Strangely enough, Daniel Richard McBride has made a whole career out of being an otherwise pretty basic actor, and sticking to what he knows best.
While this list takes in both the actor's TV and film ventures, it does however leave out his fantastic work behind the scenes — writing and producing on his own television efforts, and most notably on the latest iteration of the Halloween series. Channeling his niche (the frustrated hick-made-good image), Danny McBride has become a sort of American comedy anti-hero through his work on such game-changing series like Eastbound & Down — a perverted and sobering look at the American Dream he co-created with Ben Best. McBride told Business Insider in 2017:
"Acting happened accidentally for me. We started out making low-budget independent films, and we didn't have access to incredible actors, so we settled on our friends sometimes and that got me into this. I was in LA quite a long time writing at night and waiting tables and doing PA jobs and doing camerawork and after "The Foot Fist Way" came out I started getting offers to act, so it was a no-brainer to follow that path and see what happened."
Updated November 10th, 2022: If you're a fan of the hilarious Danny McBride's work, you'll be happy to know this article has been updated with additional content and titles.
His performances will always be brash and chaotic, with the characters' egos weighing down the actor's shoulders every time we see him on-screen. Each new take in his performances, none remotely dissimilar from the last (as any of McBride's characters could easily be related to one another), has slowly allowed the actor to flesh out these pathetic and often mean-spirited men and let them evolve as such. He would go on to sporadically diversify his own image in weightier dramatic roles (à la Up In The Air), alongside some of the biggest American comedies over the last two decades. Here, we rank some of his more stand-out performances... Your Highness also features...
10 Your Highness (2011)
So far down this list that you can barely hear it, like a dull and heavy object dropped down a well. Your Highness is a pathetic, weak attempt at a fantasy epic, which goes out of its way to be "raunchy" in its confusion of mere vulgarity with actual comedy. It looks cheap, it's not funny, and Danny McBride does a weird not-English accent. Catch the line in later McBride work, This Is The End (also on this list), where one of the cast suggests they watch a movie - as long as it's "Anything but Your Highness!" Stay well away.
9 Hot Rod (2007)
Brimming with surreal humor that you either love or loathe, Akiva Schaffer's Hot Rod is the product of Saturday Night Live's Lorne Michaels, with the film featuring The Lonely Island Members Andy Samberg and Jorma Taccone just as the comedy trio was skyrocketing in popularity. Chronicling amateur daredevil and stuntman Rod Kimble's (Samberg) efforts to raise money for his ailing, mean-spirited step-father by performing his most dangerous stunt yet.
McBride portrays Rod's confident yet dim-witted childhood pal Rico Brown, completely embodying his go-to on-screen persona of a self-assured, brazen character. Hot Rod's distinct humor and silly storytelling isn't for everyone, but it nonetheless remains a popular cult film that helped McBride find his footing in Hollywood.
8 Alien: Covenant (2017)
An easy third to last, Alien: Covenant shows what the Alien universe would look like if it only included people who are morons. McBride here touts a cowboy hat and looks like he could lasso a xenomorph at any moment (his character is called "Tennessee," no less). While McBride himself is fine in this (and deserves small props for even trying), the film is an incoherent and murky mess, let down even moreso by an uncharacteristic lack of ambition for an Alien picture, and a lame CGI monster that never convinces.
7 The Foot Fist Way (2006)
The movie that essentially got McBride noticed in the first place, The Foot Fist Way was a valuable independent film effort alongside regular collaborator, Jody Hill. Showing McBride's early ability at embracing the niche and more narcissistic kind of characters he would regularly go on to play so regularly, we watch as a delusional tae kwon do instructor makes enemies wherever he can. If somewhat unambitious, this is a fantastic DIY feature on no-budget.
6 Pineapple Express (2008)
Featured here as drug dealer "Red," Pineapple Express leans in to the stoner-comedy side of McBride's work. As one of the alumni of the Seth Rogen/Judd Apatow movement, McBride plays a shifty double-crosser embroiled in a very loose plot revolving around drugs and murder. Very funny throughout, McBride's addition here felt like it was his first proper role in a big movie, having made the step up from merely minor but humorous side characters (as in Hot Rod).
5 This Is The End (2013)
Essentially playing an out-and-out villain here, McBride plays up his tried and tested character one-notch further to even more insane levels. This is the End takes place on the eve of the apocalypse, when a handful of comedians are forced to sit tight in a mansion as the world burns around them, all playing up their celebrity personas for laughs. McBride can let his hair down here and really let loose as a straight-up douche, embracing the chance at improvisation and making his friends laugh. McBride's surprise intro to the movie, to the sound of "When The Sh*t Goes Down" by Cypress Hill, remains a real stand-out.
4 Vice Principals (2016-2018)
At a trim two seasons and only 18 episodes in total, Vice Principals is a really neat, toned, and confident series. Finding the surprisingly ideal foil in co-star Walton Goggins, the two men play vice principal peers, both vying and scheming against one another to take the step-up and run the school. The chemistry between the two is everything here. Their respective energies positively pop as two pathetic man-children willing to let everyone around them fall if it means that they can finally get ahead. If you can stomach the show's often bitter tone, this series is a delightful dark chocolate treat.
3 Tropic Thunder (2008)
Arguably one of the best American comedies so far this century, the dynamic Ben Stiller (serving as director, writer, actor, and producer, no less) assembles one of the all-time greatest ensembles in this comedy/war picture lampooning big-budget Hollywood and the people involved within the industry. The impressive cast of prima donna frauds in Tropic Thunder think they're making a war film but have actually been dropped into an authentically dangerous jungle. McBride features here as the on-set pyrotechnics expert (and possible pyromaniac) also thrown into the carnage alongside fellow poser Robert Downey Jr.
Like many great satires, there has been controversy over whether the film is racist and insensitive or if it simply parodies and attacks racism and ignorance. Regardless, it never gets old watching McBride brandish a flamethrower and blow stuff up in this warped parody of massive movies, celebrity egos, and bygone war epics.
2 The Righteous Gemstones (2019 - Present)
Shining both in front of and behind the camera, Danny McBride is an absolute riot as a rude and crude associate pastor in the HBO hit series The Righteous Gemstones, in which the funnyman appears alongside John Goodman, Adam DeVine and Edi Patterson as the titular televangelist family. McBride created the show with the intent to lampoon hypocrites and not poke fun at religion, revealing in an interview with The Sun, "I don’t feel like I’m very righteous, but I feel like self-righteousness and hypocrisy is what this show is about, not just calling out televangelists."
The comedy has been nominated for numerous accolades including Satellite Awards and Emmys, garnering widespread praise for McBride's sharp storytelling, dynamite performances and dark humor. Fans of McBride will thoroughly enjoy watching the greedy, arrogant family unravel as they attempt to keep their empire and megachurch afloat and square off against outside forces.
1 Eastbound & Down (2009-2013)
Messy, problematic, and generally angry, Eastbound & Down charts the rise and fall of the great Kenny Powers, an ex-baseball pro past his prime and driven to make a comeback. As a dumb character study, the HBO series is a regularly hilarious glimpse into the nature of the egotistical, the narcissistic, and the self-centered, as Kenny takes and never gives back. If you can handle multiple seasons of such a scumbag, Eastbound & Down oscillates between stupidity and gritty realism, showing genuine character development along the way, with a finale that really needs to be seen to be believed.
Long live the king, baby.