The two funniest television scenes of the 21st century never actually aired. At least not in full.
Late in the first season of Eastbound & Down, there’s a showdown between washed-up major league reliever Kenny Powers (Danny McBride) and his former rival Reg Mackworthy (Craig Robinson). But before they square off on a makeshift baseball diamond in a parking lot, they have two verbal confrontations. And the man who orchestrated the duel, Ric Flair–haired BMW dealer Ashley Schaeffer (Will Ferrell), is there egging them on.
In the actual episode, which Adam McKay directed, Schaeffer’s shit stirring doesn’t last very long. And that’s for one reason: Will Ferrell. During filming, he did whatever he possibly could to make McBride and Robinson laugh. And oh boy, did he succeed. The results—the outtakes—are now the stuff of legend, first-ballot YouTube Hall of Famers. Watching them is like taking hits of nitrous.
During the first exchange, Schaeffer says that he can feel the tension in his “plums.” During the second, when McBride and Robinson are standing nose to nose, Schaeffer tells a story about his “young son Gabriel” walking in on him and his wife having sex.
The moment might be the quintessential example of the long-gone let-the-cameras-roll-and-see-what-happens era of comedy. Back in the 2000s, stars like Ferrell were encouraged to just try shit. Blissfully, that led to shit like this.
Stephanie Laing (co–executive producer): I’m fairly certain it was the first season where I was like, “Oh my God, we’ve rolled 12,000 feet of film.” They were improvising the end of the scene, and no one was crying, “Cut.” I’d just never seen anything like it. You just get sucked up into that world, and you don’t want to leave.
David Gordon Green (consulting producer): The fact that we had Will Ferrell behind the show, supporting it, giving it some muscle, was very valuable to us. When other people were looking at us cross-eyed and confused, Will put his face on the show and really took a risk.
Danny McBride (cocreator and star): There’s just something about Will that inherently is so funny.
Jody Hill (cocreator): Will Ferrell at the time was such a big star. So to have him on set, it was a thrill for everybody that he was actually going to be in the show. And just when the improv started, I mean, it was like everybody was just giddy.
Steve Little (Stevie Janowski): When you’re an actor, it’s always like, “Oh, this will lead me somewhere. I’ll do this, and this will lead me somewhere.” I remember that scene at the car dealership. It was like, “Oh, maybe everything led here.”
Laing: I don’t even think we had that much time to shoot it. I don’t know if we were losing the light, but we were definitely at the end of a long day. Obviously it was scripted, but then when they put it on its feet, honestly, it was a blur because it was so good.
McBride: That was all just part of a jam-packed 10-hour day, which is just crazy. It’s nuts. But we were just going balls to the wall and just having a blast with it.
Green: And to see those three comedic champions not be able to keep a straight face, like, we should be so lucky in our lives to be able to witness that, much less be a part of it. It’s like lore. It’s comic lore.
Laing: You’re like, “What are we watching right now?”
Katy Mixon Greer (April Buchanon): Will Ferrell is hysterical. When he was like, “My plums,” there’s no words to describe it.
Craig Robinson (Reg Mackworthy): That line was one of his bombs. They’ve got a nice, blue hue. Getting ready to take ’em to market. Whatever you say, man.
Will Ferrell (Ashley Schaeffer, in 2012): Ashley Schaeffer is one of the crazier characters I’ve done by far. There’s a point where my wife was watching with me, saying, “That might be the most disgusting person you’ve ever played,” and it just made me laugh.
McBride: And when you have to be in a scene with him and you look him in the eyes, it is pretty much impossible to remain calm.
Robinson: You have to stare Danny McBride in the eye while Will Ferrell is improvising, trying to kill you. He don’t care about the take. He’s just trying to kill you.
McBride: You can see the gears spinning, and you see that he’s like a predator. He can sense a weakness. And then without putting any more effort into it, he can just double down on that and just keep drilling in and drilling in and drilling in until you’re unwound.
Robinson: Danny, if his eye twitched or anything, it was a wrap. That went on for a while. It was torture.
McBride: The pure joy of being in a scene with those two guys and making something that is legitimately making people want to piss their pants and being in the middle of it and trying to not be the one who ruins it.
Mixon Greer: That was a very, very epic day.
Green: It’s three people that don’t break, breaking. It’s just a kid in a candy store watching that type of joy. Like when you’re 12 years old and you fart in church and you think you’re going to get in trouble—the more that you keep giggling, the more you feel like you’re striking some sort of comedy gold. You’re going to be able to open the treasure chest with your friends and keep this thing going.
