Twenty Years Later, The Dan Band Is Still the Funniest Part of ‘Old School’

On the day of the shoot, inside L.A.’s Wilshire Ebell Theatre, Finnerty had about three takes to unleash his perfectly-timed curse words on his wedding guests. “It was all such a blur,” he says. “I could tell people thought I wasn’t going to swear.” The scene takes place early in Old School, when Frank (Ferrell) and his wife (Perrey Reeves) begin their first dance with the bridal party. In one take, Phillips floats the camera from the stage, capturing Finnerty in profile, to the dance floor. Moments later, the frontman slightly adjusts Tyler’s lyrics: “I see the fucking look in your eye,” he sings, a sneaky punctuation that prompts Ferrell to throw a brief, confused glance back at Finnerty, and then to Reeves. “It’s so unexpected and it feels so out of place in the best way,” says Phillips, who designed the moment as a steadicam shot. “There is something so disruptive about taking such a time-honored tradition—the bride and groom’s first dance—and just completely defiling it.” 

Though Phillips admits the camera misses Finnerty’s second F-bomb by a hair, “I saw the playback and thought it was so fucking funny to have my giant head coming into frame and then Will Ferrell nailing that reaction,” Finnerty says. “That’s when I knew it wasn’t going to get cut.” In place of “Private Dancer,” Finnerty finishes the scene with the final notes of “Lady,” inserting some “Lonely Goatherd” riffs and cementing what could have been a generic 90 seconds into a dynamite cameo. “He has great timing and he’s so quick,” says Gene Reed, Finnerty’s long-time backup performer, who had a front-row view on set. “He has a total sense of humor about it all, but you still have to be able to sing and know what you’re doing.” By the spring of 2003, the movie had earned $86 million at the global box office, giving The Dan Band an “as seen in Old School” slogan that garnered larger crowds, a record deal, nationwide tour dates, and frequent requests to hear their soiled version of “Total Eclipse.”

Over the next several years, Finnerty committed to growing his act and audience. In 2004, Steven Spielberg executive-produced the band’s hour-long special for Bravo that showcased the spontaneous thrills of their live shows. Finnerty then continued his reign within the Todd Phillips comedy universe, appearing in Starsky and Hutch as a carrot-topped bat mitzvah singer performing an age-inappropriate version of “Feel Like Makin’ Love.” A couple years later, he returned to  wedding singer duties in The Hangover, reinterpreting 50 Cent’s “Candy Shop,” annoying Jeffrey Tambor, and flipping off an old man while grinding on his wife. As he spins and screams in ecstasy with a rendition of “Fame,” he takes over the movie’s finale with an overwhelming and hilarious arrogance. “By then, I just had the confidence to jump off the stage whenever I wanted,” Finnerty says. 

“It was kind of an inside joke to myself that he always showed up in my films as a hired entertainer who has his own idea of how the night should go,” Phillips says. “It just felt right.”