Name: John C. Reilly REVEALS Why Frogs Fall From The Sky In Magnolia
Uploaded: 2026-01-12T18:00:33.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'John C. Reilly REVEALS Why Frogs Fall From The Sky In Magnolia' from TAFS Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2026-01-12. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'John C. Reilly REVEALS Why Frogs Fall From The Sky In Magnolia' from TAFS Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2026-01-12. Transcript available.

I watched Magnolia recently and after losing a parent it hits completely
different and it was
like I loved that film and then it was a completely different film I lost my
mother and that was the
first time wait I said love sarcastic I'm such a shit guy why do I like I act
like crap but like
the only thing as a transformative experience that I like it was like the first
time I realized
what's the point is that like yeah it's like having love and giving love the
fact that we were all
together I think Paul asked his dad shortly before we made that movie so it was
definitely coming from
a personal place with him yeah the question people always ask me about that
movie is like what's up
with the frogs why the frogs why the frogs well the first thing is that it's
real frogs do fall out of
the sky yeah Philip Baker Hall who's in that movie experienced a reign of frogs
yeah in the 50s in
Germany and where he was working for the government anyway he was a spy yeah he
worked for like the
pre precursor to the CIA what was it called the the naval intelligence yeah
they had another name for it
before then he would in post-war Germany you would drive around and do the
government's bidding those
guys had amazing lives but the point is that frogs falling out of the sky makes
about as much sense
to a person as getting hit by lightning or your father or mother getting cancer
like it doesn't make
any sense chaos it's this thing that happens to us you know and I think I don't
Paul's never explained
to me what he felt the meta metaphor was but to me that's what it is like your
father dying of cancer
like well my father died of cancer and you know I asked the doctor like what
what so what is it and
they're like well it's a tumor blah blah blah and I was like so what what what
is that you know why did
it happen he's like hey you know yeah I realized like you don't know anything
you're it is very
primitive where we are with this science and so yeah it might as well have been
a rain of frogs you're
like an incredible comedic actor right and like you're one of the best like and
I kind of just like
coming from a theater background I can imagine like you know there's some classically
trained actors that you
know just can't play comedy you know and like coming from your background in
the theater like how did you
kind of learn that or is it inherent to you it's funny that you I actually don't
think of myself as a comedian
or like a comedic actor per se I think I'm just an actor as someone who really
who knows how to commit to make
believe ideas and believe that they're true and believe that they're true for
me you know like
like someone like Will Ferrell is a brilliant comedian you know he can make
literally reading
the phone book funny because he just has some kind of magical quality you know
like who else is like
that brothers are the funny one of the funniest movies ever yeah so I I
understand that I have been
funny in things I accept that I'm not like saying like I'm not a funny person
like I've been in funny
things I get it but my approach is totally different than a comedian my
approach is like okay what are
the facts of what we're talking about okay this this this we're gonna go chop
pumpkins in the garage
with a samurai sword that's funny and if you commit fully to that like it's a
serious thing you're in a
comedy like that's how I know how to do it if Chris Farley's doing that it's
funny because there's an
inherent but that's another guy he just he just will something to be funny
brother you've got the sauce
you have the sauce I'm saying it I know I mean it's not who cares but I have
the sauce because
I don't think I have the sauce yeah of course yeah I mean that in separate
there's like you know the
basic premise of like two unemployed 40 year old men behaving like 11 year olds
I mean it's just like
it's always going to be funny and like it's the same we took stories from our
lives when we were 11
years old and we did and we told them as 40 year olds like therefore it's a
comedy yeah like yeah
a lot of that stuff really happened to me you know one of my brothers played
the drums and was inspect
the drumsticks if there were any marks he'd be like you I know you touch my
drums that was all real
that was just real for my life I got jumped by a gang of kids once when I was
me and my friends were
out looking to try to start a gang fight with the Catholic school to a public
school and they all ended
up going to a liquor store to try to get beer and I was alone and got jumped by
the other gang they
left you yeah did you and they're like they're comes like uh you know like the
flying monkeys in
the Wizard of Oz like like this you got a couple in though or they it was just
a melee I said he's
like what school are you from because it was kind of a school-based I was like
I'm from Eberhardt
but I didn't come to boof like punched right in the face before I could even
say I didn't come to
the fight I was trying to like talk my way out of this like anything the school
your parents put
you to like say you too that's so funny though it's so arbitrary it's very like
Chicago is very
like little you know kingdoms little city-states where in Chicago are you from
the south side Park
yeah um yeah I was just there it's uh it's kind of like it has a very bad
reputation among Jewish
people in Chicago Jewish people have a bad reputation no I think Mark Park has
a very bad reputation among
Jewish people why because the neo-nazis of the 1970s started in Marquette Park
no they didn't well they
went to Skokie Supreme Court case right they were from Marquette Park my
neighborhood Frank Collins and
all those goons that started the neo-nazi movement in Marquette Park because
there was this big black
white divide and he realized like this is the perfect place to be a Nazi he
went to Skokie to march because
it was primarily a Jewish neighborhood yeah there were a lot of Holocaust
survivors there too exactly so
anyway swap the music what do you want to do oh I don't care thanks I mean
obviously that's why I came
here was to talk about a new mr. romantic we're gonna we're gonna talk about it
because I want to talk
about music for a while because I think this is kind of a Jewish phrase what's
not to love yeah yeah to
love what's not exactly yeah it's uh let's I don't want to spot some music yet
though because I want to
talk at like a little bit more film and then I mean you want to stay forever
you want to have a
sleepover whatever man yeah yeah um you know I was excited to be on the Dick
Cavett show but he's he's
98 years old he's and he lives in mom no I mean I mean a format like the Dick
Cavett show I was saying
to my friend on the way here like I've said so many times why don't we have a
Dick Cavett show anymore
why isn't there a central uh square of our culture that can talk about ideas
that can get into like
what we really believe why is it always like oh I'm here I'm just gonna keep it
light and talk about
my project and oh they were great to work with they were great to work with
meanwhile there's
wars going on and all this shit like that was what I loved about Dick Cavett
you could have
Tennessee Williams on there you could have Marlon Brando on there and they
would tell you what they
really thought uh-huh they weren't afraid to express themselves as citizens of
the country like when's
the last time you talked to Paul McCartney no I'm just kidding I did meet him
once yeah he's the best
who's your favorite wait this is a stupid question but like top five so who are
your top five song my top
five Beatles no songwriters top five Beatles Brian Epstein there's only five uh
yeah Brian
if you count Billy Preston uh he's such a pure soul and he was part of so much
other stuff that we love
yeah and some yeah anyways he was a child uh prodigy too I believe I think yeah
I mean like I was
talking the other day and it's like it's kind of like a dorm room conversation
but I'm like
for me it's like Paul Bob Dylan and then and then I don't know then I can I can
argue for a number of
people after that John Lennon doesn't even get in after Bob Dylan like um I
think he's a pretty
important important part of that band I'm not saying I'm not diminishing him
and I'm not saying Bob
Dylan's in the Beatles that's the problem with these numbered lists it's a
stupid thing people get it's
very ESPN it's very ESPN but in my heart and like in my formative like uh
experiences in music those
I mean Bob Dylan's probably like made the biggest impression on me have you met
him no uh but I was
on his radio show a couple times which is a funny experience because actually
oh no because you don't
meet him when you're on the radio he doesn't do the radio show was he was he
nice you don't meet him
you don't you sit with someone else this guy Eddie who puts the show together
for him and he's like
okay like we just talk about whatever and like you know like what was like just
tell me something
interesting happened to you well when were you the most lonely he's like well
the most lonely was when
my parents left me and that but he's like but phrase it like you're talking to
Bob and I'm like
well Bob I was the most lonely when I was uh when my family left me at a truck
stop I know but no it's
not but listen then so then you hear you listen to the radio show and it's like
I bet John C. Reilly
and Barnes and Noble he had this to say about loneliness and then they play
this clip of me
talking to Eddie and it sounds like I'm talking to Bob it doesn't matter you
know like so Bob does
all the kind of transitional stuff yeah introduces the song he has a big part
of choosing the music
obviously that he plays but the guests and stuff and I don't think anyone ever
talks to him but then
you're like I would just and I'll tell you why I didn't want yeah because I
hold him in such a high
place as an artist that I was like actually don't want to meet the human being
I don't want to meet
the human you would hate me I want him to live in the place where he already
lives for me it's already
perfect I don't need to know that he doesn't like asparagus or something I don't
need to know did you
see the Rolling Thunder he gave me visions of Johanna you know I I don't need
to know like what
his favorite beer is or something you know do you see the Rolling Thunder uh
yeah last thing I loved
it I love that it was half it was kind of a Norm MacDonald's uh memoir that he
published was also
the same thing was half true half fake oh it's like it's a really like awesome
way to tell a story
but one thing you see is that like there's this notion of genius and then you
kind of look pull back
the day there were all these geniuses but then you see how people interact with
him and it has to be
very lonely because everyone's trying to say the most incredible thing they've
ever said when they
during their or some their meaningful gratitude that that will land with you
Bob no you don't
understand how much and I was like everyone's trying to blow his fucking mind I
was invited to
Thanksgiving dinner with them one time with his family I know why didn't you go
son because I was
like I don't want to know why I don't want to see like the weird interactions
at Thanksgiving I have
my own weird interactions we would be best friends with him dude no I'm just I
get it I get what your
chances to meet him he's not gone you know like but for you know I've met some
of my heroes and a
couple of them were exactly like I wanted them to be and a couple of them I was
like ah shit this is a
better hero to me before I met them you know and I just didn't want to take
that risk