Adam McKay is a hulking, 196cm, 44-year-old, albeit with the boyish, bespectacled features of a Sterling Cooper account executive. He may also be the most influential figure in American comedy today. This is probably news to you, because McKay has kept a low profile, even as he’s risen to superstardom in virtually every sphere of the comedy universe: onstage as an improv revolutionary; on TV as the head writer at Saturday Night Live; in movies as the writer and director of Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and Step Brothers; and on the Internet as a co-founder of FunnyorDie.com.
Inarguably, McKay owns the frat-boy demographic the way director John Landis (Animal House, The Blues Brothers) did in the 1970s and 1980s. “But the weird thing,” he says, “is that our movies play fantastically well with minority audiences, too. Step Brothers. Talladega Nights – they did a hip-hop dance called ‘Do the Ricky Bobby.’ You can see it online, man. It’s got, like, a million hits.”
Hunting on YouTube, his assistant pulls up a video of two sorority-ish blonde coeds dressed identically in short shorts and University of North Texas football T-shirts. They’re dancing, not quite in unison, to a hip-hop track. “That’s actually not the official video,” McKay says. “These are just people in their dorm room doing the dance.” The whole thing is strangely reminiscent of Dale and Brennan in Step Brothers and their bombastic, incredibly unconvincing “video prospectus” for their start-up mega-corporation, Prestige Worldwide: There are people who believe that the act of recording themselves on video makes them credible and significant.
McKay’s movies work the thin line between genuine accomplishment and baseless bravado. But his own credits are so spectacular that his actors are willing to risk looking ridiculous, knowing that the final result will be hilarious.
“Adam basically lets you know you can’t fail, and that builds confidence and excitement in the cast and the crew,” says Will Ferrell, McKay’s frequent collaborator and on-screen alter ego. “And then the crew starts fornicating… and the health department shows up… and then the movie is shut down for a few days.”
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