One of my not-so-guilty pleasures is the early work of the brothers Zucker and Abrahams – Kentucky Fried Movie, Airplane, Top Secret, the Naked Gun movies. The extremely silly, literal-minded, “I can’t believe anyone actually acted out that joke” humor. I know there are a lot of fans of it on the SDMB.
A couple of such KFT scenes suggested themselves to me ages ago, and they keep rattling around in my head, refusing to leave. Usually, the only way to exorcise these demons is to write them down. It helps if I send them out, afflicting other people, a la the videotape in The Ring. Here goes.
Top Secret-style scene.
(Nick Rivers (the Val Kilmer character) is sitting on the East German train, hoping the Communist/Nazi/Gestapo police won’t notice him as they check through the passengers. As luck would have it, of course, they do)
Officer: Let me see your papers, mein Herr.
(Nick produces a folder of documents, which he reluctantly hands over. The officer opens it in a crisp, efficient flip and starts to look through them carefully. After a few moments of this from Nick’s POV, we get a reverse angle looking over the officer’s shoulders down at the documents and at Nick beyond. )
(The papers are of varying shapes, sizes, and orientations. But they all have one thing in common – a big, red numeral marked on them. We watch as the Officer flicks through them – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, then 9, 11, 7. The Officer frowns slightly, goes back to the beginning, and flips again. 1,2,3,4,5,6,9,11,7. We go back to Nick’s POV as the Officer speaks.)
Officer: I’m afraid you will have to come with us, mein Herr.
Nick: What? Why? What is it?
Officer: Your papers. They do not appear to be in order.
Nick: They’re in order. Look again.
Officer: (flipping through once more) No, I’m afraid they are most certainly not in order. You can explain at the Office. Hauptman!
Naked Gun moment.
(Lt. Frank Drebin (Leslie Neilsen) has taken Jane (Priscilla Presley) to a Chinese restaurant. As they are paying at the Front Desk the Manager speaks to them. Behind him we see a roasting over with several chickens on turning spits. On a shelf above them are cartons filled with Wrigley’s Spearmint and Doublemint gums, the logo prominently displayed.)
Manager: I hope you had a pleasant dinner. How was the (consults the bill) Subgum Chicken?
(Reverse angle on Drebbin and Jane. Behind them we see another roasting over filled with chickens turning on spits. On top of this over are several containers of green limes.)
Drebbin: It was sublime.