I watched the movie version of Singing in the Rain yesterday. There’s a scene where the Linda Lamont is filming her first ever talking movie scene, and the microphone is hidden in a bush on the set. She flubs it every time, and the director tells her to talk to the bush as if she’s making love to it. She replies in a very angry voice “I cannot make love to a bush.” Who knew in 1952 how funny that line would be 45 years later?
The MAD magazine parody of The Incredible Hulk brings up that they changed Bruce Banner’s first name to David because “Bruce is associate with homosexuals.” The TV set then announces how Bruce Jenner is the best Olympic athlete today. Okay, maybe not so much today as Caitlyn Jenner.
And then there’s my favorite in the 1993 first Chicken Soul for the Soul book about how the little boy growing up in poverty waited outside the Chicago football stadium to talk to his hero, Jim Brown. Brown asks him “What’s your name, kid?” He replies “Orenthal James. My friends call me O.J.”
A year later, that line would be hysterically funny. He’s really a source of inspiration today.
Speaking of OJ Simpson in regards to first the Terminator film-----"The studio suggested O. J. Simpson for the role, but Cameron did not feel that Simpson, at the time, would be believable as a killer. "
There was also a Seinfeld episode where Elaine was dating a guy who had the same name as a serial killer and wanted to change his name. Elaine is going through a list of potential new names with him and suggests “O.J.”
There was an episode of The Big Valley where the madame of a whorehouse was named “Amy Carter.” Try watching that rerun during the Carter presidency and not cracking up (his young daughter was named “Amy.”)
For the British of course, but for Americans also, the Fast Show creation, politician Sir Geoffrey Norman, MP, must seem awfully prescient these days. See what I mean here.