Film: Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby aka: Talladega Nights
Shake and bake!
The story of a man who could only count to #1.
A 2006 comedy parodying the world of NASCAR, starring Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Sacha Baron Cohen among others, directed by Adam McKay. It is a Judd Apatow production, and considered by many to be the spiritual successor to Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy, which was also an Apatow production directed by McKay.Ricky Bobby (Ferrell) is a dull yet charismatic NASCAR superstar who lives by the motto of his missing father Reese Bobby (Gary Cole): "If you're not first, you're last." Helping him always secure the number one spot on the track is friend and fellow driver Cal Naughton, Jr. (Reilly). A few years after his initial rise to stardom, Bobby has a wealth of endorsements, is married to a babe named Carley (Leslie Bibb), and together they raise their two boys, Walker and Texas Ranger Bobby.However, the good life Bobby has made for himself is put in danger when French Formula One racer Jean Girard (Cohen) makes a jump to NASCAR. After a humiliating loss puts Girard at the top of the NASCAR world, Bobby loses everything: his reputation, his endorsements, and even his wife (to Cal!). However, with the unorthodox training methods of Reese, and the support of his mother Lucy (Jane Lynch) and his assistant-turned-lover Susan (Amy Adams), Ricky motivates himself to return to the NASCAR scene in order to restore his reputation.
Anachronism Stew: At the final Talladega race, when the pace car pulls off on the last restart, Ricky Bobby's and Jean Girard's cars are side-by-side, a la a double-file restart. However, when the movie was filmed, this would not be how they would line up for a restart: in 2005, double-file restarts (or "Shootout-style restarts" as they were also called) were only used in the non-points Sprint Cup races - the Sprint Unlimited at Daytona and the All-Star Race at Charlotte. In points-paying races, the field lined up for restarts with two lines of cars - lead lap cars on the outside line, and lap-down cars on the inside line; on restarts with less than ten laps to go, all of the cars restarted single file whether or not on the lead lap. Double-file restarts were only implemented in points races starting at the 2009 Pocono 500.
In a reverse case, we see Ricky Bobby and Cal Naughton Jr. communicating with each other over their radios. After the Car of Tomorrow came out, it was possible to see a "two car tandem" where two cars would hook up nose-to-tail at restrictor plate tracks and be able to go much faster than the pack, which led to somewhat more competitive racing at Talladega and to a lesser extent at Daytona. In 2012, NASCAR took away the ability for drivers to directly communicate with each other in an effort to restore regular pack racing to plate tracks.
Anti-Villain: Jean Girard. He’s more reasonable and honorable than most of the protagonists.
As Himself: Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is seen near the beginning asking Ricky for his autograph to drive home how popular Ricky is at the start of the movie. Which causes some Fridge Logic, given the amount of popularity Junior's had since 2003.
As well as fellow driver Jamie McMurray, who learns the hard way what Ricky Bobby picked up on sale at Target (the bird).
McMurray later would use Ricky's Dennit car number, #26, at Roush Fenway Racing from 2006 to the end of 2009. The number today is unused, but was most recently used in a one-time entry by Michael Waltrip at the 2013 Daytona 500. McMurray's sponsor in the movie, Target, now sponsors the #42 of his teammate Juan Pablo Montoya.
Cal Naughton, Jr.'s number, #47, is currently the number used on the JTG Daugherty Racing Toyota driven by Bobby Labonte.
FOX commentator Mike Joy, and color analysts Larry McReynolds and Darrell Waltrip appear during the race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
NBC team Bill Weber, Wally Dallenbach, and Benny Parsons (died 2007) are the commentators at Ricky's comeback race at Talladega. Their presence establishes that the race is the 2005 UAW-Ford 500, of which some of the racing footage was comprised from.
Jean Girard introduces Ricky Bobby to Elvis Costello and Mos Def.
As You Know: Reese and Ricky review the origins of stock car racing.
Bratty Half-Pints: Ricky's sons stop acting like "retarded gang-bangers" after Ricky's mother gets after them, though at the beginning you'll probably be surprised that their parents don't punish them for mouthing off to other family members. Especially once Cal incites them.
Cluster F-Bomb: Done by a random black guy on a bus to Ricky, who really regrets opening his mouth to the guy
Danger Takes a Backseat: Done intentionally by Reese with the cougar in the back seat of his car.
Dark Horse Victory: Both Ricky and Girard are disqualified for having gotten out of their cars, so the trophy goes to Cal, who was in third place when the big crash took out everyone on the grid except for Ricky and Girard.
Defeat Means Respect: Girard is seeking out someone good enough to defeat him. He embraces Ricky Bobby at the end.
Defictionalization/Hilarious in Hindsight: Kurt Busch raced Ricky's "ME" car in the 2012 Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway, which is on display at Charlotte Motor speedway. Busch's Hair-Trigger Temper and release from Roger Penske Racing at the end of the 2011 season is almost like Ricky Bobby's departure from the Dennitt Racing powerhouse.
Dramatic Drop: A bar patron dropped his beer the second that Jean Girard introduced everyone to his husband.
Dueling Movies (or a really funny double feature): With Pixar's Cars, which also features a cocky race car "driver" who's brought down a few notches by a long-lost master in pursuit of a green-colored rival (the only difference being that Girard is probably a lot better behaved than Chick Hicks).
Fair Weather Mentor: Inverted. Ricky's father refuses to stay around when things are going well, and usually ends up intentionally screwing it up.
Reese: Well, it looks like everything is just about perfect now. Making me a little...twitchy.
Fanservice: Carley Bobby. She even takes her shirt off to flash Ricky!
Flexible Tourney Rules: Averted. Girard and Ricky are disqualified for getting out of their cars.
Note that in real life, if the drivers did not make it back to the finish line, scoring loops and television replays would be used to determine the order of finish. In the 2009 Aaron's 499 at Talladega, after Carl Edwards was turned into the catch fencing by race winner Brad Keselowski, his car came to a rest in the middle of the track 100 feet from the finish line, and Edwards jogged the last distance to the finish line. He was not penalized for climbing out of his car, but as the car had not crossed the finish line to be scored as completing the final lap, Edwards was scored as the first driver one lap down.
High Concept: Was literally pitched by McKay and company by simply writing on a chalkboard: "Will Ferrell as a NASCAR driver."
Hilarious Outtakes: A number of them during the credits, most of which consist of the actors going above and beyond many of the already funny scenes to purposefully corpse their fellow actors.
One example is that the outtakes show some of Cal and Ricky's commercials that were ultimately cut from the film - like an advertisement for funeral homes or a public message about packs of stray dogs.
Implausible Deniability: Ricky thinks he's unable to walk. Earlier in the movie before the knife scene he gets out of the wheelchair he's in to block a basketball.
Lady Drunk: Mrs. Dennit. This causes some pretty embarrassing situations for her husband.
Mood Killer: After a stirring speech about Ricky driving for his own sake, Glenn completely ruins the moment by making an extremely nerdy metaphor about Ricky's car being his Excalibur.
Overused Running Gag: Ricky running around in just his underwear and helmet thinking that he is on fire gets old after it only comes on twice.
Precision F-Strike: From the well-mannered Girard. "By the way, Ricky, I saw the Highlander movie! It was shit!" Or Girard's earlier line, "Hakuna Matata, bitches!"
Taken to the extreme when the simultaneous crash involving Bobby and Girard is interrupted by a commercial for Applebee's. This, however, is supposed to be an in-joke referring to the excessiveness of NBC's commercial breaks at the time.
Perhaps even more extreme when Ricky thanks baby Jesus for certain products during dinner blessing due to contractual obligations.
Lampshaded:
Mike Joy: Ricky Bobby, who never met a sponsor he wouldn't push, has a huge Fig Newtons sticker on his windshield! Darrell Waltrip: I think NASCAR'll black-flag him for that! Mike Joy: He sold the windshield! Ricky Bobby: This sticker is dangerous and inconvenient, but I do love Fig Newtons.
Quote Mine: Parodied; see this page's image, above. If you can't make it out, it says "Best movie ever made." —Ricky Bobby. This is a line Ricky says in the movie itself, and he's actually talking about Highlander.
Reality Is Unrealistic: When the Big One hits during the final race, as the result of Cal Naughton, Jr.'s teammate hooking Naughton into the wall for helping Ricky Boby overtake Jean Girard, every single car in the pack piles in and only two cars (Ricky and Girard) are left running and on the lead lap. In the Sprint Cup Series, there have been Talladega races where a big crash occurred and there were still a lot of cars that finished on the lead lap. However, big crashes that reduced the number of cars in contention significantly have happened in the Cup and Busch races at Talladega:
In 2002, for example, in the Busch race, a 30 car crash occurred on lap 15. Three cars finished on the lead lap.
In the Aaron's 499 Winston Cup event of the same weekend, 20 cars finished on the lead lap after a 24 car wreck happened on lap 164.
In 2005, in the spring Cup race, 13 cars finished on the lead lap as a result of a 25 car crash around lap 133 and a six car crash on lap 186.
Second Place Is For Losers: "If you ain't first, you're last." Ricky Bobby bases his entire life on this one phrase his father told him, and earnestly believes it to the point that he can't deal with the idea of someone being better than him. He has a nervous breakdown when he wrecks in his first race against Jean Girard and needs training just to know how to go fast again.
Subverted later on in the movie when Ricky's Dad says "I was HIGH when I said that! That doesn't make any sense at all. You can be second, third, fourth... hell, you can even be fifth."
Seinfeldian Conversation: One breaks out every single time someone tries to say grace. "I like to think of Jesus as a mischievous badger."
Shout Out: The plot very loosely imitates the 1990 Tom Cruise racing movie Days of Thunder. Ricky Bobby is like Cole Trickle; Jean Girard is a combination of Rowdy Burns and Russ Wheeler, etc. By coincidence, John C. Reilly appears in both movies (as Cole's car chief in Days of Thunder, here as Cal Naughton, Jr.).
Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: Amy Adams was left out of all advertising in favor of Leslie Bibb for some odd reason (especially since Adams actually has something to do with the plot).
Probably because her career up until that point mostly consisted of secondary roles. Enchanted, which would make her a star, didn't come out for almost another year.
However, the trope could be subverted: Leslie Bibb is far from a star herself. They very easily could have focused on the likeable Love Interest instead or used both beautiful women. The real reason is probably that Amy Adams is considered more classically beautiful while Leslie Bibb is more sexy/hot and more appropriate for NASCAR based advertising.
The answer you're looking for is screen time: Bibb's character is prominent through the first two-thirds of the film, while Adams' character doesn't impact the story until the last half hour.
Adams did have a memorable line in the commercials and in the movie: "Ricky Bobby is not a thinker! Ricky Bobby is a driver!"
Spoiled Brat: Walker and Texas Ranger, until Granny whips them into shape.
Throwing Off The Disability: Ricky Bobby thought that he had become paralyzed despite the doctors telling him that he's fine and that his mind is making him think he's paralyzed. It took a knife to the leg to make him realize he's okay. The broken arm is another example of this. For the record, after making Girard break his arm, Ricky would not in real life be able to get behind the wheel of his racecar so quickly - he'd have to be medically cleared to race by NASCAR.
Training from Hell: Ricky's dad, Reese, helped Ricky Bobby regain his confidence by making him drive with a full grown cougar in the back of the car. And making him drive while blindfolded. And making him go on a police chase.
Reese: You've got to drive with the fear.
Ricky: THERE'S A COUGAR IN THE CAR!
Reese: Yeah. That's the fear.
What an Idiot: In-Universe, this is NBC commentator Bill Weber's reaction to John Hannafin's interviews of "celebrities" in the grandstands:
Bill Weber: Now let's go to John Hannafin, who's in the stands with a country music legend.
[Cuts to Hannafin in the stands]
John Hannafin: Thank you, Sean. I'm here with one of the greatest country music stars of all-time, Kenny Rogers. Kenny, what do you think of the race so far?
Kenny Rogers:[who, as you probably can see, is obviously not Kenny Rogers] It's great. They're going really fast.
Bill Weber: John, that's not Kenny Rogers.
John Hannafin:[not hearing Weber] In the song "The Gambler", you sang "You gotta know when to walk away and know when to run." Should Ricky Bobby have stayed away from racing?
"Kenny Rogers": Mr. Bobby's very competitive. If he wants to race, he should race.
John Hannafin: Well, this is John Hannafin with Kenny Rogers. And now back to you, Bill.
Bill Weber: Well, that, of course, was not Kenny Rogers.
Benny Parsons: Not even close!
And later, Hannafin is shown interviewing a black man he mistakes for NBA legend Larry Byrd - who was white:
Bill Weber: Come on, John! Pay attention!
Benny Parsons: I'm honestly concerned he might have had a stroke.
Worthy Opponent: Jean Girard is looking for one and believes he’s found one in Ricky Bobby.
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