[QUOTE=Zoggie]
I’d say dark comedy, but that feels wrong. The book felt a lot more comedic than the movie. Somehow reading about those terrible things didn’t feel so bleak because John Irving has a way of…well…putting things. I mean, the book had awful, bleak moments but as a work, it was entertaining. Actually seeing it play out in a movie, you realize that actually being there wouldn’t be so funny.
ETA: Also…maybe they’re operating on the assumption that John Lithgow in drag = comedy gold.
[/QUOTE]
I really hated the book. I read all kinds of genres, you name it, I’ve read some of it, and this is the first book that struck me as obscene. It seemed to revel in tragedy and make a joke out of it, and the double-standards really disgusted me.
So I was surprised to hear of it referred to as a comedy.
[QUOTE=Sitnam]
Evelyn Mulwray: She’s my daughter.
[Gittes slaps Evelyn]
Jake Gittes: I said I want the truth!
Evelyn Mulwray: She’s my sister…
[slap]
Evelyn Mulwray: She’s my daughter…
[slap]
Evelyn Mulwray: My sister, my daughter.
[More slaps]
Jake Gittes: I said I want the truth!
Evelyn Mulwray: She’s my sister AND my daughter!
The most bizarre combination of funny, horrifying and uncomfortable I’ve ever seen.
[/QUOTE]
Maybe, but Chinatown, while it has some good laughs in it, is definitely not a comedy.
[QUOTE=Sublight]
Pee Wee is hitch-hiking late at night when an 18-wheeler stops to give him a lift. The driver (a woman in her 50’s) proceeds to tell a story about a horrific crash that occurred on this very stretch of road, on a foggy night just like this one.
She finishes with, "and when they finally pulled the driver’s body from the twisted, burning wreck…
I’m sure that’s a parody of country song (sort of “song,” it’s all talk over the background music, no rhyme or meter) I’ve heard about a “phantom trucker,” but I can’t recall title or artist.
It starts when Humbert sees Lolita for the first time and ends when he sees her for the last time.
A friend was going on about the Adrian Lynne (?) version being beautiful & disturbing. I replied- “It was OK, but it wasn’t as funny as the original movie.”
A moment of silence.
“FUNNY?!?! THE FIRST ONE WAS FUNNY!?!?”
“God help me, yes. Mainly due to Peter Sellers but not only him.”
The “Koko the Clown” segment in The Groove Tube. “OK, our next request is for a reading from the Marquis de Sade’s Philosophy in the Bedroom, but we’re not going to have time for that today . . .”
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton]
I’m sure that’s a parody of country song (sort of “song,” it’s all talk over the background music, no rhyme or meter) I’ve heard about a “phantom trucker,” but I can’t recall title or artist.
[/QUOTE]
Probably “Big Joe and Phantom 309,” which Tom Waits sang over guitar accompaniment on his early (1975?) double live album Nighthawks at the Diner. I always saw this song as a parody of the thousands of “Phantom Hitchhiker” urban legends, because in this case the hitchhiker was Waits and the DRIVER was the ghost.
[QUOTE=Ukulele Ike]
Probably “Big Joe and Phantom 309,” which Tom Waits sang over guitar accompaniment on his early (1975?) double live album Nighthawks at the Diner. I always saw this song as a parody of the thousands of “Phantom Hitchhiker” urban legends, because in this case the hitchhiker was Waits and the DRIVER was the ghost.
[/QUOTE]
So the scene in Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure is a parody of a parody! I like that!
“I know you are, but what is this?”
In Raising Arizona (from the Coen Brothers), Nicholas Cage and Holly Hunter
accidentally leave a baby on their car roof as they drive off.
Scary as hell, but played for laughs.
[QUOTE=Lovely Rosita,meter señorita]
In Raising Arizona (from the Coen Brothers), Nicholas Cage and Holly Hunter
accidentally leave a baby on their car roof as they drive off.
Scary as hell, but played for laughs.
[/QUOTE]
To nitpick: that’s actualy Gale and Evelle (the escaped criminals, friends of Hi) who do that.
There was some stupid Jackie Chan comedy that was all about baby in danger gags. Baby accidentally left in a running washing machine, baby nearly frozen to death, ha ha ha. I was stuck on a highway bus watching this thing, going back to work after a weekend with my baby daughter.
