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Happy early Fourth from Jon and the whole Secret Base gang! Episode 15 of Pretty Good is a deconstruction of the 1996 summer blockbuster Independence Day, a documentary about the time Jeff Goldblum defeated an invincible alien race by going to Area 51, getting drunk off his ass, and writing a computer virus in Visual Basic.

Rather than focusing on the heroes, though, this is a thorough examination of one of Jon's favorite and least favorite characters in the history of cinema: Secretary of Defense Albert Nimziki, played by true genius and legend James Rebhorn.

We'll be dropping this video on Secret Base's YouTube channel sometime around the end of the year, but since you're a Patreon subscriber, you get it right now, way in advance, and completely ad-free. If you're new here, you already have a bunch of other stuff waiting for you, including my entire three-part series REFORM!  and Episode 14 of Pretty Good, about the history of slipping on banana peels. There are also multiple episodes of The Annex, a brand-new podcast made by the entire Secret Base squad, and tons of other fun stuff that's just for subscribers.

Thanks as always for deciding we're worth your money! Count on a brand-new, super-early-release episode of Pretty Good on the first Monday of every month.

Files

Comments

Nathaniel Lowry

One time when I was at the store, I saw Albert Nimziki. I walked up and told him I was a huge fan, but he just kept saying "uhuh" louder and louder until I walked away. I then saw him fighting with some store employees after trying to walk out with pockets full of tic tac containers. Still a big fan though!

mike

OH MY GOD YES

Jules

Oh boy

Illien

Independence Day scared the hell out of me as a child, that and Mars Attacks were absolute nightmare fuel despite neither of them being outright horror movies.

Matthew Velasco

my favorite sports writer returning to my favorite youtube series to make a video on my favorite 90s blockbuster?? i am feasting today

Patrick Crutchley (edited)

Comment edits

2024-07-15 18:39:26 i yelped when you quoted Hypernormalisation, Jon. Thank you.
2024-07-15 18:39:26 i yelped when you quoted Hypernormalisation, Jon. Thank you.
2024-07-15 18:39:26 i yelped when you quoted Hypernormalisation, Jon. Thank you.
2024-07-01 16:32:31 i yelped when you quoted Hypernormalisation, Jon. Thank you.

i yelped when you quoted Hypernormalisation, Jon. Thank you.

sno

the titanic is based on preexisting work, shouldnt be on the graph

James Dahlke

Amazing work as always

Laeb

This was spectacular. It’s gonna be hard to top this

Talon Karrde

The Lawyer is Jurrasic Park is in my opinion the best character in the book and lives. Tho jurassic park isn't a book > movie thing for me. I love both equally, and they are just different, and those differences fascinate me.

Cody Baird

Awesome video! You may want to add the final song that plays over the Patreon credits to the music credits list though; the list ends with Half Forgotten Daydreams but not whatever song came after that

TEM Reviews

8:32 Everyone should use as much Yiddish as possible, it’s a great language. You have our permission.

Mitch Okun

I only feel comfortable posting this somewhat self-dox because I believe this comment will show my full name anyway, but ... As a long haired male young adult when this movie came out, having the same surname as Brent Spiner's character gave enough abuse fodder to my tormentors for decades. But it wasn't until just now, watching this Pretty Good, at the moment in the video where Jon points out the only OTHER character introduced in Area 51 (illustrated at 27:23 in the video), that I realize that it is actually my FULL name, first and last, that happens in this movie. Is this how I find out that I've had beef with Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin all this time, but didn't know it?

Mitch Okun

+1, I teach the word "Shmitchik" to as many Gentiles as I possibly can.

Ryan Berger

A similar situation in a Roland Emmerich movie is Godzilla (1998), in which famed movie reviewers Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel (who had both given poor reviews to Emmerich’s previous films) are portrayed as the Mayor of New York and his assistant, respectively (quite literally named Mayor Ebert and Gene). Both characters are portrayed as incompetent, concerned more with appearance than effectiveness, but are ultimately safe by the end of the movie. As Gene Siskel said in his review, “Why place us in the movie if you aren’t going to have us be eaten or squished by the monster?” I can only imagine that Mr. Nimziki considered a similar question

Troy W

Jon really showed restraint, I would've busted out the Style City stinger every single time Nimziki had an idea shot down

The Real Ben Shapiro

If Joe Nimziki was ever upset about this, he can take solace in this: his name could have been sullied far, far worse. So much worse.

easports

I never knew Al Nimzicki was presumably named after a disliked movie producer... But I do know that Emmerich and Devlin named the annoying mayor and his aide characters in Godzilla "Mayor Ebert and Siskel". Ebert and Siskel gave ID4 two negative reviews on its release. So Emmerich and Devlin definitely have a track record for this kind of stuff.

David L. Lebovitz

The Jewish Community gives you a retroactive Yiddish pass

May Contain Fox-Like Substance

The thing about Independence Day is that it was only the second-best alien invasion movie of 1996—that's the year Star Trek: First Contact came out, aka "the one TNG movie that was actually good."

plushifoxed

i feel like i should watch independence day all the way through at some point now. like i just feel obligated

EddieOrNot

“The Iron Sphincter” nickname hard as fuck tbf

Noah Ledyard

Nimzicki lookin like Klay in an elimination game

TEM Reviews

It’s historical fiction, made-up protagonists living through a real event.

Will Bloodworth

I'll never look at siding the same way. RIP James Rebhorn and long live Pete and Pete

idiot fox

Oh my god the Cursed Lore section is so funny. I think it rivals DeVry vs Troy State's final score in bizarre yet deeply cursed discoveries Jon just happened to make yet it somehow matters even less Fantastic video as always, honestly between this and the old 24 video I think these types of media deconstructions might be my favorite things Jon's ever done.

AFrozen10-0

As always amazing work!

Kristofer Mc Cormack

The sax solo for post-nuke clarity. You've done again Jon

Jiffypop

My kingdom for non-automated captions

Matt

"her dipshit friend Tiffany" - legit lol

Griffin Jones

Love the final few lines. As always, fantastic work "Can you do the thing you always needed him to do and just throw it out?"

Luke Coviello

I can't believe that Emmerich went on to do this again to Cisco and Ebert in Godzilla 98

Nick

"Are you actually ready for the day you get what you want?" Leave it to Jon to end a funny video on a side character in a movie from 30 years ago on a line that hit me like a ton of bricks

donborvio

Practical effects will beat CGI 9 times out of 10! I'm with you Jon!

Jonathan Bottorff

Thank you for putting the patrons in alphabetical order

Michael Jackson

Now this is the kinda thing that keepse subscribed!

Scott Clam

RIP to Paul Wall and Matt Bullard.

James baird

Honestly it’s crazy that that unofficial book exists, what make someone write that

KeegoTheWise

i know shouldn’t just give internet videos a like before even watching them. but i’m kind if a thick-headed clod, so i’m gonna do it anyway and simply hope that it deserved it update: it deserved it

Sebastien Rempel

Not sure if this was clarified in the video, but I’m curious about whether the cabinet decided to nuke Houston for any particular strategic reason or whether they just didn’t like Houston

Mazzocchi (edited)

Comment edits

2024-07-15 18:39:26 idk if you’ll read these comments Jon, but i’m very surprised you didn’t mention Roland Emmerich’s 1998 masterpiece (debatable) Godzilla. Wherein there was the incompetent, and overweight (which was the butt of a handful of jokes) mayor of New York whose last name was… Ebert. Siskel and Ebert lambasted Independence Day on their program, and Roland did literally the same thing he did in Independence Day to Nimziki in his follow-up movie, Godzilla. This sort of thing borders on a trope for him. Have a good night Jon, l love your work, and you’re on my Mount Rushmore of people I admire. I’ll hang up and listen.
2024-07-15 18:39:26 idk if you’ll read these comments Jon, but i’m very surprised you didn’t mention Roland Emmerich’s 1998 masterpiece (debatable) Godzilla. Wherein there was the incompetent, and overweight (which was the butt of a handful of jokes) mayor of New York whose last name was… Ebert. Siskel and Ebert lambasted Independence Day on their program, and Roland did literally the same thing he did in Independence Day to Nimziki in his follow-up movie, Godzilla. This sort of thing borders on a trope for him. Have a good night Jon, l love your work, and you’re on my Mount Rushmore of people I admire. I’ll hang up and listen.
2024-07-15 18:39:26 idk if you’ll read these comments Jon, but i’m very surprised you didn’t mention Roland Emmerich’s 1998 masterpiece (debatable) Godzilla. Wherein there was the incompetent, and overweight (which was the butt of a handful of jokes) mayor of New York whose last name was… Ebert. Siskel and Ebert lambasted Independence Day on their program, and Roland did literally the same thing he did in Independence Day to Nimziki in his follow-up movie, Godzilla. This sort of thing borders on a trope for him. Have a good night Jon, l love your work, and you’re on my Mount Rushmore of people I admire. I’ll hang up and listen.
2024-07-02 03:39:11 idk if you’ll read these comments Jon, but i’m very surprised you didn’t mention Roland Emmerich’s 1998 masterpiece (debatable) Godzilla. Wherein there was the incompetent, and overweight (which was the butt of a handful of jokes) mayor of New York whose last name was… Ebert. Siskel and Ebert lambasted Independence Day on their program, and Roland did literally the same thing he did in Independence Day to Nimziki in his follow-up movie, Godzilla. This sort of thing borders on a trope for him. Have a good night Jon, l love your work, and you’re on my Mount Rushmore of people I admire. I’ll hang up and listen.

idk if you’ll read these comments Jon, but i’m very surprised you didn’t mention Roland Emmerich’s 1998 masterpiece (debatable) Godzilla. Wherein there was the incompetent, and overweight (which was the butt of a handful of jokes) mayor of New York whose last name was… Ebert. Siskel and Ebert lambasted Independence Day on their program, and Roland did literally the same thing he did in Independence Day to Nimziki in his follow-up movie, Godzilla. This sort of thing borders on a trope for him. Have a good night Jon, l love your work, and you’re on my Mount Rushmore of people I admire. I’ll hang up and listen.

Riley McPherson

Well, this is absolutely one of my top 3 favorite Pretty Goods and I will definitely be giving it multiple rewatches in the future.

Clayton Zeno

Shout out to Jon with the City of Houston eulogy 😂

Secret Base

oh good catch, i'd added that song at the last minute and forgot to update the credits. that last track is the 60-second version of "A Life In The City" by John Adams and Richard Neve

Martin C

27:59 I love it when whatever tale he's telling becomes so absurd/incredulous, Jon's exasperated break sends me every time.

Terry

I feel like this should be submitted for a Pulitzer.

Batti

True, John Crichton somehow got away with basing and naming a fictional pedophile after someone that gave a book of his a bad review because said pedophile had a small penis.

Sam Aronow

FYI: it isn’t cultural appropriation. At least not beyond the sense that all linguistic influence is cultural appropriation.

Halycon404

You should take a trip through the weird world of writers for hire. It's cheap and exploitative but you can hire a writer to create a novel for near nothing. It's all stuff like that. Someone notices a trend on the internet then hires some poor writer to create a novel off an app for almost nothing. Amazon is filled with self published media tie ins and other junk books. One person will have hundreds of novels published under assumed names by hundreds of authors. If they sell a few copies they pay for themselves. If they sell 100 copies they pay for the creation of several other books. So they target anything that's currently in the media trying to get in on the wave they are seeing in search frequency. A novel will be created and published in a week or two.

Sam Aronow

Whoever wrote that book is in trouble.

Evan

i really hope Jon has seen Moonfall

Clams30

of course Emmerich's petty spite leaks through onto the screen. in Godzilla 98 he had a character named Mayor Ebert who was played by Michael Lerner, and Lorry Goldman played his assistant "Gene" who says "You know what I think of your campaign?" and gives Mayor Ebert a thumbs down. https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/roland-emmerich-attacked-roger-ebert-godzilla/

roffmo

they talk about the dog that caught the car, but did they ever ask if the dog got to meet the car at an LA party years later and give it a knowing look???

Robert

Considering Bohemian Rhapsody was a dramaticized biopic, Independence Day is probably closer to 9th highest among original IPs. In other words, that charts not entirely accurate lol

Brett

A terrific accompaniment to this video is the episode of The Rewatchables about Independence Day with Sean Fennessey, Chris Ryan, and Bill Simmonds. They spend time talking specifically about how it seems like Judd Hirsch's character thinks he's in a different movie altogether.

Jeremy

I don't know why The Lion King is considered not to be an adaptation. It takes from the Japanese anime Kimba The White Lion, but mostly it's just Hamlet.

Silvacor says I hope you have a good day!

after 8 years of “pretty good is a rare treat. i am like an aquarium’s giant isopod. i eat every 4-6 years” i legit was frazzled by this. you just did a three parter. and then taught us bananafoot history. you have the time to tell us what’s not entirely accurate? damn boishead and the base crew, new pretty good every month is not something i ever really understood and processed until it was right there in my fsce

Free4554

I love how this character is still a more subtle dig at a real person compared to the time Roland Emmerich took shots at Dick Cheney in The Day After Tomorrow.

Érico Lotufo

In The LEGO Movie, Benny keeps insisting they build a spaceship and keeps getting shot down. Until they finally give him the green light to build a spaceship and he happily exclaims "SPACESHIP!!" multiple times. Al Nimziki should have yelled "NUKES!! NUKES!! NUUUUKES!!" when the President let him nuke the aliens.

Will Hennessy

There's also an argument to be made that ID4 is a (very loose) interpretation of War of the Worlds (what with the aliens brought down by, albeit, a very different type of virus). So it may not qualify for that list at all.

Batti

By that standard, there's nothing original in the world. Also the Lion King-Kimba connection is waaaaaay overstated.

Aidenke

This was an absolute delight, ID4 is a guilty pleasure for so many and poking at it is just too much fun. Been loving the variety in all of these Pretty Goods, and I hope the Patreon can help you keep them coming!

Dr. Johnny Trutor

This made me want to watch a movie I haven’t seen in almost thirty years!

MaxBoltzman

You know it's going to be good when there is a box labeled "FORBIDDEN LORE" and one labeled "CURSED LORE."

Harry Thornton

Also in that same film it's said (though never confirmed) that a character squished by Godzilla early on is based on JD Lees, a hardcore Godzilla fan known for being the face of its US fandom in the '90s through the fan magazine G-Fan and accompanying G-Fest convention. He had unkind things to said about Emmerich and Devlin's film while it was underdeveloped, and it's not hard to see why they'd take a jab at him. Meanwhile Gene Siskel was just disappointed that they DIDN'T get squished, as they would've had a good sense of humor about it.

Harry Thornton

As a fan of tie-in media books that expand on the universe of a film or series, I love the tip of the hat you gave to ID4's expanded lore. Funnily enough Emmerich and Devlin's Stargate itself is a rare example where its spinoff TV adaptation (Stargate SG-1) actually found an audience big enough to eclipse its source material, becoming one of the big cult genre TV hits of the early 2000s.

Harry Thornton

I'd say it still counts, there's lots of works with the premise of "alien invasion" and ID4 is just following in that tradition.

Skyehoppers

it is hamlet only in the broadest possible strokes. never heard a comparison that makes it past the second bullet point

Terrence Kuhns

RIP to Rebhorn and his fantastic performance, but the best part of that line is the absolute LOOK Bill Pullman gives him. The greatest "are you shitting me?" look EVER given in a film.

Brett Barnes

Not to defend the guy but shouldn’t he have 1 accepted idea for when they nuked Dallas?

Rafał Brzeziński

I thought that Jon's takedown of Pat Buchanan is gonna go down as the most vitriol he's ever directed towards anyone in his work. Little did I know.

Ben

Watching ID4 and this back to back is incredible. The chart is soooo good in illustrating the film.

Kyle Rudy

Damn. I didn't expect the final note to be so inspiring. Thanks for putting so much heart--and, let's be real, way more hard work than was ever strictly necessary--into this 45 minute video essay about a fake guy who sucks.

Death Ray

That Chapo appearance has probably gotten you a lot of subscribers just for this video! As for the content: Hey, I just wish Nimziki was in the presidential race this year! All I ask for are options.

Michael Nixon

This shit alone was worth the $5. Thank you for the incredible work.