Siskel and Ebert: Love In Every Wisecrack

By Scott Smith in Miscellaneous on Jan 3, 2006 2:23PM

This morning as we were about to head out the door, the WGN Morning News crew* was showing another “found on the Web”video. The clip was of famed Chicago movie critics Roger Ebert the late Gene Siskel as they were taping promos for their show. It cracked us up so much that we went looking for it ourselves and found it here.

In last month’s Chicago Magazine, we read this interview with Ebert that said, at first, that the two “could not stand each other” though they eventually became good friends though Ebert acknowledged, “There were times when he infuriated me.”

This appears to be one of those times with both gents going out of their way to antagonize each other with such classic bon mots as:

“Sound a little excited, Gene.”
“Sound less excited, Roger.”

“That’s this week on Siskel and Ebert and The Movies. And the asshole. And that’s Roger.”

Despite their bickering, the two could always find common ground in their love of movies (and apparently, their dislike of Protestants as indicated by their Kinison-esque rant at the end of the clip).

* Confidential note to Ana Beleval: If you ever have a need for bloggers who are too smartassed for their own good but would work cheap for the mere privilege of coexisting within five feet of you and gazing upon your lovely visage...call us. We're just sayin'.

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