Who can forget this memorable exchange?
Derek Smalls: We’re lucky.
David St. Hubbins: Yeah.
Derek Smalls: I mean, people should be envying us, you know.
David St. Hubbins: I envy us.
Derek Smalls: Yeah.
David St. Hubbins: I do.
Derek Smalls: Me too.
Really says it all about narcissistic character traits, doesn’t it? 
I told them and told them: “Spinal Tap!” Then puppet show.
Or something like that. Don’t have a reference close to hand.
the brilliance of this movie cannot be overstated. What’s so funny is that Christopher Guest and Michael McKean are both great guitarists - they met talking about guitars. The authenticity is clearly from deep personal knowledge…which they then twisted to their own satiric ends…
Almost forgot – Nigel Tufnel designed my air conditioner.
That doesn’t mean that the movie was unpopular. No, no, no… it’s that its audience was becoming more selective. Yes, that’s right. More selective.
To me the funniest part was when they were going on stage “Yeah! Rock on! Whoooo!” and then they got lost. . …
One of my favorite parts is when the limo driver(Bruno Kirby) meets them at the airport holding up a sign that says “Spinal Pap”. Also, Shit sandwhich always cracks me up.
Most quotable movie ever. Every time someone at work starts ranting about how much their job sucks, I say, “There’s no sex and drugs for Ian.”
The sad part is how often the songs from this “fake band” get stuck in my head.
A lot of people on my Christmas list got this T-shirt this year. (Got one for myself as well, of course.)
Pete Townshend’s take on Spinal Tap, et al:
Q:The internet has spawned more than a few “Greatest Rock Band of All Time” debates. So, for the record, your opinion: Spinal Tap, The Rutles, or Tenacious D?
PT:They are all vital historical documents without which we would have been unable to see, and laugh at, the pretensions, pomposity and absurdity of rock stars.
The one that gets me every time is the airport security screening.
When I got the DVD, the opening menu alone is worth the price:
“Oooh, black.”
“Yeah, but it’s relaxing. It’s like, a pastel black.”
I forgot to say, there’s two kinds of people in this world: the ones that think that the amps going to eleven is stupid and the ones who think it’s genius at it’s coolest. I am of the second variety.
Hal - that is quite the air conditioner. No doubt it has one million BTU’s of rock and roll energy.
Legendary guitar designer, innovator and guru, the late Ernie Ball, made a limited edition Nigel Tufnel guitar in 2001. Click here to see several photos and a detailed explanation.
Here’s something you might find very interesting. Here’s how Christopher Guest (aka Nigel Tufnel) met his wife. (Well actually it’s how she found him.)
… and the link to that story.
I have seen this film about 15-20 times. It’s one of my all-time faves.
Beware the “bonus” scenes that come with the DVD. They are excruciatingly bad. I wish I had never seen them.
For reasons that you don’t need to know I once watched this film (on video) with a more or less captive audience of coworkers, they had no idea that Tap weren’t a “real” band. I confused the issue by also showing The Song Remains the Same.
They couldn’t tell the difference.
So, did they turn the projector up to eleven?
My husband first dusted this movie off when my son was about 4 1/2 or 5. Spinal Tap quickly became the little guy’s favorite band and “his” new band’s name became Spinal Tap also, as he announced in karate one day. I seem to recall me having to grab his arm and give him a clenched teeth warning when he wouldn’t stop singing “Big Bottom” at Baptist Day Care. Our guinea pig Arthur became Artie Fumpkin, Polymer Records.
The kid gets it’s a joke now, but still loves to play whichever Tap song is in Guitar Hero II.
Hey, did you see that some credit card is using “Give Me Some Money” in a commercial?
Looks they know now.
OK, smart guy: In what other movie was that song quoted?
Favorite line: “I’m sure I’d be more upset about it if I weren’t so heavily sedated.”
In the Spinal Tap genre, it’s worth mentioning Bad News, a creation of the British comedy team Comic Strip. Their two programmes in the TV series The Comic Strip Presents are pretty damned funny, although less subtle than Spinal Tap. The Bad News Tour and More Bad News episodes are better than their subsequent work, in my opinion.
The parallels between this and Spinal Tap, such as the fact that they’re both mockumentaries of heavy rock bands, both casts play their own instruments (and later gigged in character) and so on, are remarkable in that neither production team was aware of the other’s work. A case of parallel evolution, in a sense.
