YMMV / Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Is Brick really "dumb"? Or is he just incredibly socially stunted but otherwise functional? While he demonstrates incredible social awkwardness, he does show skill as a weatherman.
• Awesome Art: The gorgeously animated "Pleasuretown" sequence.
• Awesome Ego: Ron Burgundy himself. His first line of the movie is him calling everyone into the room to see how good he looks!
• Awesome Music: The news team's spontaneous acapella rendition of "Afternoon Delight," complete with four-part harmony.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The "Pleasure Town" sequence.
  • The parking lot brawl, basically an excuse to use some fun cameos, and ends rather suddenly. Even though they do somewhat acknowledge it in a funny way afterwards. Though it does at least lead to a nice Brick Joke where Luke Wilson's OTHER arm gets torn off by one of the bears.
  "Brick, I've been meaning to talk to you about that, you should probably find a safe place or a relative close by; lay low for a while, because you're probably wanted for murder..."
  • Ron, Brian, Champ and Brick, while having a private conversation, spontaneously break out into an acapella rendition of "Afternoon Delight," complete with four-part harmony. The second they're done, the just as immediately return their attention to their work.
• Crosses the Line Twice: The movie seems to be an instructional manual of how to make horrible things incredibly funny.
  • Ron's beloved dog gets murdered? Sounds like a tear jerker. Ron's dog gets drop-kicked off a bridge by Jack Black? Hillarious. The following scene with Ron in the phone boots further cements this as one of the funniest part of the movie. Especially since Baxter actually suffers a Disney Death.
  • Brick killing a guy with a trident? Horrifying. The whole news crew talking about it, and the legal trouble Brick will be in, as if they were talking about the weather? Gut-busting hilarious.
• Diagnosed by the Audience: The film describes Brick In-Universe as "mentally retarded", but it is how people in the 1970s referred to people who are now diagnosed as autistic.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Brick was a quirky kind of fun that won many fans over.
• Fountain of Memes: Brick. See below.
  • Ron has also proven to be endlessly quotable.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Ron insults Wes's mother during the first movie. A Deleted Scene reveals they're brothers.
  • The "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue reveals that Brick (played by Steve Carell) went on to become a top advisor at the Bush White House. Carell would go on to play Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in Vice, also directed by Adam McKay.
• Ho Yay: When Champ talks about how the News Team needs Ron, he starts going on about how he misses everything about Ron, including "his musk" and most importantly his butt, and suggests that when this is all over, they move into an apartment together. Everyone else is quite uncomfortable.
• Memetic Badass: Brick, for somehow procuring a hand grenade, killing a guy with a trident, not getting eaten alive by bears, and being a Bush White House advisor, is often described by many fans as a living god.
• Memetic Mutation: There's enough that it now has its own page!
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • Jack Black as the biker who punts Baxter.
  • Tim Robbins, Luke Wilson and Ben Stiller all make the most of their short screentime.
  • The lady bank teller in Wake Up, Ron Burgundy that question the choice and meaning of the masks worn by the members of The Alarm Clock, played by Amy Poehler.
• Periphery Demographic: The movie and especially the character of Ron himself are extremely popular in the rap community, mostly owing to Ron's Awesome Ego, enough to earn him his own podcast on IHeartRadio. Kanye West is a notable fan and even got a cameo in the sequel.
• Retroactive Recognition: Seth Rogen has a minor role as the Channel 4 cameraman at the San Diego Zoo.
• Signature Scene: The "That escalated quickly" scene following the brawl.
• Song Association: Just try listening to Starland Vocal Band's original recording of "Afternoon Delight" and don't imagine Ron either singing the song with his news team or making silly perverted interjections. It doesn't help that the song is already considered one of the cheesiest of '70s AM pop, to the point that many can only listen to the "joke" version from the soundtrack. As its entry in Condemned by History notes, Anchorman sealed its fate as a gag song for generations to come.

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