Yes. Yes it is.
Although Taylor, Spencer, and Anthony had filmed, acted, and edited previously for the Great Suburban Robbery, the prospect of writing dialogue was not something they had dared to attempt on their own.
Their vernacular was far too cliche and lacked depth. They also agreed that it should be written by one person, and any one of them might write from a biased perspective, considering each of them was also a main protagonist.
So, Taylor turned to his sister, Lindsay.
In 2010, Lindsay Yorgason (now Dransfield) was an aspiring author and English major at Utah Valley University. She had written short stories and fan fiction before, and was extremely well read - at least in Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. Needless to say, she was ecstatic to be a part of writing a full screenplay!
Taylor, Anthony, and Spencer met with Lindsay on numerous occasions to draft out the movie outline. Using the whiteboard in the American Heritage of South Jordan seminary room, they constructed storyboard, complete with sticky notes.
Lindsay spent at least a month writing the script, and since they had no idea what they were doing, it only went through a few minor revisions.
It wasn't all Lindsay, though. Others contributed a little bit. Input for lines was given by Taylor, Spencer, and even Micah Worwood, whose contribution consists of Malone's line:
Looking back on it now, however, the script for Vocab Wars Episode II is not something that any of them are proud of. As the script is littered with casual sexist and racist by-words, Lindsay never would have written it today, saying:
"Lol dude, I hate every single line," she said in a casual iMessage conversation
with Taylor. "I just grabbed quotes from other people's shit and wrote
TERRIBLY around them. Also some of them are just thrown in.
It's so terrible."
Unfortunately, it's all true - the script is pretty bad. Most of the lines by her own admission were stolen or borrowed from other movies or books. But who can blame her? The movie itself is a super parody of history, classical literature, stage production, pop culture, and obscure math terms.
Nevertheless, Lindsay went on to express her own astonishment and horror at lines such as, "A white black man," lamenting:
"It's always hard to hear your own casual racism... EW... That's just SO
TERRIBLE TAYLOR lol I'm dead... UGH I HATE MYSELF."
There is one character whose lines were truly well thought-out and researched, however, and that is Lady Macbeth. Ironically, she was played by Lindsay herself. Every line but one comes from a Shakespearean play, and nearly all of them are insults.
Talk about attention to detail.
If every character had been as thoroughly researched as Lady Macbeth, it's possible that the character dialogue may not have come across so painfully.
But in all fairness, the writing could not be any better than the story it was telling, which fault lies with everyone on the production staff. The story arc of Vocab Wars just isn't that great.
But be that as it may, the value and enjoyment of the film does not come from well crafted story arcs, multi-faceted characters, or even good dialogue, but rather from the fact that it has none of those things.
The movie does not take itself seriously, and the creators clearly did not intend others to do so either. Vocab Wars is first and foremost a comedy, not because they tell good jokes, but because the movie itself is a joke.
It was a labor of love, but a joke nonetheless.
So take a watch. Read the script. Turn off your brain and accept the movie for what it is.
"History will little note, nor long remember what [they] say here;
but it can never forget what [they] did here."
Abraham Lincoln
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