John Hodgman

3 sketches, 21 claims, and 17 fun items attributed to them. What was said about them.

Personality, episode by episode

Showing 1–3 of 3 sketches.

Blank Check with Griffin & David: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World with John Hodgman (guest)

A boat man and old-fashioned nerd who loves wooden schooners, nautical procedure and Moby-Dick; he adores Patrick O'Brian and the film's authenticity but admits he is not a book expert. He is a sucker for sailing terminology and for explaining knots and anchors.

Stances

  • The film gets sailing powerlessness and control right
  • Sleeping on a boat with no motor noise is creepy
  • Loves the sound design and rope work
  • Offers boating facts relentlessly

Humor: Mock-pompous, mock-nautical self-importance and deadpan puns about able seamen and his own book Vacation Land.

In their words

  • “I don't know what qualifies me to be here other than I have been on a boat, and I'm very happy to talk about boat.” (0:08:29)
  • “the powerlessness, literal and figurative, of being on a sailing.” (3:07:14)

Blank Check with Griffin & David: Dune with John Hodgman (guest)

A lifelong, deeply invested Dune devotee who loves the 1984 film as a flawed, weird object and recites the Litany Against Fear. He loves practical oddities, reference-book nerdery, merch and the Guild Navigator, and is a sucker for specific personal anecdotes. He cannot stand the idea of adapting Dune just for money and prizes making something new over reboots.

Stances

  • Dune is not unfilmable in spirit, but the Lynch version is a beautiful, weird, deformed object
  • Sci-fi creators should make new things instead of reboots (the sleeper must awaken)
  • He has only read the first Dune book, then the later books for the first time recently
  • He is moved by Lynch's sadness about the film and wants to tell him it's okay

Humor: Self-deprecating storyteller who builds long shaggy-dog anecdotes with a pitch-perfect punchline and constant plugs for his own work.

In their words

  • “I used to recite that to myself in high school before tests.” (0:02:55)
  • “And it is not an option for me to say any words to a girl.” (0:35:48)
  • “I do have a substack, Hodgman.substack.com.” (0:24:24)
  • “So I just want David Lynch to know, it's okay.” (2:47:44)

Blank Check — Patreon: Avengers: Infinity War with John Hodgman (guest)

Loves Infinity War ('I love this movie very much'), grew up wanting an X-Men movie, enjoys Vormir for how it captures cosmic Marvel art. Not a fan of cosmic comics generally; a sucker for plugging his book and for corgis.

Stances

  • Loves Infinity War
  • Always be plugging his book Medallion Status
  • Cosmic Marvel comics were never his thing but Vormir won him over

Humor: Mock-pompous banter, constant plugging, and fake-boundary-pushing comedian bits.

In their words

  • “I love this movie very much.” (0:19:18)
  • “Always be plugging.” (0:36:12)

Their shows' recurring bits

Running bits, not opinions; a critic read aloud is cited, not present.

Blank Check with Griffin & David

Their claims

Showing 1–21 of 21 claims.

  1. unmapped (prior-episode-guest): Gallipoli → Jennifer Kent. Hodgman revisited Gallipoli after hearing the Gallipoli episode with Jennifer Kent, which spurred his texts about this film.
    “I listened to the Gallipoli episode with Jennifer Kent, which is great.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World with John Hodgman · 0:07:36 · John Hodgman (0.70 sure it was them)
  2. contrast (ship-genre-contrast): Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World → Das Boot. Hodgman says the film uniquely captures the vastness of the ocean, unlike space or sea movies where you keep running into other ships or aliens.
    “unlike any other ship movie that I've ever seen, whether that is a sailing ship or a motor ship or a spaceship or friendship.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World with John Hodgman · 1:57:48 · John Hodgman (0.60 sure it was them)
  3. theme (theme / ship-as-world): Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World → Moby-Dick. Hodgman, mid-read of Moby-Dick, says the Pequod crew, like this crew, are so far from civilization that land taboos break and ships become their own societies.
    “how the crew of the Pequod, which is a much smaller crew because they don't have gunners on it. a whaling boat.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World with John Hodgman · 2:24:13 · John Hodgman (0.90 sure it was them)
  4. programming (programming): Dune → Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. Dune was positioned and released as the studio's answer to Star Wars, the next big space epic.
    “Uh, this movie is released with the energy of, here you go, here's the new Star Wars.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Dune with John Hodgman · 0:22:17 · John Hodgman (0.85 sure it was them)
  5. lineage (lineage): Dune → Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. The Dune book's messaging is credited as one of the things that inspired Star Wars.
    “And not only that, the messaging of this is one of the things that inspired Star Wars.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Dune with John Hodgman · 0:22:22 · John Hodgman (0.70 sure it was them)
  6. industry (industry): Dune → Ghostbusters. Dune was dropped into a summer and year of pure-pleasure blockbusters like Ghostbusters.
    “Set it aside and I'm like, dad, take me to go see Ghostbusters, which came out that summer.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Dune with John Hodgman · 0:23:09 · John Hodgman (0.80 sure it was them)
  7. craft (craft): Carlo Rambaldi → Dune. Rambaldi's Guild Navigator design is the grotesque, sexual image the speaker calls the moment the whole film began to unpack for him.
    “That Carlo Rimbaldi design.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Dune with John Hodgman · 0:50:07 · John Hodgman (0.80 sure it was them)
  8. contrast (contrast): Dune → Dune (Sci-Fi Channel miniseries). The 2000 miniseries is a hyper-faithful script-on-screen adaptation versus Lynch's art object.
    “That thing is basically just someone being like, what if I just wrote down Dune as a screenplay.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Dune with John Hodgman · 1:18:52 · John Hodgman (0.55 sure it was them)
  9. lineage (lineage): Dune (Sci-Fi Channel miniseries) → Children of Dune (miniseries). The miniseries team also did Children of Dune with the same just write-it-down approach.
    “But it really is, and they do children of June as well, where they're just like, let's just fucking write it down, man.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Dune with John Hodgman · 1:19:11 · John Hodgman (0.50 sure it was them)
  10. career (career): Peter Berg → Late for Dinner. Hodgman recognized Berg from the indie Late for Dinner.
    “It's called late for dinner.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Dune with John Hodgman · 1:23:31 · John Hodgman (0.60 sure it was them)
  11. what-if (what-if): Peter Berg → Dune. Berg planned a Dune for normies, emphasizing boy's adventure over the weird stuff.
    “basically, he was going to, like, make Dune for normies.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Dune with John Hodgman · 1:26:32 · John Hodgman (0.80 sure it was them)
  12. career (career): Pierre Morel → Taken. After Berg dropped out, the Dune script went to Pierre Morel, the Taken director.
    “and the script was taken to Pierre Morel, who is the guy who made taken.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Dune with John Hodgman · 1:26:38 · John Hodgman (0.50 sure it was them)
  13. craft (craft): Max von Sydow → Dune. Max von Sydow delivers the still-suit exposition without making anyone giggle.
    “He somehow delivers it in a way that doesn't make you giggle.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Dune with John Hodgman · 1:53:36 · John Hodgman (0.50 sure it was them)
  14. craft (craft): Bob Ringwood → Dune. Ringwood's costume designs are singled out as incredible, down to the 1000 Fremen hats made for a scene that was cut.
    “I think Bob Ringwood did the costume designs.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Dune with John Hodgman · 2:46:29 · John Hodgman (0.80 sure it was them)
  15. people (people): Cobweb → Vincente Minnelli. Hodgman and Griffin saw this old Minnelli sanitarium drama together this summer.
    “a wild old Vincent Manelli movie called the Cobweb”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Avengers: Infinity War with John Hodgman · 0:16:43 · John Hodgman (0.65 sure it was them)
  16. career (career): Griffin Newman → The Tick (TV). Hodgman notes that Griffin was number two on the call sheet.
    “you were number 2 on the call sheet”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Avengers: Infinity War with John Hodgman · 0:23:10 · John Hodgman (0.55 sure it was them)
  17. theme (parallel): Doctor Strange → Robert Downey Jr.. Strange's origin as a brought-low egotist who rebuilds mirrors Tony Stark's.
    “the true origin story of Doctor Strange is so parallel to Tony Stark”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Avengers: Infinity War with John Hodgman · 0:37:00 · John Hodgman (0.40 sure it was them)
  18. industry (industry): Spider-Man rights → Avengers: Infinity War. The dream of Spider-Man joining the shared universe once things are worked out with Sony.
    “once you work things out with Sonny, Spider-Man gets to come into”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Avengers: Infinity War with John Hodgman · 0:40:43 · John Hodgman (0.50 sure it was them)
  19. craft (craft): Avengers: Infinity War → Star Trek (TNG, Star Trek Live). Spaceships need no aerodynamics; the Borg cube was the beautiful proof.
    “That was what was so beautiful about the design of the Borg cube.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Avengers: Infinity War with John Hodgman · 1:40:14 · John Hodgman (0.35 sure it was them)
  20. career (career): John Hodgman → Battlestar Galactica (TV). Hodgman appeared in an episode as the space brain doctor.
    “I played the space brain doctor.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Avengers: Infinity War with John Hodgman · 1:40:56 · John Hodgman (0.70 sure it was them)
  21. craft (craft): Avengers: Infinity War → Jack Kirby. The Vormir sequence is a perfect distillation of what the cosmic Marvel comic illustrations looked like.
    “the Vormir sequence is such a perfect distillation of what those cosmic Marvel illustrations looked like”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Avengers: Infinity War with John Hodgman · 1:53:08 · John Hodgman (0.50 sure it was them)

Their fun items

Showing 1–17 of 17 fun items.

  1. fun, about John Hodgman: Hodgman first watched the film after a week on a 90-foot schooner (the Mary Day) at the Wooden Boat School in Brooklin, Maine, wanting more boat movies; he later invites the hosts on a Judge John Hodgman schooner cruise.
    “I saw this movie for the 1st time after I had spent a week, um, with my family, I believe in a 90 foot, uh, wooden, 2 masted schooner”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World with John Hodgman · 0:42:24 · John Hodgman (0.90 sure it was them)
  2. fun, about Paul Bettany: Griffin recalls pitching a Men's Journal profile of Paul Bettany before seeing the film and being told no, not that nerd (said by Hodgman, who wrote for Men's Journal).
    “And they said, no, not that nerd.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World with John Hodgman · 0:48:55 · John Hodgman (0.80 sure it was them)
  3. fun, about The lesser of two weevils scene: David's favorite scene is Aubrey's weevils joke at dinner; Hodgman and the others riff on Maturin's tiny glasses, and they request a supercut with the Def Jam crowd laughter.
    “Can someone please make a super cut of this lesser of 2 weevil scene with the crowd response from Bernie Max Def Jam?”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World with John Hodgman · 2:20:35 · John Hodgman (0.70 sure it was them)
  4. fun, about Galapagos / tortoises: Hodgman explains warships and whalers went to the Galapagos for tortoises, which don't spoil and need no food or water, so you stack them and kill them as you go.
    “Tortoises were good food on these ships.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World with John Hodgman · 2:34:48 · John Hodgman (0.90 sure it was them)
  5. fun, about Hodgman's boat facts: Hodgman explains lines vs ropes, fathoms, the lead, anchor scope, the lubber's hole, and kedging; the episode ends with a nautical word riff that should not be taken seriously.
    “Any kind of boat. First of all, you drop the lead to see what the quality of the seabed is.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World with John Hodgman · 3:09:47 · John Hodgman (0.90 sure it was them)
  6. fun, about Hodgman's Substack: Hodgman reads Moby-Dick aloud, chapter by chapter, in a terrible Maine accent, and teases that Vacation Land may come out in paperback.
    “You also get to listen to me read Moby Dick Aloud in a terrible main accent.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World with John Hodgman · 3:13:39 · John Hodgman (0.90 sure it was them)
  7. fun, about Dune: Hodgman tried to read Dune before the movie at 13, gave up after two chapters, and begged to see Ghostbusters instead.
    “And I put Dune aside, having read maybe 2 chapters, barely being able to understand what was going on.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Dune with John Hodgman · 0:23:30 · John Hodgman (0.90 sure it was them)
  8. fun, about Dune: Hodgman's reading of Dune chapter one aloud in a thick Maine accent is behind his Substack paywall.
    “There is a 37 minute recording of me reading the 1st chapter of Dune out loud in a thick main accent.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Dune with John Hodgman · 0:24:45 · John Hodgman (0.90 sure it was them)
  9. fun, about Dune: At the 1984 Brookline screening, a theater staffer handed out the studio's printed glossary of terms, and 13-year-old Hodgman read it so he would not have to talk to the girl next to him.
    “He ripped our tickets and then he handed me and Tim the famous glossary.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Dune with John Hodgman · 0:33:34 · John Hodgman (0.90 sure it was them)
  10. fun, about Dune: The girl and her mom beside Hodgman discussed the novel and the mom's favorite character was the sandworms.
    “and the mom said, I think my favorite character is the sandworms.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Dune with John Hodgman · 0:35:28 · John Hodgman (0.90 sure it was them)
  11. fun, about Dune: The Guild Navigator scene: a 20-foot tank holding a creature with a vagina mouth and T-Rex arms spitting orange drugs, Rambaldi's design, which Hodgman calls the linchpin of how he fell for the film.
    “that is like 20 feet high that is full of this phallus with a vagina mouth and T-Rex arms, with blue eyes that's spitting out orange drugs”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Dune with John Hodgman · 0:48:49 · John Hodgman (0.75 sure it was them)
  12. fun, about Peter Berg: On a first-class flight, Peter Berg pulled out two copies of Dune and offered Hodgman one, saying he was thinking about turning it into a movie.
    “And he pulls out a copy of Dune.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Dune with John Hodgman · 1:24:12 · John Hodgman (0.90 sure it was them)
  13. fun, about Peter Berg: Berg showed Hodgman spreadsheets of the most popular movies: young men's coming-of-age stories, his algorithm to crack Dune.
    “He had come up with the algorithm.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Dune with John Hodgman · 1:25:50 · John Hodgman (0.80 sure it was them)
  14. fun, about Alejandro Jodorowsky: Jodorowsky pulled a $1,000 bill out of his pocket to illustrate money ruining his Dune.
    “He reaches in his pocket and he pulls out somebody and goes, this, this awful stuff.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Dune with John Hodgman · 1:34:26 · John Hodgman (0.40 sure it was them)
  15. fun, about Dune: A creator friend told Hodgman not to take a Dune job: sci-fi people should make new things, not reboots. The lesson of Dune is the sleeper must awaken.
    “But as people who are involved in science fiction, our job is to think of the new.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Dune with John Hodgman · 2:42:51 · John Hodgman (0.85 sure it was them)
  16. fun, about Avengers: Infinity War: Shuri's translucent orange Blade Runner-style rain slicker gets a long overdue shout-out.
    “Her very cool, translucent, orange, Blade Runner-esque, rain slicker.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Avengers: Infinity War with John Hodgman · 1:55:59 · John Hodgman (0.40 sure it was them)
  17. fun, about Avengers: Infinity War: Billing joke: Josh Brolin is Thanos with the special participation of Chris Pratt.
    “And Josh Brolin is Thanos with the special participation of Chris Pratt.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Avengers: Infinity War with John Hodgman · 2:42:31 · John Hodgman (0.40 sure it was them)