Episode 155 - Airborne: LIVE!

[JulyDiaz 2797]

Scott Aukerman (Comedy Bang! Bang!), Kumail Nanjiani (Silicon Valley, Fist Fight), and Danielle Schneider (Bitch Sesh) join Paul for a HDTGM All-Stars episode to discuss the 1993 rollerblading movie Airborne. Recorded live from Largo at the Coronet in Los Angeles, they cover everything from Seth Green’s clothing montage to impressing bullies by showing them a butt. Plus, we get into Mitchell Goosen’s shark fever dream during Audience Q&A!

[NathanGordon 1096]

Nikki from Airborne (Britney Powell) and Mini-Me.

 

 

 

Good for him, she's lovely.

[Royboy 430]

I think this is the most all-star of all-star episodes. Amazing! Just a shame it had to be for this awful movie.

 

"Airborne" was one of those movies that would always somehow be on HBO in the middle of the afternoon when I was in high school. That and "Big Girls Don't Cry... They Get Even". Couldn't watch 'em then, can't watch 'em now.

[CommentsFromMyPocket 53]

I like Snake, so I don't want to do this, but he is lying. He plays hockey and does daredevil rollerblade races. He CLEARLY has hobbies.

 

Oh, Snake.

[taylor anne photo 11311]

SCOTT AND KUMAIL?!

 

IS IT CHRISTMAS?!

[Littlebee 16]

I genuinely had a hard time following this movie - this felt mind numbing in a very similar way to In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. There were no stakes, there was nothing that really could be considered a plot, they both had tons of way too fucking long montages of random things intercut: Ray Liotta and generic fight scenes or this bootleg Erik von Detton (who is already a bootleg Devon Sawa) and surfing or rollerblading. I fell asleep multiple times, I had to rent it twice.

 

I also don't know what it says about me but this kid was so damn obnoxious when he rollerbladed down those stairs (in one of the multiple stair sequences) and the camera paused for a really long time, I genuinely thought (hoped?) for a minute that he was about to be comically hit by a bus where a super noticeable dummy gets flung 50 feet.

[CommentsFromMyPocket 53]

Nikki from Airborne (Britney Powell) and Mini-Me.

 

 

 

Good for him, she's lovely.

 

 

Kumail's joy at this will get me through this weekend.

[ChunkStyle 1160]

There was one scene where the lack of adult intervention really bothered me. When there were back to back stand offs between teenage kids in the burger joint. That was going on for several minutes and causing a huge scene. The restaurant manager never felt like jumping in there and telling them all to get the hell out? If I was a patron there I'd definitely be going elsewhere for my PB&J burgers after that.

[Wil Dride 121]

So, is this movie Hotdog: The Movie, except they replace all the fun stuff with tedious nonsense? It's summer instead of winter, skating instead of skiing and devil's backbone instead of the Chinese downhill. And Hotdog would even be a better fit for the name Airborne because of all the aerial skiing.

 

Also, why does this movie have a 6.2 rating on imdb?!?

[SaraK 1980]

Nikki from Airborne (Britney Powell) and Mini-Me.

 

 

 

Good for him, she's lovely.

 

I want Paul to know, I appreciated the pause where he was just reading articles so I could also look up my own pictures and articles on this.

[FisterRoboto 7499]

Nikki from Airborne (Britney Powell) and Mini-Me.

 

 

 

Good for him, she's lovely.

So, I just looked up Brittney Powell on Wikipedia, and her page says:

 

 

Of course, my first thought was "More than seven? So...eight"and then I looked a bit further down and saw that she has actually been in 13 movies. That's almost double seven! And seven is such a weird, arbitrary number to use. Why wouldn't you say, "more than ten"?

SCOTT AND KUMAIL?!

 

IS IT CHRISTMAS?!

I know! I also really love Danielle Schneider, but the only thing that could possibly have made this already awesome episode even better would have been for Emily and Kumail to be on together.

 

ONE DAY!

[taylor anne photo 11311]

I know! I also really love Danielle Schneider, but the only thing that could possibly have made this already awesome episode even better would have been for Emily and Kumail to be on together.

 

ONE DAY!

I loved her too but I have to admit I was not as familiar with her before this episode (I barely remember the Gigli episode which is shameful)

 

I am in desperate need of a "double date" episode if Jason can't make it and it's just June, Paul, Emily, & Kumail!

[Lukas Holmes 2287]

I liked when Kumail got embarrassed and lashed out at the audience member who said 'Life is a Wave'.

[AdamKenter 7]

Ok, I live and grew up in Northern Kentucky and remember when this was being filmed. First hockey isn't big in Cincinnati. So any team wouldn't be a school sport. In fact hockey is such a none thing in Cincinnati that it's kind of odd it being a plot point. Second I love Edie McClurg but if Cincinnati has a accent it would be maybe southern. Maybe. 3 there is no Devil's Backbone the race was filmed in Cincinnati and by my house in Dayton KY. Also most of those areas aren't even connected. We see them at the old Riverfront Stadium, areas around Cincinnati then suddenly on Route 8 a very dangerous road, and places around my house in Dayton Ky. Then areas around Northern Kentucky.

 

The writer must have never visited Cincinnati and just picked it out of a hat.

 

 

[JoeDog 5]

I have to defend Cincinnati a little here. I did grow up in the area and live in the Greater Cincinnati now as an adult. I have to believe this movie was written to be shot in Minnesota or Wisconsin with love of hockey(Cincinnati is not a hockey town. It's a baseball and football town) and Edie McClurg and Patrick Thomas O'Brien's accents(People from Cincy have a pretty flat middle america accent, they don't talk like extras from Fargo). I have to believe there was a hell of a tax break going on in the area that led to the film being relocated there with a simple "find and replace" in the script editing software.

[Jack Frost 252]

"I don't want to riff on this." Might have been my favorite moment.

[Jack Frost 252]

It is said by all of the guests many times that this is basically four movies. And Rob Bowman is a noted TV director. Knowing that a half-hour episode of a TV show runs approximately twenty-two minutes without commercials, and that this movie runs just under 90 minutes, is it possible that this movie is actually four TV episodes?

[mikemac 49]

Another Cincinnatian weighing in...

 

1) There is a Devils Backbone road in the Greater Cincinnati area and its twisty as hell, but its nowhere near where they are in the movie.

 

2) This is actually the 2nd time Edie McClurg played a Cincinnatian, she was also Herb Tarlek's wife in multiple episodes of WKRP in Cincinnati.

 

3) Verne Troyer led the chicken dance at Cincinnati's Oktoberfest in 2002.

 

4) I think the general appreciation in Cincinnati for the movie is not because we ever thought it was good, but because several movies have shot in Cincinnati, but mostly they use Cincinnati for Old New York City (Lost in Yonkers for example) or its fairly incidental that they occur in Cincinnati (the beginning of Rain Man, Traffic, etc.). Airborne is one of the only ones where the fact that its taking place in Cincinnati is a real plot point.

 

5) The PB&J burger is specific to that place, its not a general Cincinnati thing. Cincinnati style chili would have been more appropriate.

[tomspanks 9039]

Paul and the group mentioned the Goosen family dog briefly. It got me to think about what happened to the dog. Mitchell got sent to Cincinnati, but what about Dog-dog? My preferred theory is that the parents only had enough grant support to bring one additional dependent, and they chose to bring their favorite son, the golden retriever, to Australia.

[FisterRoboto 7499]

Paul and the group mentioned the Goosen family dog briefly. It got me to think about what happened to the dog. Mitchell got sent to Cincinnati, but what about Dog-dog? My preferred theory is that the parents only had enough grant support to bring one additional dependent, and they chose to bring their favorite son, the golden retriever, to Australia.

As someone who loves dogs more than kids, I wholeheartedly embrace this interpretation.

[Elektra Boogaloo 3371]

They mentioned my movie!

[tomspanks 9039]

I'm sorry, I have a lot to say. I was so invested in this fine movie that I couldn't help taking notes.

1. In case anyone else was wondering, I think Augie's full name is Jose Augusto Rafael de la Para.

2. In speech class, when Mitchell is describing what stylin' is, he says it's like liquid Drano. Is there a non-liquid Drano? Seems redundant.

3. They must have cut out a scene where Jack and his girlfriend break up over her constantly trying to hit on Mitchell. Jack seems like the type of guy who wants a girl who will laugh for no one else.

4. At the first hockey game, when Mitchell and Nikki meet and Mitchell goes on and on and on about the ocean and California, there are seagull and wave sounds in the background. Who is hallucinating these ocean sounds? Mitchell or Nikki or both?

5. After Mitchell receives his rollerblades in the mail and runs into Nikki, she's holding a giant Mary Poppins-style umbrella. Not sure why she needed one? It wasn't raining. Anyway, in the next scene, at the botanical garden, Nikki isn't carrying the umbrella. However, when they leave, she's holding the umbrella again. Did she have to check in the umbrella before she could tour the botanical garden?

6. At the botanical garden, Mitchell says that he knows the binomial nomenclature of the plants because his parents are a pair of encyclopedias. WHAT? They taught him all the names and he just memorized them all? If his parents are encyclopedias, why do they need to study wombats in Australia? Shouldn't they have all the wombat knowledge already?

7. Why did Mitchell get lost during the race? Don't you think someone would've sat down with him to go over the course map together?

Whew, I think that's all for now.

[ahusk 10]

Paul talked about ICON Productions as if they only made "Airborne." ICON is Mel Gibson's production company since 1989, and most recently made "Hacksaw Ridge." Other movies they have made include: "Braveheart", ""The Passion of the Christ", "Apocalypto", and "Mr. Holmes."

[Protoman 117]

Mitchell Goosen is for sure cancelling his HBO subscription after listening to Kumail on this podcast

[Wil Dride 121]

2. In speech class, when Mitchell is describing what stylin' is, he says it's like liquid Drano. Is there a non-liquid Drano? Seems redundant.

 

The original is Crystal Drano, so, yes. Liquid Drano is specially called liquid Drano. There have also been aerosol and foamer variants.