Jack Nicholson's Famous Diner Scene in "Five Easy Pieces"

[fumster]

@Mister_Rik

Out of curiosity, was the line “I want you to hold it between your knees” a euphemism to avoid 1960s Hollywood censorship? Somebody above made a reference to “sexually humiliating her” (or something like that), and I can’t find anything overtly sexual about “hold it between your knees”.

NO, it just came out of the dialog naturally. She said “you want me to hold the chicken salad?” and he said “yes, hold it between your knees”. It would have made no sense to say “stick it up your ass”.

[VinylTurnip]

@ministryman

I was in a restaurant that featured mushroom risotto. I asked for some and was told they were out, but they had regular risotto. I asked if they had mushrooms, and was told yes. So I, in my best Jack imitation, suggested that they take some of the mushrooms, and stir them into the risotto. The server said they couldn’t do it. Unlike Jack, I did not cause a scene. I called the manager over and voiced my displeasure. I got the meal free.

The restaurant closed 6 months later. I wasn’t surprised…

Me neither. Word is they were handing out mushrooms to anyone who demanded them, ran over budget and it snowballed from there.

[mlees]

@Left_Hand_of_Dorkness

I was the one who made the reference, and I could well be wrong about what it meant. It reminded me of the idiot who recently said that girls in his day used aspirin as contraceptive–they held it between their knees. That, combined with Jack’s expression and the waitress’s reaction, made me think he was making a sexually crude insult toward her, an insult that would have made more sense to people watching the movie contemporaneously. But I might be wrong. If I am, what the hell does that line mean?

The film is a couple years before my time. Never saw it, but I just watched the OP’s linked clip.

Maybe it was another way to say “go fuck a chicken”?

Now-a-days, we say “she spread her legs”, or “he got between her thighs”, or some such, to refer to copulation.

[mlees]

I could be overthinking it, though. He might have got the same reaction if he had said “You can wear it on your head as a hat, for all I care.”.

[BigT]

@Nzinga_Seated

So yeah, I can believe that sometimes a chef just doesn’t want to do it the customer’s way, even if it means losing the customer. I’m glad you did get your mushroom risotto though. And free! Like you, I’m not surprised they are out of business.

I’m not surprised either, but that’s because there are a lot of self-important assholes in the world. The guy who does cooks for a diner is not a chef–he’s a diner cook. He has not earned the right to claim that he knows better than the customer, or else he’d be a chef. Those types of places go out of business because the guy isn’t that good, no matter how highly he thinks of himself.

Not that, in this instance, it’s likely the cook instituting the policy–it’s usually higher ups who are afraid of letting the lower class figure out how to make sure that they still come out even at the till–they expect that they’ll let you substitute something of higher value. Diner cooks are at most the top of the hired help.

As for the scene–I don’t think it makes you an asshole when you aren’t the one who initiates. Yes, the reaction is over-the-top for the real world, but not for cinema. I’m pretty sure the director wanted to say that he was justified.

Well, based on that clip in isolation. I don’t really recall the actual movie–is the guy made out to be an asshole elsewhere? Because that’s more important than this one little scene.

[StusBlues]

@BigT

I don’t really recall the actual movie–is the guy made out to be an asshole elsewhere? Because that’s more important than this one little scene.

Considering that he ends the film by leaving his pregnant girlfriend at a truck stop, I’d say yes.

That said, though, this is clearly a wish-fulfillment scene. Regardless of what faux nostalgia might have you believe, this sort of waitstaff behavior used to be much more common. Then again, tips have steadily increased as well. There was a time when 15% was considered quite generous. Now, a 15%er is considered barely tolerable.