Blank Check: The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Guest: Paul Scheer & Jason Mantzoukas
Release Date: November 16, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode of Blank Check finds hosts Griffin Newman and David Sims joined by comedian/How Did This Get Made? hosts Paul Scheer and Jason Mantzoukas for a sprawling, freewheeling, and at times uproarious discussion of the Coen Brothers' 2018 Netflix anthology, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. The panel examines the film as a summative, experimental late-period work, and places it within the ever-shifting filmmaking landscape, as well as in the broader context of the Coens' career. Along the way, they veer into topics of meme culture, industry changes, Greek-American actors, the “Geek Squad” of young Hollywood talent, and advice for organizing one's finances or buying Mongolian cashmere sweaters (courtesy of ad reads and recurring bits).

Main Themes and Purpose

• Exploring The Ballad of Buster Scruggs as an unconventional Coen Brothers project: its origins, production, structure, and significance as both an anthology and a meditation on death.
• The rise and fall of streaming “blank check” projects—and how the film illuminates a transitional era in Hollywood.
• The podcast itself as “anthology” or “sketch show”: how discussions spiral, overlap, and resolve, echoing the film’s format.
• Spirited, affectionate debate about what makes the Coens unique, with extensive diversions into film nerd culture and Hollywood anecdotes.

Key Discussion Points

1. The Meme-ification of “First Time” & the Legacy of Scruggs (00:39–04:22)

• The panel opens by discussing the film’s cult quotability—most notably the “First Time?” meme featuring James Franco—which has proliferated without widespread awareness of the film’s source.
• David Sims: “The most famous line from this movie is 'First Time?', which has become a meme in its own right” (01:06).
• Jason Mantzoukas admits he's “not in this world” when it comes to meme culture (01:43), prompting explanations of the Jeremiah Johnson/Robert Redford meme and generational gaps.

2. Streaming, Theatricality, and The Film That Was Nearly a TV Series (04:27–05:10, 84:50–86:45)

• The group laments Buster Scruggs' limited theatrical run and how it was mistakenly reported as a miniseries—highlighting confusion at the time about what TV and movies meant on streaming platforms.
• Griffin Newman: “This was not meant to be a movie. This was meant to be a series” (05:10).
• The Coens are cited as being adamant it was always a film, with Netflix and Annapurna backing a project the major studios would never have greenlit.
• The episode revisits this distinction, highlighting the shifting landscape for passion projects.

3. Greek-American Actor Bit & the “Bone to Pick” (05:28–18:16)

• Jason Mantzoukas humorously calls out the hosts for overlooking him in a prior episode when naming prominent Greek-American actors.
• This launches a recurring, playful grievance (“I've got a bone to pick!”), with the group rattling off notable names (Aniston, Galifianakis, Stamos, etc.) and discussing the weird business of internet lists and celebrity ancestry.
• Jason Mantzoukas: “I am your friend. … I am not only a regular guest on this show... and you're — wow, you are Greek.” (09:00)

4. Hollywood Silos, Social Media, and Siloed Fandoms (04:14–04:22, 18:00–20:29)

• Discussion of how people increasingly encounter cultural moments, memes, or celebrities without deeper background: “Everybody receives the thing that they get…they don't care to explore it any deeper.”
• Segues into crossover between podcast fandoms (“Geek Squad”), young actor cliques, group texts, and Hollywood's shifting hierarchy.

5. Buster Scruggs as Sketch Comedy, Anthology, and Artistic “Appendixes” (21:09–22:03)

• The hosts propose the conceptual frame of Buster Scruggs as “the Coen Brothers' Mad TV” or “their Monty Python and the Meaning of Life”—a film made up of riffs, gifs, and left-field sketches.
• Ben Hosley: “It's like thumbnail sketches…when you see a great art exhibit…like, oh, these are the leftover noodles” (21:31).
• They note the film’s unique, intentionally unfinished/fragmentary character; the analogy to directors’ notebooks or sketchbooks comes up repeatedly.

6. The Film's Structure, Key Segments, and Anthology Logic (62:04–115:00)

• After much preamble (and digression), the panel dives into the anthology’s six stories, their interlocking themes, and the cumulative effect:

  • Segment 1 — "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs": Celebrated for its cartoon logic, Bugs Bunny/Loney Tunes energy, and Tim Blake Nelson’s bravura, physical, and even “musical” performance.
    • David Sims: “The minute you go, ‘Oh, it could have been a second shorter’—you always want to leave people wanting more” (68:06).
  • Segment 2 — "Near Algodones": The “first time” segment, foremost known for generating a viral meme. The comedy of repetition, escalation, and Stephen Root’s “pan shot!” gag are highlighted.
  • Segment 3 — "Meal Ticket": Noted for shifting to a nearly silent tone poem and for Harry Melling’s eerie, affecting performance. Seen as an allegory for showbiz’s exploitative nature (“Melling is movie theaters and the chicken is Netflix” — 130:19).
  • Segment 4 — "All Gold Canyon": Celebrated for Tom Waits’ solitary work and the segment’s methodical pacing—the closest the Coens come to pure nature and optimism in the film.
  • Segment 5 — "The Gal Who Got Rattled": A more classical, tragic, dialog-driven Western, invested emotionally in Zoe Kazan’s character, her attempt to find connection, and the profound, accidental tragedy at its end.
  • Segment 6 — "The Mortal Remains": A stagey, philosophical, near-theological Socratic dialogue, with the panel parsing which characters represent the Coens’ own perspectives, and interpreting the segment as both an artist's coda and a reckoning with mortality.

• The recurring motif across stories: the inevitability of death, how people negotiate with it, and the tension between performance and reality.

7. Production Context and Streaming's “Blank Check” Era (25:11–29:17, 84:50–86:45)

• Paul Scheer and others contextualize the 2010s (Annapurna, Netflix, Amazon) as a brief window where “the movies that couldn't get made anywhere else” could be made, even if there was always some risk of half-measures and loss of creative oversight as the industry calcified again.
• The film’s connection to that “wild west” is thematically appropriate.

8. Bit-Heavy Sidebars: Greek Americans, The Geek Squad, The Brat Pack, and Mark Wahlberg Tangent (10:01–57:13)

• In true “Blank Check” fashion, the panel gets gloriously sidetracked discussing Greek-American actors, the changing nature of star cliques ("Geek Squad" — Zendaya, Chalamet, Pugh, etc.), and 1980s “Brat Pack” politics.
• A mammoth Mark Wahlberg filmography tangent unfolds, exploring why he rises or falls on directors’ ability to harness “true” Marky Mark energy, and what streaming has done to action movies.
• Notable Quote: “Some movies (Netflix/streaming) scratch that itch, but it kind of bounces off me in that streaming way—if you don't get me quick, I'm kind of…” (49:01)

9. Thematic Depth: What Do All These Stories Have In Common? (81:00–84:38)

• The panel and dossier research underscore how “death comes for all” is the film's secret: it is both the literal subject and the through-line unifying the stories.
• Griffin Newman: “Their movies are animated by: how do people process the fact that [death is] the inevitable end goal?”

10. Awards, Rankings, the Coens' Place in History (202:04–213:59)

• The episode closes with a “Coens Top 10” ranking, each host offering a personal canonical list, leading to passionate but non-combative debate about the merits of individual films—e.g. Barton Fink, Miller’s Crossing, No Country, Inside Llewyn Davis.
• Jason Mantzoukas: “These are all unimpeachably just masterpieces by my estimate.” (207:33)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Buster Scruggs’ Meme Legacy:
  “Despite this being a film that is only, what, seven years old, I do feel like the First Time meme is almost like the Jeremiah Johnson meme where 99% of people who use it could not tell you what movie it’s from.”
  — Griffin Newman (01:11)
• On Streaming & Theatrical Runs:
  “This was one week between it playing three theaters and going to Netflix.”
  — Griffin Newman (04:59)
• On Casting:
  “Tim Blake Nelson as Buster Scruggs… is almost the best use of that actor’s skill set as a cartoon character we’ve ever seen.”
  — recurring sentiment
• On Death & Themes:
  “Death comes for us all… But that is right. That is the common theme [the Coens] saw.”
  — David Sims (80:51)
• On Showbiz Satire / “Meal Ticket”:
  “This is them commenting on the level of disdain that show business has for the creator, that the second you don’t have an audience you are garbage to me.”
  — Griffin Newman (130:29)
• On The Geek Squad:
  “There are so many different categories of Damon and he is successful in every one of them… Damon as leading man, Damon as supporting, Damon as dramatic cameo…”
  — Jason Mantzoukas (51:34)
• On The Podcast's Meandering Structure:
  “The show has been happening for 55 minutes. Podcast should be podcast. Video show should be video show. We should not have podcasts that are just—”
  — Jason Mantzoukas (59:45)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:39–04:22 – “First Time” meme, film’s online legacy
• 05:28–18:16 – Greek-American actors, “bone to pick,” and showbiz silos
• 21:09–22:03 – Framing Buster Scruggs as sketch comedy/meaning of life
• 62:04–115:00 – Segment-by-segment discussion (see above for story-by-story breakdown)
• 84:50–86:45 – Film’s production history, Netflix vs. Annapurna, industry context
• 130:29–138:53 – "Meal Ticket" as showbiz and streaming allegory
• 202:04–213:59 – Coen Brothers film rankings

Tone & Energy

• Warm, boisterous, heavily referential and performative, often breaking into recurring in-jokes, bits, and musical riffs.
• Deeply film-literate: encyclopedic references to both Coen filmography and movie industry ephemera.
• Intellectually engaged, but always undercut by self-deprecation and meta-podcast commentary (“We’ve been talking for an hour and haven’t introduced the show!”).

Conclusion

Through detailed, digressive conversation, the episode casts The Ballad of Buster Scruggs as a representative work of the Coen Brothers—summative, shaggy, existential, playful, and deeply stitched into the themes of Hollywood’s own evolution. Both podcast and film embrace multiplicity and sketches—thumbnail portraits, fragments, connections, and endings. In loving, chaotic, and precise detail, the panel makes a powerful case for the film’s importance, the continuing power of passionate criticism, and the enduring weirdness of the American moviemaking dream.

Additional Resources

• For more on the Coen Brothers’ career, see previous episodes in the Blank Check miniseries.
• For the recurring “Greek-American actors” bit, consult episodes of both Blank Check and How Did This Get Made?
• The full dossier and links to spotlighted critical essays are available on Blank Check’s newsletter and show notes.