22 Nov Dude, Where’s My Car (2000)

Who’s On First

Movies like this are made like chewing gum: a cheap commodity that occupies you if you’re normally sleepwalking. It is nothing but a collection of various jokes in one bag, so the best we can hope for is that one or two of the jokes are good.

And by that, I mean you actually think about it a few days later and chuckle. And naturally the best of those are the ones that are cinematic, that really couldn’t exist in any other form.

This actually has one. Abbott and Costello had a bit they did for decades. One would ask the other about a fictitious baseball team. The players on the team would have names like “Who” and “Whatever” and “Nobody” and “Whatshisname”. The question would start with “Who’s on first?” and the answer would be “Yes”. Things would elaborate with the frustrated asker furiously slapping his face.

Here, we have this done better: it is shorter, remolded cinematically and set in a context that both fits into the larger picture and allows the joke to make sense. We have two stoner buddies who wake up with no memory of the previous night. There are many jokes related to what happened, but only this one matters.

They are trying on some clothes and we see that they have new tattoos on their backs. One says “Sweet,” the other “Dude.” Naturally, each cannot see their own tattoo so they ask what it says. Each response is thought to be a comment not an answer. This goes on and on and it repeated a bit later.

Not perfect timing, but close enough. Not enough to ask you to spend time and money on this gum, but something to watch for — or chuckle about later — if you do.

Posted in 2005

Ted’s Evaluation — 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

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