Here’s the Comedy Christopher Nolan Watches Whenever It Comes on TV

Imagine if the first draft for the Oppenheimer script had Cillian Murphy reflecting on a successful nuclear weapons test with the iconic utterance, “I’m not sure what to do with my hands.”

Right now, the movie industry is riding the hot hand as Christopher Nolan’s latest project breaks records alongside its counter-programming companion Barbie. Oppenheimer nearly doubled its opening weekend box office projections, and the biographical thriller’s strong performance is set to continue on its warpath as audiences across the country sign up for the tonal whiplash of a Barbenheimer double feature.

Speaking of unexpected pairings, Nolan recently revealed a surprising fact about his own personal film taste on The Rich Eisen Show, saying that his personal favorite “remote drop” movie — meaning the film he’ll always watch through the end credits when it airs on television — isn’t some heady, auteur epic that would draw comparisons to Nolan’s own work. No, the movie that demands Nolan’s attention the most is actually Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. As if we needed more proof that Nolan wakes up in the morning and pisses excellence.

“If you ain’t first, you’re last,” Nolan said to the incredulity of his hosts when they heard his answer to the “remote drop” question. In retrospect, it seems fitting that the first film Nolan specifically named as a must-watch was something profoundly dissimilar to his own body of work — if you spend all day working at a Subway, the first thing you fix yourself when you get home at night probably isn’t going to be a sandwich.

In fact, save Leonardo DiCaprio, there’s almost no crossover between Nolan’s filmography and the Adam McKay Extended Universe — though I personally wouldn’t mind if that changed. Nolan’s Batman trilogy was great, but imagine how much better it would have been if, instead of Commissioner Gordon, the Dark Knight’s contacts in Gotham PD were officers Allen Gamble and Terry Hoitz from The Other Guys.