Will Ferrell
For most of a decade, the comedy playing at the multiplex WAS Will Ferrell. From SNL's George W. Bush and More Cowbell to Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and Step Brothers — his movies got recited line-for-line before the credits rolled.
Will Ferrell (born July 16, 1967, in Irvine, California) came up through Los Angeles' Groundlings improv troupe and joined Saturday Night Live in 1995. Over seven seasons he became the show's anchor: his George W. Bush impression, Alex Trebek opposite Celebrity Jeopardy's unhinged contestants, and the More Cowbell sketch all entered the permanent sketch-comedy canon. By 2001 he was SNL's highest-paid cast member at $350,000 a season.
He left in 2002 and immediately became the theatrical comedy of the 2000s. The run speaks for itself: Old School and Elf in 2003, Anchorman in 2004, Kicking & Screaming in 2005, Talladega Nights in 2006 — its $47 million opening weekend his biggest yet — then Blades of Glory in 2007 and Step Brothers in 2008. In 2005 alone he earned a reported $40 million. Dorm rooms turned Anchorman into a recital piece; "shake and bake" became generational shorthand. In 2007 he and Adam McKay co-founded Funny or Die, launching the comedy-video site with the viral short "The Landlord."
The quote-along era eventually cooled, but its grip on 2000s humor didn't: an entire generation still communicates in Ferrell lines.
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Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
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