39 Fun Facts About Step Brothers

In Step Brothers, which Guns N' Roses song does Derek's family sing a cappella in their car?

Sweet Child o' Mine gets a rehearsed a cappella run-through in the family car, which Derek halts to tell his wife that her part is flat.

In Step Brothers, what do 39-year-old Brennan and 40-year-old Dale build to make room for activities?

Bunk beds were the image that sparked the whole film: Adam McKay pictured his two stars in them before any story existed. The homemade top bunk soon collapses on Brennan.

Which actress plays Brennan's mother, Nancy Huff?

Mary Steenburgen went from Will Ferrell's stepmother in Elf to his mother here, though she is only 14 years older than her screen son.

What is Dale's father Robert's profession?

A doctor, which makes Dale's excuse for dropping out of college absurd: he told his father he was leaving to join the family business.

The first big fight between the two step brothers erupts when Brennan touches what?

Brennan rubs his testicles on Dale's drum set after being warned never to touch it — prosthetics, on screen — and the house-wrecking brawl follows.

What finally turns the two step brothers from enemies into best friends?

Dale punching Derek in the face, on Derek's own dare, wins Brennan over, and within minutes the pair are asking, 'Did we just become best friends?'

Who plays Derek, Brennan's smug younger brother?

Adam Scott had barely done comedy and called landing Derek a total fluke, yet he beat Jon Hamm and Dax Shepard, who both auditioned for the part.

Brennan's brother Derek is a vice president in what line of business?

Helicopter leasing is Derek's boast: he calls his firm the biggest of its kind on the Western Seaboard, and a humbled Brennan later has to ask him for a job there.

What is the name of the entertainment company Brennan and Dale found?

Prestige Worldwide, 'the first word in entertainment', debuts at Derek's birthday party in a promo video whose finale wrecks the parents' retirement plans.

The step brothers' music video is shot without permission on what belonging to Robert?

They film 'Boats 'n Hoes' aboard his sailboat — the boat Robert planned to retire on — and wreck it; Robert's dream of sailing the world dies with it.

The climax of Step Brothers takes place at which event, organised by Brennan?

The Catalina Wine Mixer was invented for the film, but the Catalina Island Company later made it real, and it now runs every year as a wine and music festival.

In Step Brothers, which song does Brennan sing when the hired band walks off at the finale?

'Por ti volaré' is the Spanish version of the Italian hit 'Con te partirò'; Will Ferrell sang it himself, paying off Brennan's early boast that he is a world-class singer.

The song Brennan sings at the end of Step Brothers was first performed at Sanremo in 1995 by which tenor?

Andrea Bocelli introduced 'Con te partirò' at the 1995 Sanremo Festival and finished only fourth, yet it became one of his best-known songs and a huge seller abroad.

In the Step Brothers epilogue, six months on, what is Brennan and Dale's company doing?

Running karaoke services: they call it Karaoke 'n' Roll, already booked by six bars and three restaurants, with a strict house rule that anyone who can't sing sits down.

Which actress plays Denise, the therapist Brennan becomes infatuated with?

Andrea Savage plays Denise. She had just shot the Party Down pilot, but when the series was picked up she was too pregnant to continue and Lizzy Caplan took over her role.

In Step Brothers, which comedian plays the sporting-goods manager who hires Brennan and Dale, then changes his mind?

Seth Rogen's manager finds their tuxedos ironic and hires them on the spot, then takes it back seconds later when Dale breaks wind in the small office.

Which two comedy heavyweights produced Step Brothers?

Jimmy Miller and Judd Apatow produced it after the studio bought the comedy on a pitch alone, before a word of the script had been written.

Step Brothers opened in second place at the US box office behind which film?

The Dark Knight, in its second weekend, held Step Brothers to No. 2. Even so, the comedy's $31 million opening nearly matched the entire US run of Will Ferrell's previous film, Semi-Pro.

Which star do Brennan and Dale both name in unison?

John Stamos is the name both shout in unison, one of a run of identical answers in the rapid-fire round of favourites that convinces them they are best friends.

In Step Brothers, the band that walks off stage at the finale plays only 1980s songs by which artist?

Billy Joel, and strictly his 1980s output: when a heckler asks for something from The Stranger, Horatio Sanz's frontman explodes at him and the band quits.

Where in Los Angeles County was the climactic party in Step Brothers filmed?

Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes stood in for the island where the party is set, and the clifftop course really does look out across the water at that island.

Which habit of Brennan's keeps landing Nancy's purse in the freezer?

Sleepwalking is a habit Dale shares. When Robert later dismisses Nancy's warning never to wake a sleepwalker as a myth and rouses them, the pair immediately start punching him.

Ferrell and McKay's production company, whose 2019 break-up clouded hopes of a Step Brothers sequel, was called what?

Gary Sanchez Productions took its name from an invented Paraguayan financier that Ferrell used as his phone ID. The partners announced the split in 2019, and their friendship broke afterwards over a casting choice.

Which comedy website did Ferrell and McKay launch together in 2007, the year before Step Brothers?

Funny or Die launched in 2007 with 'The Landlord', a sketch in which Ferrell is berated over the rent by a foul-mouthed landlord played by McKay's toddler daughter, Pearl.

Which film did McKay and Ferrell make immediately before Step Brothers?

Talladega Nights came first: McKay felt its biggest laughs came from Ferrell and John C. Reilly improvising in the pits, so he built the next film around the pair in one house.

Step Brothers director Adam McKay later won an Academy Award for the screenplay of which film?

The Big Short, about the 2008 financial crash, was a sharp break from McKay's run of Will Ferrell comedies, and it won him and Charles Randolph the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.

John C. Reilly voiced the title character of which 2012 Disney animated film?

Reilly voiced Wreck-It Ralph, the arcade villain who wants to be a hero, in the 2012 Disney film and its 2018 sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet.

Which president did Will Ferrell impersonate on SNL and on Broadway?

George W. Bush was Ferrell's signature impression during his seven years on the show. His Broadway run as the character, You're Welcome America, began previews on January 20, 2009, the very day the real Bush left office.

Will Ferrell earned a Golden Globe nomination for a rare dramatic role in which 2006 film?

Stranger than Fiction (2006) cast Ferrell as an IRS auditor who hears Emma Thompson's narrator plotting his death, earning him a Golden Globe nomination.

In Step Brothers, Robert and Nancy announce their divorce over a family dinner on which holiday?

Christmas dinner is when the news lands. Nancy tells the sons it is not their fault, and Robert cuts in that it is '150 percent' their fault, after which the two turn on each other and move out.

The parents threaten to throw Brennan and Dale out unless they do what?

Robert and Nancy give the pair a deadline to find jobs; the resulting interviews, attended together in tuxedos, go about as well as expected.

In Step Brothers, Brennan's samurai sword carries the autograph of which American Idol star?

Randy Jackson signed it because, as Brennan explains, he bumped into him and the sword was all he had on him. Dale replies that he would have done the exact same thing.

In Step Brothers, Dale objects when Robert switches off the TV because which annual event is on?

Shark Week is Dale's cry of protest as the screen goes dark. His plea of 'I'm your son' fares no better, because Nancy has just watched her own son swing a bicycle as a weapon.

Who plays Alice, Derek's frustrated wife who begins a secret affair with Dale?

Kathryn Hahn invented much of Alice's come-on to Dale on the day. She has said the scene was 'not really in the script', and Adam McKay recalls the whole crew applauding her first take.

After becoming best friends, what do Brennan and Dale go to do in the garage?

Karate in the garage is the first idea out of their mouths after 'Did we just become best friends?'. They come back indoors dripping with sweat and jointly pitching their parents a plan for the bedroom.

In Step Brothers, what does Robert say he always wanted to be as a little boy?

A dinosaur, and a Tyrannosaurus rex at that: he held his arms short and chased the neighbourhood cats until, at 17, his father told him to stop. He never got it back, hence his plea: 'Don't lose your dinosaur.'

In what unusual format did Ferrell, Reilly and McKay record the Step Brothers commentary track?

As an improvised musical: the three sing most of the track while the score's composer vamps along behind them, and NBA star Baron Davis drops in as a special guest.

Which French actress told W magazine that the end of Step Brothers always makes her cry?

Marion Cotillard said she has seen it ten times and still cries when Will Ferrell sings at the end, adding that nobody expects to weep at that type of comedy.

Dale says Brennan's singing voice is 'like a combination of' Jesus and which pop star?

Fergie and Jesus is Dale's stunned verdict when Brennan finally sings for him. Brennan had refused to sing in front of anyone since Derek and his friends mocked him mid-song on stage when he was a teenager.