I had this brilliant idea for my Great American Screenplay while in film class yesterday. My McGuffin shall be named McGuffin, thusly giving the clever film/literary types quite the giggles and leaving everyone else clueless.
But this seems almost too simple and clever to never have been done before. So I ask you Dopers, ever read of a McGuffin named McGuffin? Specfiic cites, please.
I was a little squeamish about posting this, because if it IS an original idea, I’d hate to broadcast it across the internet. But I trust you guys. (and it’s probably been done before, anyway…)
That’s a great idea SwimmingRiddles! I’ve been racking my brain and I can’t think of a single instance in film/theatre/literature where a McGuffin is called McGuffin. This is one of my favorite all time stories so I’ll take this opportunity to post it for those that may not be familiar.
In a 1966 interview with director-film critic François Truffaut, Alfred Hitchcock about McGuffins said:
"It might be a Scottish name, taken from a story about two men in a train. One man says “What’s that package up there in the baggage rack?” And the other answers, “Oh, that’s a McGuffin.” The first one asks: “What’s a McGuffin?” “Well,” the other man says, “It’s an apparatus for trapping lions in the Scottish Highlands.” The first man says, “But there are no lions in the Scottish Highlands,” and the other one answers “Well then, that’s no McGuffin!”
Hey, and the film’s bad guy can be the sister of the hero’s mother, and her name can be “Aunt Tagonist”!
[sub]oh god, someone please shoot me…[/sub]
Seriously though, that’s a pretty funny idea, Swimming. The Austin Power films had a character named Basil Exposition who came in and told all the necessary backstory, but I don’t recall a McGuffin actually named McGuffin.
…but a friend of mine had the same great idea as you, did an small indie with the same hook, naming his McGuffin McGuffin, entitled “McGuffin”. It wasn’t quite the “Great American Screenplay”, however, so there’s still hope that you can fill that niche.
Years ago I used a similar idea in my first student film. In it the main character was made fun of because every move he made produced a variety of silly noises (I had been dying for an excuse to use the sound lab’s supply of cow bells, coconut shells, springs and chimes all semester) eventually he meets up with a girl who makes equally silly sounds and lives happily ever after…
There was a movie called The Double McGuffin directed by Joe Camp (of Benji) fame, but I don’t remember if anyone in it was named McGuffin. There were two McGuffins, though. And the stellar cast included Ernest Borgnine and Blair from “The Facts of Life.”
It’s the object, usually in an action movie or mystery novel/movie that brings everyone together. The Maltese Falcon. Or the briefcase in Pulp Fiction. Or the young wife in The Big Lebowski. See felix’s post on Hitchcock’s definition. I actually told my film professor about that story, felix, and she had never heard it.
There’s something mildly sad when you tell your professor’s amusing anecdotes about directors. ::sigh::
Saxman: Damn. I knew it was just too obvious to be original. I’ll have to add something to it so I’m not ripping off your friend, however innocently. Hmmm…
A search for the character name ‘McGuffin’ at IMDB led to 3 results:
[ul][li]The Maltese Unicorn (“Holmes McGuffin”)[/li][li]The London Connection (“McGuffin”)[/li][li]Rush Week (“Julie Ann McGuffin”)[/li][/ul]
However, none of these movies have very much information listed about them, so it’s unsure as to whether any of these “McGuffins” are also McGuffins.
An episode of Sam & Max had a McGuffin that was just that. (They were trying to find some food that the rabbit guy (Been too long, can’t remember which is which) loved called Egg McGuffins.)
Well its not exactly great american literature(or great american anything for that matter), but GI Joe the cartoon had a Macguffin called the Macguffin device. Yes, I know how sad I am remembering this.
