On Wednesday night, a sea of balding millennial men in Bay Area sports apparel (I count myself among this lucky group) poured into the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco for a live taping of the Ringer’s “The Rewatchables” podcast, a beloved movie-focused offering from Bill Simmons’ podcast empire. 

Although Simmons is best known for his sports takes, “The Rewatchables” has become one of the Ringer’s most popular podcasts, earning a spot on Spotify’s Top 100 list and in Netflix’s burgeoning podcast library. Each week, the podcasters — Simmons was joined onstage by Mallory Rubin, Chris Ryan and Van Lathan — dissect a classic movie, handing out awards that are both serious (Most rewatchable scene) and absurd (the “Ron Burgundy flute” award for the best time for a pee break.)

On the docket for the San Francisco live show: “Basic Instinct,” which Simmons called a “Mount Rushmore San Francisco movie,” where he said it joins “Vertigo,” “48 Hours” and “Mrs. Doubtfire.”

The 1992 erotic thriller takes place mostly in San Francisco and Stinson Beach (although many of the Stinson Beach scenes were actually shot in Carmel). It features Michael Douglas as an addiction-addled San Francisco Police Department cop working on a murder case and a star-making performance from Sharon Stone as his prime suspect.

For those who haven’t seen “Basic Instinct,” it’s important to know two things: Don’t watch this movie with your parents, and, contrary to what the film would lead you to believe, it actually is frowned upon for a detective to sleep with his main suspect and/or his therapist. 

The podcasters were up front that, while they adore the film, they don’t take it too seriously. Throughout the evening they made fun of the movie’s lack of subtlety including its many outrageous sex scenes. “Basic Instinct” nearly earned an NC-17 rating upon its release and the live podcast was hardly any cleaner. If you plan on listening to this podcast in a public place when it’s released next week, I can’t stress enough the importance of using headphones. 

Among other things, discussion points from the evening included a lengthy debate about whether or not Douglas and Stone were wearing genital guards during sex scenes, Rubin arguing the film featured “some of the most guttural orgasm sounds ever entered to the public recorded on film,” and Simmons declaring the movie’s infamous leg-crossing scene to be “the most famous movie moment of the ’90s.”

In addition to all the NSFW chatter, the podcasters made a point of singing San Francisco’s praises as an ideal movie setting. 

“The sky, the light, the fog, there’s like an atmospheric element that San Francisco movies tend to bring into play,” said Ryan. 

“They are lying about your city. When I came around here, I expected to see Batman patrolling the streets. It’s f—king gorgeous,” Lathan said, echoing other sports media personalities who were surprised to learn reports of the city’s demise were greatly exaggerated. 

It was far from the only time the hosts played to the city crowd. Simmons gave the “What’s aged the best” award to “pre-tech San Francisco”; Lathan wondered aloud if the film would have been improved with the inclusion of 49ers legend Jerry Rice; and Ryan went a step further by introducing the inaugural “CR is pandering to the audience award for safest home field take” and declaring that San Francisco is the best movie city.

The podcasters, who all live in Southern California, even learned some useful lessons about Bay Area nomenclature. 

“I was warned by multiple San Francisco [people] not to say ‘San Fran,’” said Simmons. “The San Francisco people don’t like it. So do you have a nickname for San Francisco or no?”

This devolved into a short back-and-forth with the crowd over the merits of “Frisco” versus “SF.” Much like the ending of “Basic Instinct,” the conclusion about San Francisco’s correct nickname was left rather ambiguous.