A new month is upon us, which means that a number of key titles are coming and going from various streaming services. As it turns out, a certain Will Ferrell classic — Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby — is among that list in December of this year. Talladega Nights left Netflix on Tuesday, November 30th, but was quickly made available on Amazon Prime Video the following day, Wednesday, December 1st. This means subscribers of both streaming services won’t have to go far to check out the 2006 Adam McKay film, which lampooned the world of NASCAR and became a bit of a cult classic along the way.
In Talladega Nights, number one NASCAR driver Ricky Bobby (Ferrell) stays atop the heap thanks to a pact with his best friend and teammate, Cal Naughton, Jr. (John C. Reilly) But when a French Formula One driver, makes his way up the ladder, Ricky Bobby’s talent and devotion are put to the test. The film also stars Sacha Baron Cohen, Gary Cole, Michael Clarke Duncan, Lesslie Bibb, Jane Lynch, and Amy Adams.
“We were real adamant up front that our goal wasn’t to make fun of NASCAR,” Ferrell said in a 2016 interview with ESPN. “We wanted to have fun with NASCAR. We were fascinated by this idea of drivers being teammates but also competing, like Ricky and Cal [Naughton Jr.]. Shake and bake, by the way. So, we said give us the inside jokes from the people who do this for a living and we’ll roll with it. That’s where characters like my wife, Carley, came from. We found that no one loved “Anchorman” more than the people who actually work in television news. I always felt like people in NASCAR could laugh at this, too. And if they didn’t … well, I’m a pretty big guy and most race car drivers are pretty small, so they knew what was up.”
“They did their research,” Sarah Nettinga, former NASCAR managing director, media and entertainment marketing, added. “They knew the sport. They knew how we worked and they knew we were about collaboration. If they didn’t, I think they figured that out very quickly. I think what really stood out to us was that they were going for true and authentic. And that would work, like anything in satirical comedy. If you do what’s authentic, it works. If you just make it all up, it’s not funny.”
What do you think of Talladega Nights switching streaming services? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!