Will Ferrell is taking this “Anchorman” thing very seriously. In addition to various in-character appearances on TV, he wrote a book — not as Will Ferrell, as Ron Burgundy. As in, you can buy a fictional character’s autobiography. (Random observation: The chapter name font looks identical to the font used in the “Choose Your Own Adventure” book covers. [After a Google search, yes, IT TOTALLY IS.])
But what does that have to do with this blog? Burgundy says he grew up in Iowa. And not just any part of Iowa, but the coal mining town of Haggleworth, Iowa. Iowa’s history of coal mining is something that may not immediately come to mind unless you’re acquainted with John L. Lewis and the history of organized labor, so Ferrell may have done some research after all. (Or he got The New Yorker has the excerpt of the relevant portion of the book. Haggleworth doesn’t exist, of course, but we can pinpoint Burgundy’s childhood to somewhere in south-central Iowa.
Curiously, by creating this fictional history, Burgundy has set himself up to play a lot of second fiddle jazz flute, because his backstory makes him:
- The second-most-famous son of an Iowa coal miner, after Simon Estes.
- The second-most-famous Iowa anchorman with a mustache, after Bruce Aune on KCRG in the 1980s-90s. (Watch as Beth Malicki absolutely loses it when Aune brings the mustache back and does a Ron Burgundy impression.)
- The second-most-famous Iowan with a mustache, period, after Terry Branstad.
- And, at best, the second-most-famous fictional character who grew up in Iowa, behind James Tiberius Kirk. (And Miss Piggy and maybe Radar O’Reilly.)
“Anchorman 2” is out today, and even though I don’t care for the whole hype machine, I just wrote a whole bunch of stuff about it. You win this one, Mr. Burgundy.