Episode 353: Bill Murray – The One-Man Meme
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On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we get stuck in a time loop, caddy some shacks, and ain’t afraid of no ghosts as we talk about the popular culture icon, comedian, and actor: Bill Murray. Bill Murray is known for his comedy roles (and more lately some pretty inspiring drama roles in indie flicks like Lost in Translation and anything by Wes Anderson), but he’s gained a meme-worthy following based on the random sightings and “Bill Murray Stories” that pop up on the internet these days.
Born in the shadow of Chicago, Illinois, Murray was the fifth of nine children. Three of his brothers and one sister (who is also a nun) went into acting and/or comedy with some level of success, but it took a while to get there. Bill was feisty and rebellious as a youth and even fell on the wrong side of the law while attempting to smuggle nine pounds of marijuana out of Chicago O’Hare airport! This led him to follow his brother Brian-Doyle Murray into the famous Second City Improv group, and things were never the same after that.
He excelled at comedy, and within a few short years, he was working with John Belushi for National Lampoon and eventually took the spot Chevy Chase vacated in Saturday Night Live. From there, he launched a movie career, headlining comedy giants such as Caddyshack, Ghost Busters, and Ground Hog Day. After a hiatus and then more comedy, he found a second wave of success with Lost in Translation, and this was the start of his indie film career. But none of this is as important as his stories.
He now Murray-bombs regular people all over the world. He steals their fries. He covers their eyes while they piss at a urinal and whispers “no one will ever believe this.” He crashes parties, just to do people’s dirty dishes, and he drives cabbies around in their own city. His tendency to have gonzo run-ins with every day folks has given him a cult like following, and we talk about the best of the stories as well as the movie The Bill Murray Stories. We have some good laughs on this one and argue a lot about his best movies.
Great Rolling Stone Article: https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-news/being-bill-murray-175080/
The Bill Murray Stories: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7329810/