Amazon Prime and comedy website Funny or Die presented “The 2018 Rose Parade Hosted by Cord & Tish,” with commentary from Cord Hosenbeck and Tish Cattigan, in their “25th year” of covering the event.
Wait … who? Although they remained in character through the entire promotional process and broadcast, Cord Hosenbeck is really Will Ferrell, and Tish Cattigan is portrayed by Molly Shannon. Hosenbeck and Cattigan are morning show hosts with positive, bubbly attitudes (even though Hosenbeck has some strange hang-ups about horses). They parody traditional parade hosts such as KTLA’s longtime anchors Bob Eubanks and Stephanie Edwards.
“[Cord and Tish] are unique personalities, and they take their jobs very seriously,” says Chris Bruss, president of digital content at Funny or Die and an executive producer of the show. “And while they are quite passionate and respectful of the parade and all of its participants, some, I think, a lot will find a lot of enjoyment in the way that they bring that parade broadcast to life.”
Throughout the parade, Hosenbeck and Cattigan had some eccentric commentary during the band performances such as a long discussion on the merits of eating salmon, calling the University of Massachusetts Minuteman Marching Band the “bad boys of the marching band world,” and making disparaging comments about the University of Oklahoma band … before they realized their researcher was a University of Georgia alum.
One of the most prolonged marching band jokes in the broadcast featured the hosts lauding the (fake) achievements of Saratoga Springs, Utah’s Westlake High School band director Brek Mangelson, who also happens to be the world’s most respected collector of Pokémon cards, the number two Scrabble player in the world, well-known for his five-alarm chili, and an amateur rodeo clown.
The broadcast is still available to view online.
Cattigan and Hosenbeck also spent a day filming commercials for the broadcast with members of the University of Southern California marching band, whose uniforms were disguised with a few temporary additions. “We shot a bunch of different stuff with them,” Bruss says. “There was plenty of off-the-cuff stuff, and everybody there in that group was super good-natured and had fun playing along with everybody.”
