Film / Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy

That's one stylish newscaster.

"He had a voice that could make a wolverine purr, and suits so fine they made Sinatra look like a hobo. In other words, Ron Burgundy was the balls."

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy is a very memetic 2004 DreamWorks SKG comedy produced by Judd Apatow. It was the first of many collaborations between director/co-writer Adam McKay and star/co-writer Will Ferrell.

It is the 1970s, the age of strange haircuts, polyester leisure suits, wide lapels, disco and swinging, macho bachelors. Ron Burgundy (Ferrell) is the demanding, egotistical top anchor of the #1 news program in San Diego, and respected throughout the city.

One day, due to a lack of diversity, Ron's boss (who is having problems with his son doing dangerous things) hires a new female co-anchor, Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate). Burgundy (like most males in the film) is sexist, and so it's near-hatred at first sight. It doesn't help that the gorgeous lady wants to be a serious newscaster, but is assigned stories about cat fashion shows.

What evolves is a Slap-Slap-Kiss situation. Burgundy falls for Veronica, and she for him, and they try to make things work even while the news is still happening.

Oh, and there is lots of '70s-style decadence, often with a dark side. Notably, the film is a rare example of a period comedy that completely and utterly averts Politically Correct History; not only does it acknowledge the casual sexism and homophobia of the 1970s, it's actually central to the plot—since it's ultimately all about a clueless buffoon who feels threatened by an ambitious female rival.

Among other things, the film is notable for being one of the more famous efforts by the Frat Pack, a loosely organized group of popular comedians who worked together in many of the more successful comedy films of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Will Ferrell was a defining member of the group, but Vince Vaughn (who plays Ron's rival) was also a major player, and supporting members Jack Black, Ben Stiller and Luke Wilson all appear in memorable cameos. Interestingly, it also helped jumpstart the film career of Judd Apatow, who would dominate Hollywood's comedy scene in the latter half of the decade; Apatow met Steve Carell (who plays Ron's idiotic coworker Brick) while producing this film, and invited him to play the leading role in his big directorial debut.

A straight-to-DVD sequel was made with various outtakes, unused plot concepts, and clips from the final movie called Wake Up, Ron Burgundy. The plot concerns a radical team of bank robbers being investigated by the Action 4 team. They refer to themselves as "The Alarm Clock", seeking to "wake up" San Diego.^note Though to what end is unclear... even to them. The companion movie was packaged with the original for its DVD release.

Eight years after its release, Ferrell showed up in character on Conan to play some jazz flute. He also announced they were finally making a sequel. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues. It was released on December 18, 2013, with the main cast returned to reprise their roles. Released alongside the film is the Expanded Universe book Let Me Off at the Top!!, a memoir "written by" Burgundy that further fleshes out the character and his world from his childhood up through The New '10s. It's exactly as bizarre as you think.

Since January 2019, Ferrell has portrayed the title character in The Ron Burgundy Podcast, currently streamed by the iHeartRadio Podcast Network. The show received an initial order of 24 episodes over two seasons, and is now (July 2022) in its fifth season.

A Kickstarter campaign for a party game, Anchorman: The Game was held in 2020.

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The following are based on actual tropes. Only the included names, locations and tropes have been changed:

• A Cappella: It has a hilarious moment of the guys singing an A capella "Afternoon Delight".
• Aerith and Bob: Downplayed. The members of The Alarm Clock: Kanshasha X, Mouse, Malcolm Y...and Paul.
• Affectionate Parody: Of the Action News format that was just starting to get big in the 1970s.
• Angrish: After Baxter is punted off a bridge, Ron is reduced to this after getting on the phone with Brian.
• Angry Mob: Following Ron's on-air Precision F-Strike. It gets to the point where he has to be escorted off the premises by a pair of security guards for his own safety.
• Anachronism Stew: Officially, the film is set in 1974.
  • Three of the songs featured in the film - "Afternoon Delight" by the Starland Vocal Band, "Carry On My Wayward Son" by Kansas and "Shannon" by Harry Gross - were released in 1976.
  • Many of the vehicles are of 1980s vintage, such as the news vans and the Chevrolet El Camino that one of the anchors is thrown into the windshield of during the alley brawl.
  • The aerial establishing shots of downtown San Diego prominently feature buildings such as Petco Park and One America Plaza, which weren't constructed until decades after the year in which the film is set.
• An Arm and a Leg: One of Frank Vitchard's arms is chopped off during the 'rumble', and the other is torn away by a bear.
• Anticlimax: When Ron is hired back onto the news team, he dramatically tries to summon the rest of the Channel 4 news team with a conch shell, only to realize afterwards that they were all about 15 feet away in the same bar as him playing pool.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Champ threatens to smash Wes Mantooth's face into a car windshield, then take Wes's mother out for a lovely seafood dinner and never call her again. Even Ron thinks this is going too far.
• The Artifact: When Veronica has to sub for Ron when he's held up, her top story is a bank robbery. This would've tied into the deleted Alarm Clock subplot that was later reused for Wake Up, Ron Burgundy!
  • Also, when the news team celebrates their ratings win at the beginning, a random woman is with them. Her footage also showed up in Wake Up, Ron Burgundy! and had delivered drinks to the news team before the newscast.
• Artistic License – Statistics: Played for Laughs. "60% of the time it works every time"
• Atomic F-Bomb: Never loudly call someone who had sabotaged you a bitch when there are bears nearby.
• Avengers Assemble: "News team... ASSEMBLE!" They've actually been standing behind him playing pool the whole time.
• Based on a Great Big Lie: The opening title card: "The following is based on actual events. Only the names, locations, and events have been changed."
• Badass Boast:
  • Ron to Veronica when they first meet:
    Ron: I don't know how to put this, but... I'm kind of a big deal. People know me. I'm very important. I own many leather-bound books, and my apartment smells of rich mahogany.
  • The meeting of the News Teams a la West Side Story is a treasure trove of this:
    Spanish Language Anchor: Como estan, bitches! Spanish Language News is here. Tonight's top story: The sewers run red...with Burgundy's blood!
  • Topped only by:
    Public News Anchor: NOT SO FAST, YOU INGRATES! Public News Team is taking a break from its pledge drive to kick some ass. NO COMMERCIALS, NO MERCYYYYYYYYYYY!
• Bears Are Bad News: They can smell menstruation.
• Beard of Sorrow: Ron grows one after he gets fired.
• Berserk Button:
  • Insulting Ron's hair.
  • Don't make fun of Wes's mother, she's a saint!
  • "Jazz flute is for little fairy boys..."
• Big Damn Heroes: Played with. Ron attempts this, utterly failing ("I immediately regret this decision!"), the rest of the news team does pretty well, but it's Baxter who saves the day.
• Big "NO!":
  • Ron, after the biker punts Baxter off the bridge. One of the deleted scenes on the DVD has this taken up to eleven.
  • After Ron gets fired, Veronica lets two or three out as Ron is dragged away.
• Big "SHUT UP!": The leader of a biker gang tells the others at the bar to "SHUT THE HELL UP" because Ron Burgundy is on TV.
• Bilingual Bonus:
  • "Oh, mi corazón es en fuego!" means "my heart is on fire."
  • The restaurant the women go to is "Escupimos en su Alimento" (Spanish for "we spit in your food").
• Black Comedy Pet Death: Subverted; it appears that Baxter has been kicked off a bridge early on, setting the film's irreverent and offbeat tone, and is presumed dead for the rest of the movie. He then returns in the climax to pull a Big Damn Heroes and speak with the bears.
• Blatant Lies: Ron is asked to come play some jazz flute; he acts reluctant and claims he's unprepared while pulling a flute out of his sleeve.
• Bloody Hilarious: Channel 2's news anchor losing both arms.
• Blow That Horn: Ron tries to summon the rest of his news team with a conch shell he's produced from somewhere, only to discover they've actually been hanging out twenty feet from him the whole time.
• Bookshelf of Authority: Parodied. Ron brags about how he owns "many leather-bound books", but it is obvious that he's a pompous idiot.
• Bottled Cool: Sex Panther by Odeon, which is illegal in nine countries. It's made with bits of real panther, so you know it's good. 60% of the time, it works every time. It also smells like pure gasoline, a used diaper filled with Indian food, a turd covered in burnt hair, and Bigfoot's dick (and in an outtake, the inside of a fake leg) — and has a tendency to set off the fire alarm. And it's so strong that the user has to be jet-hosed to expunge the stench.
• Braces of Orthodontic Overkill: Ron and Baxter are both shown sleeping with headgear on early in the film.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: The Channel 4 team members talk into the camera when introducing themselves.
• Brick Joke:
  • When we first see Baxter, Ron responds to some of his barking by telling him he doesn't understand Spanish and to say it in English. Later, when he and Veronica are in the throes of passion, she says something in Spanish—which leads Baxter to suddenly bark.
  • During the fight against the newscasters, one of the anchormen gets his arm chopped off, prompting him to say "I did not see that coming!" His other arm is ripped off by a bear later on in the film, which is met with a response of how ri-goddamn-diculous it is.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: The entire news team counts as this, but special mention goes to Brick. He is an extremely competent weatherman...but is completely out to lunch otherwise.
• Cain and Abel:
  • A deleted scene reveals that Ron himself and Wes Mantooth are half-brothers.
    Wes Mantooth: I hate you Ron Burgundy! I hate you.
  • Also hinted at in the actual movie when Ron calls him brother as he leaves the bear pit.
• The Cameo: When the news crews are setting up to report on the baby panda birth, the newscaster from LA seen reporting, Ted Nightingale, is actual LA news anchor Kent Shocknek.
• Cameo Cluster: The massive brawl between the various rival news station crews includes Vince Vaughn, Luke Wilson, Tim Robbins, and Ben Stiller all playing other news personalities.
• The Cassandra: Paul tells his followers that some of his demands are electric cars, the internet, and recycling. The rest of the group thinks he's crazy.
• Character Catchphrase: Lampshaded. Champ's signature catchphrase is "Whammy!"
• Chekhov's Gun: If it's on the teleprompter, Ron will read it. Even typos ("I'm Ron Burgundy?"). Anything and everything.
• Chew Bubblegum: This great quote by Veronica.
  Veronica Corningstone: Because I am good at three things: Fighting, screwing, and reading the news. I've already done two of those today, so what's the other one gonna be? Huh?
  Ed Harken: [hopefully] Screwing?
• Chewing the Scenery: "I'M IN A GLASS CASE OF EMOTION!!!"
• Cloudcuckoolander: Brick. He's not all there.
• Cluster F-Bomb: In the uncut version, following Ron's exile from Action 4.
• Comically Missing the Point:
  • Brick:
    Brick: I would like to extend to you an invitation to the pants party.
  • This little gem:
    Veronica: I'm good at three things: fighting, screwing, and reading the news. I've already done one of those today, so what's the other one gonna be? Huh?
    Ed: [hopefully] Uh...screwing?
  • Brian does not think that condoms are meant to stop him from getting women pregnant.
• Creator Cameo: Adam McKay as one of the guys who hoses the Sex Panther off of Brian. Judd Apatow appears as the guy who comments that Sex Panther smells like "a turd covered in burnt hair".
• The Cuckoolander Was Right: Brick's statement that women's periods attract bears sounds like another one of his bizarre comments, but it turns out to be important in the climax.
• Cue Card: This is a plot point: Ron relies entirely on teleprompters to do the news.
• Cute Approaches Camera: Played straight in universe during the segment which showcases a cute animal of the week.
• Deadline News: Frank Vitchard loses his remaining arm to a bear when he reports on Ron and Veronica in the bear pen.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: While it plays them for comedy, the movie doesn't exactly sugarcoat or gloss over 1970s attitudes towards women. In fact, that's what inspired the film. Farrell saw a documentary in which men talked about how terrified they were when women joined the new team and he found it completely absurd.
• Delusions of Local Grandeur: Ron is the anchorman of the top news program in San Diego. As a result, he is supposed to be a big deal; people know him.
• Did I Say That Out Loud: "VERONICA CORNINGSTONE AND I HAD SEX, AND WE ARE IN LOVE!!"
• Disney Acid Sequence: The Pleasure Town sequence:
  Ron: Look! It's the most glorious rainbow ever!
  Veronica: Do me on it!
• Disproportionate Retribution: The biker who's accidentally pelted by Ron's burrito punts Ron's dog off a bridge.
• Distracted by My Own Sexy: "I look good. [Beat] I mean really good. [Beat] HEY EVERYONE! [Beat] COME AND SEE HOW GOOD I LOOK!"
• The Ditz:
  • Brick.
    Brick: I ate a lava lamp. It wasn't lava.
  • The other three anchormen aren't exactly the sharpest tools in the shed either, especially Champ and Ron. But they're still smarter than Brick.
• Dying Declaration of Love: Before the bears would tear them apart, Veronica confesses to Ron about the teleprompter.
• Epic Hail: Subverted, in that they were in the same building the whole time.
• Europeans Are Kinky: Harken's son doesn't just have pornography, but German pornography.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: This little exchange:
  Champ Kind: I will smash your face into a car windshield, and then take your mother, Dorothy Mantooth, out for a nice seafood dinner and never call her again!
  Wes Mantooth: Dorothy Mantooth is a saint! You understand me? Dorothy Mantooth is a saint!
  Ron Burgundy: Hey, let's leave the mothers out of this.
• Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting: Every anchorman apparently keeps weapons on their person, at all times.
• Failed a Spot Check: Even when everyone around him is reacting in shock, Ron completely fails to realize that he just dropped an F-bomb on live television until Ed plays the incident back for him.
• Feet-First Introduction: Both Ron and Veronica enter this way.
• Five-Temperament Ensemble: Ron Burgundy (sanguine), Champ Kind (choleric), Veronica Corningstone (melancholic), Brick Tamland (phlegmatic), Brian Fantana (leukine).
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • Adam Scott and Jon Hamm are listed as writers in the credits rolling over Ron and Veronica insulting each other.
  • During the bar scene in which Ron assembles the news team, they can be seen playing pool behind him, out of focus and their faces obscured. They really were there the whole time he was.
  • Right when the 5-way news teams fight starts, Brian immediately trips and falls down.
• Gorgeous Period Dress: The movie's set late enough that there's not a whole lot of difference between its fashions and those of The Present Day at the time of production, but as news is an inherently visual job, catering to a booming colour-TV audience, fancy professional clothing comes with the job, hence the news team's (but especially Ron's) smooth, sharp, three-piece suits and ties decked out in (mostly) vivid period colours. (Veronica's suits aren't necessarily three-piece, and obviously she doesn't wear ties, but she has to put on bold colours too to stand out both in the newsroom and on camera.) Off the job, there's also lots of bold prints and psychedelic swirls, a holdover from the latter half of The '60s.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Garth calls Ron a "poopmouth" after that Precision F-Strike.
• Groin Attack:
  • Veronica nails Champ after he tries to grope her.
  • Ron threatens to do this to Veronica.
    Ron Burgundy: I'm gonna punch you in the ovary. Yep. Straight shot, right to the baby-maker.
• Hilarious Outtakes: Even includes an outtake from Smokey and the Bandit II, which was one of the first films to include outtakes in its closing credits.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Ron is done in by his own dedication to reading the news exactly as written on the teleprompter. When Veronica takes advantage of this, things go to hell rather quickly.
• Human-Interest Story:
  • The Panda Story. The first panda birth in the San Diego Zoo is Serious Business.
  • Nutty, the water-skiing Squirrel.
• Hyperspace Arsenal:
  • Brick manages to produce a grenade and a trident during the parking lot brawl. The former is lampshaded.
    Ron: Brick, where'd you get a hand grenade?
    Brick: I don't know...
  • The whole brawl scene. Ron pulls an old table leg (?) out of his jacket, another guy has a heavy-gauge chain. Other anchors have swords, axes, horses and nets...
• Hypocritical Humor: As Ron is being escorted out of the news station for an on-air Precision F-Strike:
  Ron: Don't you know that I would never say the word fuck? I would never fucking ever fucking say that, ever! Don't you know I would never say fuck!? FUUUUCK!
• Improv: Many of the actors as well as Will Ferrell are well versed in the art of improvisation and would sometimes do up to 20 different versions of reaction lines trying out the first thing that popped into their heads.
• Ice Queen: That's how Veronica appears to the news team, especially after none of their advances worked out; Brian even refers to her by the trope name.
• Idiot Ball: Brick. It says a lot as he has an IQ of 48, and is what some people would technically call "mentally retarded" (which he says while mindlessly spooning mayonnaise into a toaster).
• In a World…: "There was a time, a time before cable..."
• Instant Costume Change: Ron goes from bearded and disheveled to clean-shaven and perfectly tailored in two seconds, just by ducking into a bathroom.
• I Call Him "Mister Happy": Brian Fantana has a nickname for his penis. It's called "the Octagon". He also has names for his testes. The left one is "James Westfall" and the right one "Dr. Kenneth Noisewater". And if you ladies play your cards right, you might get to meet the whole gang.
• I Take Offense to That Last One: Ron is only enraged by Veronica insulting his hair.
• It Tastes Like Feet: Sex Panther:
  "It smells like Bigfoot's dick!"
• It Will Never Catch On: Ron's opinion on Sports Center.^note Amusingly, DreamWorks SKG co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg previously worked for ESPN's corporate parent, Disney, as chairman of their motion picture division, until he was acrimoniously forced to resign due to various conflicts with company chairman and CEO Michael Eisner and company vice chairman Roy E. Disney.

  Ron: "SportsCenter?" That's just dumb...

• Jerkass: Wes Mantooth, Ron's rival. Ron himself can sometimes be like this.
• Karma Houdini:
  • The Public News Anchor cuts the Channel 2 News Anchor's arm off and pushed Veronica into a bear pit. Nothing ever happens to him.
  • The biker who punts Baxter off of a bridge. He's never shown answering to the law for his very illegal act.
  • Brick kills someone during the parking lot brawl (although Ron suggests he might want to lay low for a while as the cops are looking for him).
• Kent Brockman News: Particularly once Veronica is introduced, though there is a moment of Brick referring to part of the United States as "the Middle East".
• Kick the Dog: Right off a bridge (though in the TV-edited version, it was Throw the Dog).
• Lame Comeback:
  "Oh yeah? Well you're about to be in ... dead place."
  
  "Hey. Where did you get those clothes? The toilet store?"
• Large Ham: Most of the news team, but everything that comes out of Ron's mouth would qualify.
• Leave the Camera Running: In-universe example with Ron himself:
  Ron: I love scotch. Scotchy-scotch-scotch.
• The Legend of X
• Major Injury Underreaction:
  • When Frank Vitchard gets his arm chopped off by the Public News anchor:
    Frank: Oh, man! I did NOT see that coming!
  • Later when the other arm is bitten off by a bear
    Frank: Oh, this is ri-goddamn-diculous!
• Male Gaze: The entire News Team has the hots for Veronica. Just to drive the point home, about half of her early scenes involve the guys gushing about her shapely butt.
• Mêlée à Trois: The brawl between the five different news teams.
• Ms. Fanservice: Veronica. Which leads to So Beautiful, It's a Curse, for her.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Veronica after her act of sabotage ends with Ron swearing on live television.
• Naked Apron: Veronica wears one in Ron's fantasy.
• Narrator: Real-life anchorman Bill Curtis doing the opening and closing narration. Most people know him from A&E crime-show narration ("the Menendez brothers..."), but for anybody who grew up watching him on CBS 2-WBBM in Chicago, this was a special treat.
• Never Trust a Trailer: A good portion of scenes from the trailers are completely omitted from the film's final cut. These scenes include:
  • Burgundy taking a bullet for Veronica
  • A later shot of him and her emerging from a TV van to a cheering crowd with Burgundy visibly showing a bandaged wound.
  • The line where Ron asks Garth about his divorce while at a party
  • Ron walking into a filing cabinet and falling over
  • Alternate dialog when Ron asks Veronica what her dream is
  • Veronica and Ron tackling each other on the conference room table, collapsing (with Ron shouting "Let's make a baby!")
  • Ron admiring his own billboard
• Newhart Phonecall: Ed Harken has a couple regarding his son's shenanigans.
• Newscaster Cameo: Aside from Bill Kurtis as the narrator, when the crowds are gathering at the zoo, a news anchor from LA is seen briefly — played by actual LA news anchor Kent Shocknek.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: If it weren't for the actions of the Public News Anchor, Ron Burgundy wouldn't have been rehired by Channel 4.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Ed Harken's son is... doing interesting things offscreen.
    Harken: "Put down the gun, and let the marching band go. We'll play it off as a prank."
  • Also, in the credits, Ron asks why Brick's charity golf game won't be repeated. Brick says, "Too many people died last year." Key phrase being Too many, as if there is an acceptable number of deaths for a golf game.
  • While Brian is busy having the Sex Panther cologne washed off him, one of the men cleaning him comments their current situation is "worse than the time the raccoon got in the copier."
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Many of the characters are based on real San Diego newscasters that were well known to locals back in the '70s.
  • As it turns out, the producers based Ron partially off Mort Crim, a famous anchorman in Detroit, when they saw him in a documentary recounting how how used to be "a real male chavinist pig" during his 70s stint in Philadelphia. Logically then, Veronica is likely partially based off the infamous Jessica Savitch, who co-anchored with Crim at that point (although Veronica never got into drugs and died in a car crash).
  • Meanwhile, at least in appearance, Ron is an almost perfect Expy of long-time San Diego anchor Paul Bloom (see this clip from 1980). Unlike Ron, however, Paul Bloom is known throughout the community for his selfless promotion of charitable causes (particularly the unemployed and homeless).
  • And Wes Mantooth is apparently based on Peter Mansbridge, the anchor of CBC's The National.
• Only Sane Man: His fondness for horrid colognes aside, Brian Fantana is by far the most normal and sane of the Channel Four News Team. Hilariously, Ron is this to Brian when he has his moments.
• Perfumigation: Brian's cologne "Sex Panther", which has bits of real panther in it. It smells like Bigfoot's dick, and after the whole office is evacuated, Brian has to be sprayed with a fire hose.
• Politically Correct History: Noticeably averted. Though most of the '70s-style kitsch is played for laughs, all of the male characters are very casually sexist, and several characters drop the occasional homophobic remark. The characters also surprisingly cavalier about littering, frequently dropping trash or unfinished food on the street without a second thought.
• Porn Stache: Several (there's two in the poster alone). Ben Stiller, for one. Also, Danny Trejo.
• Present-Day Past: The aerial establishing shots of downtown San Diego prominently feature buildings such as Petco Park and One America Plaza, which weren't constructed until decades after the year in which the film is set.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: After Veronica insults Ron's hairstyle in the newsroom:
  Ron: What did you say!?
  Veronica: I said... "Your hair. Looks. Stupid."
• Redemption Equals Death: Played with at the end with Wes Mantooth; after Ron saves Veronica from the bear pit, earning him his good name back, Wes considers pushing Ron off a ladder back into the pit, but decides against it.
• Refuge in Audacity : Played for Laughs (like everything else in this movie) after the absurdly over-the-top fight scene between the news teams.
  Ron: Boy... that escalated quickly. I mean, that really got out of hand fast.
  Champ: It jumped up a notch.
  Ron: It did, didn't it?
  Brick: Yeah. I stabbed a man in the heart.
  Ron: I saw that! Brick killed a guy! Did you throw a trident?
  Brick: Yeah! There were horses and a man on fire, and I killed a guy with a trident.
  Ron: Brick, I've been meaning to talk to you about that. You should find yourself a safe house or a relative close by. Lay low for a while, because you're probably wanted for murder.
• Roger Rabbit Effect: The "Pleasure Town" sequence is an inversion, with the live action characters superimposed into a cartoon work rather than vice versa.
• Roman à Clef: Parodied in the faux disclaimer at the start:
  The following is based on actual events. Only the names, locations, and events have been changed.
• Rule of Funny: All other concerns - plot, character, period accuracy, internal logic and coherence - fall second to it.
• Serious Business: Competition between local news teams is cranked up to eleven.
• Scenery Porn: Filmed on location in San Diego. Wide shots actually make use of period stock footage!
• Short Cuts Make Long Delays: The news teams goes out to buy new suits. One shortcut from Brick and they find themselves in a news team battle royale with all the other stations.
• Shout-Out
  • Burgundy finishes his jazz flute performance with the flute riff from Jethro Tull's Aqualung. He even bellows the song title, like Ian Anderson does in the original.
  • The two encounters between the news teams send up West Side Story. With Spartacus, Gangs of New York and Planet of the Apes thrown in for good measure.
• Signing-Off Catchphrase:
  • Ron's is "You stay classy, San Diego", which becomes "You stay classy, planet Earth" when he and Verona join a global news network at the end.
  • Veronica has "Thanks for stopping by, San Diego."
• Small Name, Big Ego: Ron, in the larger scheme of things.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Ron, apparently, can understand Baxter's barks but not if he speaks Spanish. Or Spanish in general, really. Or anything he thinks is Spanish, such as plain English spoken in a slight Hispanic accent. In the climax, Baxter converses with a bear.
• Spiritual Successor: To Mel Brooks' classic comedies, given the film's time setting in The '70s, its nonsensical and slapstick humor and to a production extent, the Stunt Casting of actors least expected to be in a film like this (for example Tim Robbins' cameo in this film is equivalent to Brooks casting the respected Gene Hackman as a blind man in Young Frankenstein). This film is a "What If? Mel Brooks made a comedy that was a satire on news anchoring back in The '70s."^note Will Ferrell, who plays Ron Burgundy, would later appear in the 2005 musical remake of Brooks' The Producers, a year after acting in this movie.
• The Stinger: There is one more scene after the end credits roll with the Anchor Team walking as Ron talk about where they will be years from now.
• Take That!: During the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue, the narrator states that Brick Tamland become "one of the top political advisers to the Bush White House".
• That Makes Me Feel Angry: Ron repeatedly yells which emotion he is feeling, with great emphasis.
• This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: "Como están, bitches!"
• Tongue Twister: Parodied. Ron prepares for a broadcast by practicing common examples like "how now brown cow" and "unique New York", before moving on to plain sentences ("The arsonist has oddly shaped feet"; "The Human Torch was denied a bank loan") and finally just yelling.
• Transparent Closet:
  • Champ Kind:
    Champ Kind: I miss your scent, Ron, your musk...
  • He's later fired from his job as an NFL commentator for sexually harassing Terry Bradshaw.
• Truth in Television:
  • Local TV news in San Diego does love a good baby panda story. It helps the realism that the San Diego Zoo is one of the few zoos outside of China that houses giant pandas.
  • The level of harassment Veronica endures was not uncommon in the '70s. Guys hitting on her relentlessly, Champ trying to grope her breasts, having to work harder and prove herself more because she was a woman; yeah, that happened. Not only was it commonplace, it wasn't seen as inappropriate behavior and was not punished; most women had little choice but to endure that treatment or leave their place of work. There was no guarantee they wouldn't be treated worse in another workplace setting, either.
• Unrated Edition: Restores a Cluster F-Bomb that was edited out of the theatrical release to prevent a R rating.
• Unusual Euphemism: Every single one in the film.
  Ron: Knights of Columbus, that hurt!
• Very Loosely Based on a True Story: While it is lampshaded in the film's introduction, it's true. Will Ferrell got the idea for the film while watching a documentary on pioneering female news anchor Jessica Savitch and seeing her former co-anchor Mort Crim express that he was genuinely afraid of her and engaged in chauvinistic behavior in her presence until they grew comfortable being around each other. Ron Burgundy and Veronica Corningstone are based off of Crim and Savitch.
• Volleying Insults:
  • Ron and Veronica in the news room before it gets physical.
    Ron: You are a smelly pirate hooker.
    Veronica: You look like a blueberry!
    Ron: Why don't you go back to your home on Whore Island?!
    Veronica: Well, you... have bad hair.
  • Earlier, they trade comments when they finish broadcasting for the day. Thankfully, the credits have started rolling, so the viewers at home have no idea what they're saying. The audio cut to the theme music and both of them look like they're engaging in jovial small talk as the credits roll.
    Ron: You've got a dirty, whorish mouth.
    Veronica: You have man boobs.
    Ron: I'm gonna punch you in the ovary. Right in the baby maker.
    Veronica: Jazz flute is for little fairy boys.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue:
  • Champ Kind went on to become a commentator for the NFL; but was later fired after being accused of sexual harassment by Terry Bradshaw.
  • Brian Fantata went on to have great success as the host of the hit reality TV show Intercourse Island on the FOX Network.
  • Brick Tamland is married with 11 children, and is one of the top political advisers to the Bush White House.
  • Ron Burgundy and Veronica Corningstone didn't stay in San Diego long; Bill Kurtis chose them as his replacement and they became the first mixed-gender network news team; and they're still doing it today.
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: In the beginning of the film as Ron prepares for the newscast, he asks for the name of an unseen worker. Her name is Lanolin, and Ron's baffled response?
  Ron: Lanolin? L-l-lanolin, like, like sheep's wool?
  • One has to wonder what poor Brick's parents were on when they named him.
• World of Ham: It would be easier to list the lines that aren't hammy.
• Worst News Judgment Ever: Every news station in San Diego is covering the birth of a baby panda around the clock, but apparently ignore the exploits of Ed Harkin's son Chris; which include firing a bow & arrow into a crowd, and taking a marching band hostage with a gun.
  • No surprise Harkin wouldn't choose to cover that story.
• Worthy Opponent: Even though Wes Mantooth absolutely hates Ron, he respects him even more, which is why he spares him from falling back into the bear pit. At which point he turns to his camera and says:
  Wes: Today, we spell redemption, R-O-N. (drops microphone, walks away muttering "Fucker")
• Would Toss a Girl:
  • After the aforementioned Volleying Insults, Ron is not above chucking Veronica across a table.
  • Fortunately for Veronica, fighting is one of the three things she's good at. Along with screwing and reading the news.
• Wrong-Name Outburst: Her night of sex with Ron has Veronica calling him Julio; the rest of her orgasm is in Spanish, so Ron doesn't pay it any attention.
• "YEAH!" Shot:
  Ron: There's only one thing a man can do when he's suffering from a spiritual and existential funk.
  Brian: Go to the zoo, flip off the monkeys?
  Ron: No... buy new suits.
• Yet Another Baby Panda: Veronica is frustrated because these stories are all that she's getting. Ironically, several stories that normally would be relegated to this (footage of a waterskiing squirrel and an actual panda birth) are considered huge news.
• Your Mom: Used by Champ to push Wes' Berserk Button.
  Champ: Then I take your mother, Dorothy Mantooth, out for a nice seafood dinner and never call her again!

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Tropes in Wake Up, Ron Burgundy:

• Character Catchphrase: Champ tries a new one with "Garbanzo!", but everyone asks him to stay with his previous phrase.
• Cue Card: Ron is forced to deliver a message on TV by The Alarm Clock without cue cards or a teleprompter, and is reduced to blurting out pure word salad. He can't even remember his own name.
• Do Wrong, Right: The bank robbery scene, in which the bank teller mocks the Alarm Clock for the inconsistency of whatever message they're trying to send, gets Hauser to admit to being a pacifist, and then praises Malcolm for actually being a little intimidating. She ends up giving him some money while telling the other three to beat it.
• Elephant in the Living Room: Champ declares his love for Ron whilst the news team is in the car. Extreme awkwardness ensues as Ron and Brian concentrate very hard on ignoring him.
• I'm a Humanitarian: An extended gag involves the group thinking they're lost in the wilderness and will have to resort to eating each other. Champ comes very close to bashing Brian in the head with a rock before Brick announces that he sees the observatory, prompting everyone to immediately drop it and continue as if nothing happened.
• It Will Never Catch On: The Alarm Clock's "manifesto".

  Maya Rudolph: Electric cars? Man, are you high right now?

• Take That!: The epilogue states that Brick was the CEO of Halliburton.
• Terrorists Without a Cause: The Alarm Clock terrorist group wants to "wake up" San Diego. They have no idea of what the heck is that supposed to mean, and they spend a lot of time discussing whether or not to add any further demands.
• Western Terrorists: The "Alarm Clock" group is just a bunch of really stupid Californians who have access to guns and bombs and no damn clue of what they want to achieve with them beyond a vague desire to "wake up" the city.