspicuouslywatching from afar and figures out the ruse.
Walker And Texas Ranger Insult Their Grandfather
When the Bobby family sits down for dinner, Ricky and Carley’s sons Walker and Texas Ranger lay into their poor grandfather, Chip. They threaten to come at him like a spider monkey, scissor-kick him in the back of the head, and go ape-sh*t on his ass.
Ricky asks the boys what they got up to throughout the day and Walker says he “threw a bunch of Grandpa Chip’s war medals off the bridge.”
Ricky And Girard Run To The Finish Line
In the climactic race of Talladega Nights, when Ricky and Girard’s cars are both totaled spectacularly, they both get out of their cars and run to the finish line. The announcers are quick to point out that, inspiring though it is, it definitely won’t count.
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The racecar drivers run to the finish line and dive for it. Pat Benatar’s “We Belong” sets the tone perfectly for the scene as Ricky finally beats Girard. Ricky refuses to shake his hand, but does give him a passionate kiss.
“I’m Not Sure What To Do With My Hands.”
Ricky Bobby goes on to become a self-assured public speaker, winning races, cashing checks, and endorsing products. But after winning his first race and being interviewed on TV, Ricky hasn’t honed his celebrity persona or developed his confidence yet. He simply tells the interviewer, “I’m not sure what to do with my hands.”
Carley Leaves Ricky For Cal
Carley leaves Ricky for his best friend when it becomes apparent that Ricky is no longer a champion and Dennit Racing drops him in favor of Cal. When Ricky comes home and finds that Carley and Cal are planning their own wedding and that Cal has pasted his own face over Ricky’s in the family portraits, he’s baffled.
Cal asks Ricky to be his best man, and is confused when Ricky turns down the offer. The hilarity of this scene is in Cal failing to understand why Ricky is mad at him.
Ricky Stabs Himself In The Leg
When Cal and Lucius go to the hospital to check on Ricky following his crash, they find that he’s confined himself to a wheelchair with psychosomatic paralysis. They sit down with Ricky and tell him that he’s not really disabled and he can walk. He insists that he is disabled, and in order to prove it, he grabs a knife and jams it into his leg.
Seconds later, he starts screaming (Will Ferrell’s timing in this moment is perfect) and— in a series of hysterical jump cuts— his friends try to jimmy the knife out of his leg with another knife.
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