Kind of a Big Deal

How Anchorman Stayed Classy and Became the Most Iconic Comedy of the Twenty-First Century

By: Saul Austerlitz

Narrated by: Barrett Leddy

Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

*Vulture's Best Comedy Book of 2023*

From the author of Generation Friends, featuring brand-new interviews with Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, a surprising, incisive, and often hilarious book about the film that changed comedy, Anchorman.

It’s been nearly twenty years since Ron Burgundy burst into movie fans’ lives, reminding San Diego to “stay classy” while lampooning a time gone by—although maybe not as far gone as we might think? In Kind of a Big Deal, comedy historian Saul Austerlitz tells the history of how Anchorman was developed, written, and cast, and how it launched the careers of future superstars like Will Ferrell, Steve Carell, and Paul Rudd, also setting the stage for a whole decade of comedy to come and influencing films like The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Talladega Nights, Knocked Up, Superbad, and so many more.

But Kind of a Big Deal isn’t only a celebration of Anchorman—it’s also a cultural analysis of the film’s significance as a sly commentary on feminism, the media, fragile masculinity, 1970s nostalgia, and more. Featuring brand-new interviews with stars such as Will Ferrell, director Adam McKay, and other key players, the book includes insider commentary alongside updated pop-culture analysis. And it also shares surprising stories and facts: from the film’s original conception as a plane crash/cannibal comedy mashup to the surprising, real-life newscaster who inspired the character of Veronica.

Overall, this is a celebration of a movie that millions love—but it’s also an unsparing look back at what has and hasn’t changed, since the 1970s and since 2004. Perfect for fans of the film and anyone who cares about comedy today, Kind of a Big Deal proves that the movie was, and is, exactly that.

©2023 Saul Austerlitz (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

*A Vulture Best Comedy Book of 2023*
*Boston Globe’s Best New Books for Summer 2023* 

"Anchorman is one of the last great broad, blockbuster comedies, densely packed with over-the-top characters, jokes, catchphrases, and set pieces. It’s great to see it get the full, exhaustive, appreciative analysis and oral history, a treatment afforded to all iconic culture. Saul Austerlitz was the perfect author for the job.... He takes comedy seriously and respectfully, but also lovingly and critically, the right approach for Anchorman, which, Austerlitz posits, was a flash point for funny films." —Vulture

"Saul Austerlitz makes a compelling — and hilarious — case that [Anchorman] deserves much deeper consideration.... Austerlitz’s book is a fascinating account of how much work goes behind creating a movie that’s become a mainstay among weekend cable channel fare.... One doesn’t have to be an “Anchorman” to appreciate the book. They could, as Ron Burgundy would say, just need an addition to the many leather-bound books in their apartment that smells of rich mahogany." —Associated Press

"Austerlitz’s Kind of a Big Deal is a wickedly sharp, discursive study of a movie that has cast a long shadow on 21st-century comedy... The book is also an elegy of sorts for a time, not long ago, when blockbuster comedies could make a dent in an industry increasingly dominated (“Barbenheimer,” notwithstanding) by superhero and fantasy IP." —Los Angeles Times

Interspersed with too much modern politics

When it talked about "Anchorman" the first half of the book it was interesting, but for me the second half delved too much into modern politics. I didn't expect a book about a 2004 film to turn into a diatribe about Trump and January 6th. Even if I agree things are a mess right now, I chose this book to briefly escape current world events. That rather large segment was an unwelcome intrusion into a film about an entirely different time. I was disappointed.

Not enough behind-the-scenes stuff

The anecdotes about the creation of the movie and the lives of the people that were pivotal to its creation are terrifically entertaining and fun. And the telling of the life of the Ron Burgandy character beyond the film, in commercials and live appearances, was illuminating and quite amusing. But there is a significant amount of what felt like long-winded filler. Describing scenes from the film and reenacting them in detail (though it must be said, usually read with a high degree of skill) before making superfluous comments about them. Too much time dedicated to doing the same for other tangentially related films as well. About 70% of this book was great, but it needed some judicious editing or more pertinent information on its proposed subject. Still, for Anchorman fans, I'd say it's worth checking out (if only for the different, originally planned plotlines which are extremely funny).

Thought it would be funnier.

Awesome narration doesn’t save this history. Raving about how good Anchorman is but a large portion of the book is about material that was cut makes me wonder what part they thought was better. Big part of the last quarter is about other Ferrell and McKay projects. Would have been a better listen with some editing.

To paraphrase Brian Fontana: Sixty percent of the time, funny every time!

I thought that there would be more anecdotes.

I thought that there would be more anecdotes. I found this to be very disappointing.

Way to analytical

Expected a lot more inside stories about the making of the film, but got a ton of psychoanalysis of the male and female psyche and feminism before the Me Too movement. Went overboard trying to make social commentary on the movie and all of its deeper meanings. Sorry, there is no way there was that much deliberate subtext. Best parts of the book were the insight into the making of the film. The rest was not so good.