Anchorman 2, Take Two: Same plot, all new jokes in “Super-Sized Rated-R Version” re-release

Before Anchorman 2 found its way into movie theaters this past Christmas amid a flurry of promotional advertising, director Adam McKay boasted there were enough alternate takes and improvised jokes that could fill a second version of the movie.

Now he’s backing up that boast. For real.

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues: Super-Sized Rated-R Version will “debut” in cinemas next Friday, Feb. 28, 2014. With 763 new jokes. The same plot. Just punched up with different punchlines and tags.

Here’s a sample clip, which debuted on Thursday night’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where “Ron Burgundy” himself, Will Ferrell, was a guest.

“They’re doing something they’ve never done before,” Ferrell told Fallon. “We shot so many alts on the original movie.”

“Originally the movie was four hours long. We played around with the idea of splitting it into two movies. But that didn’t really work. And, so we just had a second editor working the whole time with alternative jokes. So it’s the same movie. It’s 20 minutes longer. There’s a musical number we had to cut from the original one. Little treats like that. And it will be out for a week.”

McKay told The New York Times that Paramount Pictures asked him, and not the other way around, for an official theatrical re-release.

“This is a stitched up, Frankenstein version,” McKay said. “You’ll either love it or hate it.”

So, actually, a lot like the first Anchorman 2! (I loved it, mostly)

Here is the new trailer:

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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