The Screen Junkies Show is an entertainment/comedy web series created by Andy Signore and Brett Weiner. It is an assorted collection of panel discussions, comedic celebrity interviews, and comedic stunts related to movies. The Screen Junkies Show first started production in 2011. It used to be published weekly, but from 2018 on it was published about twice a month. Over 300 episodes of The Screen Junkies Show have been published on the Screen Junkies YouTube channel. The show is still in production. Videos vary in length from 5 - 15 minutes. The host of The Screen Junkies Show is Hal Rudnick.
The Screen Junkies Show is probably best known for a 2012 video in which Christopher Walken read the words of child reality star Honey Boo Boo, a 2014 video in which host Hal Rudnick smuggled a camera into Shia LaBeouf's performance art project #IAMSORRY, and a 2015 video in which Dwayne Johnson was the surprise marriage celebrant for a real wedding.
Watch the complete The Screen Junkies Show playlist on YouTube
Notable episodes[]
Christopher Walken Reads "Honey Boo Boo"[]
One of the first Screen Junkies Show videos to truly break out was a 2012 junket interview for Seven Psychopaths in which Hal Rudnick asked Christopher Walken and Sam Rockwell to do a dramatic reading of words spoken by child reality TV star Honey Boo Boo. The video was covered by numerous media outlets including The Huffington Post.
In response, The Screen Junkies Show made a second video in which Honey Boo Boo read Christopher Walken movie quotes. This second video also attracted media coverage, including in The Hollywood Reporter.
We Confront Shia La Beouf[]
In 2014, The Screen Junkies Show secretly filmed Shia LaBeouf during his performance art project #IAMSORRY. Host Hal Rudnick repeatedly asked LaBeouf what his art meant. The video attracted backlash, due to presumption that LaBeouf was mentally ill. The video attracted media attention and was covered by The Hollywood Reporter and the Huffington Post.
Hal Rudnick said this in response to the backlash: "I want to reiterate that I legitimately hope that he is OK -- but it's not really clear what he's doing. Shia LaBeouf is not a sacred cow. This smacks of something potentially very manipulative.[1]
Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson's Wedding Surprise![]
A 2015 video in which Dwayne Johnson officiated a surprise wedding between Screen Junkies' Nick Mundy and his fiancee Dilara Karabas. Johnson knew Mundy since 2013 when Mundy was starstruck at a junket interview for Pain & Gain. According to The Hollywood Reporter, "Johnson got a kick out of Mundy, and went on to request him for junkets for Hercules and Furious 7, where they developed a tradition of performing bits together." Karabas was heavily involved in the wedding planning. Johnson was ordained so the marriage would be legal. This episode remains the highest-viewed episode in the history of The Screen Junkies Show.
My Mom Watches Human Centipede[]
In 2013, Hal Rudnick and his mother watched the Dutch horror film Human Centipede together. The video was so successful, Hal watching inappropriate movies with his Mom became a semi-regular occurence. They also watched Fifty Shades of Grey and Fifty Shades Darker together.
Recurring episode formats[]
The Screenies[]
Since 2012, The Screen Junkies Show has presented an annual end-of-year parodic awards show called The Screenies which hands out novelty awards in comedic categories. The categories are different every year, but some awards have become recurring jokes, for example "The Leonardo DiCaprio Give Me That Oscar" award for a performer going to excessive lengths to secure an Academy Award. A Screenies tradition is the "In Memorium" section which highlights the movies that were exceptionally terrible. Including a parody of Sarah McLaughlin's "I will Remember You" using the lyrics "Your movies sucked so bad" performed by Sean Motley and Madeline Goodwin.
The Grouchies[]
Since 2013, The Screen Junkies Show has presented The Grouchies, a parodic awards show for all the funniest or most notable moments of the Oscars ceremony. The Grouchies has become an annual event. Every year after the Oscars the writers stay up all night to tape and edit the video so it can be uploaded to YouTube the very next day. Some recurring awards include the "Gif of the Night Award" and the "John Travolta Mispronunciation Award."
Oscar Nominations[]
Since 2016, The Screen Junkies Show has created an annual video in which Screen Junkies employees vote on who should be nominated in all the major Academy Awards categories. The Screen Junkies nominees usually overlap partially with the real nominees, but feature more genre films.
Comic Con Cosplay[]
Since 2013, The Screen Junkies Show has filmed multiple videos about cosplayers at San Diego Comic Con. In 2014 and 2015, the primary objective of these videos was to sexually objectify female cosplayers - the videos had titles like "Hot cosplay," "Sexy cosplay" and "Finding bewbs." One of the videos involved host Hal Rudnick asking invasive questions to cosplayer dressed as Xena who clearly stated she didn't inappropriate questions. Another video featured a cosplayer dressed as Princess Jasmine who became visibly uncomfortable when Rudnick objectified her - Rudnick was also clearly uncomfortable with what he was required to do because he immediately apologized.
In 2017, Jenny Nicholson hosted the Comic Con cosplay video, in which she facetiously tried to find "hot Comic Con babes" because "I was told by my bosses that I have to find hot Comic Con babes and that's the only way people will watch my miserable show."
In October 2017 after Screen Junkies boss Andy Signore was fired amidst allegations of sexual misconduct, all the objectifying Comic Con cosplay videos were removed from YouTube. In 2018, The Screen Junkies Show made a video about cosplay at SDCC, but took a different approach.
Panel Discussions[]
The Screen Junkies Show has published numerous panel discussions like "Best '90s Movies" and "Best '80s Action Movies." Regular Screen Junkies employees appear in these videos, sometimes with celebrity guests. "How To Fix...." is another panel movie discussion format about struggling franchises.
Movie Science[]
A series of videos in which an expert (Dr Clifford V. Johnson, physics professor at USC) breaks down the science of genre movies and gives his opinion on whether scientific elements were accurately portrayed. He frequently offers suggestions on how the science and movie could be improved.
Junket Interviews[]
Screen Junkies has been doing junket interviews with a comedic slant since its earliest days as a YouTube channel. One of the earliest Screen Junkies Show videos to truly break out was a junket interview in which Christopher Walken reads the words of child reality star, Honey Boo Boo. Sometimes Hal Rudnick takes his mom with his to junket interviews - she is known for asking celebrities inappropriate questions about her son's personal life.
On other occasions, Rudnick has asked celebrities the web's most searched for questions - an interview format that has become increasingly popular in subsequent years. However, when The Screen Junkies Show used this format with Vince Vaughn in 2013, Hal Rudnick accidentally mis-typed the Google auto-fill suggestion and unintentionally asked Vaughn a serious of embarrassing questions, instead of the more harmless, funny questions the team was expecting. The Screen Junkies Show team named the video as the worst Screen Junkies moments of all time.
Set visits and promotional events[]
Like serious media outlets, The Screen Junkies Show has been invited to visit movie sets and participate in promotional activities. However, The Screen Junkies Show usually takes a comedic slant. For example, while attending the Kingsman: The Secret Service promotional "secret agent training" event in London, Hal Rudnick repeatedly asked about Austin Powers until he was taken aside and asked to shut up.
Movie Recommendations[]
The Screen Junkies Show regularly does panel shows where the hosts recommend movies to viewers. This includes episodes like "The Best Movies You've Never Seen," "Summer Movie Preview," "The Best Movies of the Year So Far" and many other variations.
Summer Box Office Competition[]
The Screen Junkies show typically make a pair of box office videos each year - one before the summer where panelists predict that summer's highest grossing films, and one after summer where they review their picks and declare a winner.
Before They Were Famous[]
Shows clips of prominent actors in early roles. These videos were also published under the title, "They Were in That?" Similar Screen Junkies Show videos have involved dug up and cut-together footage from weird, obscure interviews.
PLZ Explain[]
Discussions that aim to break down a franchise's key characters and basic plot for newcomers. The Screen Junkies Show also produce videos under different names that share the same general purpose including "WTF Is...?", "The Idiots Guide To...", "Skip the Rewatch" and "TL:DW." The recurring show Cram It! uses a similar format, though episodes of Cram It! are not listed as episodes of The Screen Junkies Show on the Screen Junkies channel.
Special events[]
Since 2011, The Screen Junkies Show has made dozens of special event videos that don't fall into any of the above categories. The previously mentioned Shia LaBeouf and Dwayne Johnson videos fit into this category. Other examples include the time the show filmed the cast of Pacific Rim: Uprising playing with puppies; and the time the show conducted "The Geek Games," in which a series of digital media hosts competed in an obstacle course. These videos are created with the intention of going viral.
A notorious early Screen Junkies Show special event video was the "Jedi Mind Trick Prank" in which two men dresses as Jedi Knights accosted random strangers in the street. The "Jedi Mind Trick Prank" video is one of the most disliked videos in Screen Junkies history. After this video, Screen Junkies stopped doing pranks.
Production credits[]
Like virtually all long running shows, The Screen Junkies Show has been written, edited and produced by numerous people over the years. The people who made each episode are generally credited in the YouTube description section.
Hosted by: Hal Rudnick
Created by: Andy Signore & Brett Weiner
Written by numerous people including: Hal Rudnick, Dan Murrell, Spencer Gilbert, Nick Mundy, Andy Signore and many others.
Directed by numerous people including: Dan Murrell, Andy Signore, Brett Weiner and others.
Edited by numerous people including: Dan Murrell, Jason Inman, Kevin Williamsen, Anthony Falleroni, TJ Nordaker, Randy Whitlock and many others.
Produced by numerous people including: Brett Weiner, Dan Perrault, Max Dionne, Dan Murrell
Executive produced by numerous people including: Mitch Rotter and Andy Signore
The Screen Junkies Show opening music written by: Sean Motley
List of References[]
- ↑ Couch, A. Comedian Defends Crashing Shia LaBeouf's #IAmSorry: He's 'Not a Sacred Cow' (Video) The Hollywood Reporter, February 14, 2014.
See also[]
- Movie Fights
- Honest Trailers
- Screen Junkies Roasts
- Flick Bait
- Screen Junkies Plus
- Screen Junkies News
External links[]
- The Screen Junkies Show playlist on YouTube
- The Screen Junkies Show page on IMDb
- The Rock Marries Fan Couple at Surprise Wedding: "The Whole Thing Was Insane" - The Hollywood Reporter article about The Screen Junkies Show episode in which Dwayne Johnson officiated Nick Mundy's wedding.
- Comedian Defends Crashing Shia LaBeouf's #IAmSorry: He's 'Not a Sacred Cow' (Video) - The Hollywood Reporter article about The Screen Junkies Show episode in which Hal Rudnick snuck a camera into Shia LaBeof's performance art project
- Honey Boo Boo Performs a Reading From Christopher Walken Films (Video) - The Hollywood Reporter article about The Screen Junkies Show episodes involving Christopher Walken and Honey Boo Boo