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Blank Check with Griffin & David

Burn After Reading with Fran Hoepfner

Blank Check with Griffin & David

Blank Check Productions / Talkhouse

Tv & Film, Society & Culture, Comedy, Film Reviews

4.66.1K Ratings

🗓️ 5 October 2025

⏱️ 138 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What did we learn, Palmer? That 2008’s Burn After Reading is pretty freakin’ hilarious, sir. Our Fran (Hoepfner, not McDormand) joins us this week to talk about Joel and Ethan Coen’s madcap dark comedy about a bunch of morons living in the DC area. The way John Malkovich says “mem-waah”...George Clooney’s homemade dildo chair…Brad Pitt’s stupid face right before getting murked…it all adds up to a splendid tapestry of silliness. Listen, laugh, and maybe you can fit in a run afterwards. Read Fran at Vulture Subscribe to Fran Magazine Sign up for Check Book, the Blank Check newsletter featuring even more “real nerdy shit” to feed your  pop culture obsession. Dossier excerpts, film biz AND burger reports, and even more exclusive content you won’t want to miss out on. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook!  Buy some real nerdy merch Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Blank Jack with Griffin and David

0:05.0

Black Jack with Griffin and David.

0:09.0

Don't know what to say or to expect.

0:12.0

All you need to know is that the name of the show is Black Jack.

0:21.9

Osborne Cox. I thought you might be worried about the security of your podcast.

0:30.9

It's hard to do an impression of him doing the tough guy voice.

0:34.7

Can you do an impression of him at any other time?

0:36.9

He does have a specific delivery in this that is really well worked out. I love Terran Killam. He did his pit impression on S&L for years that I never understood. Like, you didn't get what he was going for? I'd be like, I don't understand what this is where you go like, eh. Do you remember that? Yeah, I do. I mean, I guess, yeah, I guess there was a, yeah, yeah. But Pitt's kind of hard to do. These files. No, I can't do it. It's not bad. Yeah. It's like the, he's got the little draw. I, hmm. But he's also got a little bit of like Bill and Ted in him. Like Pitt in, uh, once upon a time in Hollywood, where he's, uh, stoned at the, where he's high on acid at the end. And he's talking Austin Butler and he's like, yeah, wasn't that? You know, I wish I could do that. The thing when he's kind of, but that's why he gets more gravity. He's got the, yeah. Wait, but it always feels like he's got that gum in his mouth, which I know I could do that. Yeah, wasn't that. But that's why he gets more gravely. He's got the, yeah.

1:27.6

Wait, but it always feels like he's got that gum in his mouth, which I know is like, that's his tick.

1:32.6

Like, but, yeah, but not in this so much. No, he's, he's clear. He's doing something in this. He's clearing this. I mean, this is, I couldn't quite make it work, but the other thing I wanted to do for the quote was I really want to just take some time and focus on my pukal.

1:46.9

That's good. I think that's good. But I thought it wouldn't, I need to tee it up in that way. My pukat. This is what we're here doing today. We're recording our pukal. I think that doing Clooney in this would be impressive. Because he also has a very specific thing going on right in this one.

2:03.3

Everywhere you look in this movie, someone is doing something completely insane.

2:06.1

Yes, yes.

2:06.9

This is a movie built out of incredible performances that are really hard to define.

2:11.6

I think this is like Clooney's single most underrated performance.

2:14.8

I do too just because I think everyone was sort of focused more on

2:20.3

Pitt maybe and even Mouthovich.

2:22.2

Everyone.

2:22.5

Yeah, everyone over him.

2:23.5

And he's, he'd already worked at the Coins and all that.

2:26.8

But like, he's so funny.

2:28.4

His parts are the parts that make me laugh the most just as pure, like, I can't

...

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