Lines/jokes in plays/movies you never understood: feel free to ask for help

[Marley23]

@installLSC

In the movie “Blazing Saddles”, Howard Johnson talks in a bar about how Louis Pasteur’s research will help eliminate anthrax in sheep. Right afterward, Mongo rushes into the bar. What’s the point of this scence? It’s doesn’t even attempt to make a joke, and it doesn’t seem to be related to anything else in the movie.

They’re just creating a scene for Mongo to interrupt. The full dialogue lasts just long enough to create a friendly atmosphere in the bar - it’s something like

Guy 1: “Gentlemen, did you know that even now, in France, Louis Pasteur is working on a vaccine that will cure anthrax? Just think of it- the end of hoof and mouth disease!”
Guy 2: “Nevermind that shit, here comes Mongo!”

Then Mongo wrecks up the place. I’ve found Guy #2’s line very useful in my daily life.

[Paintcharge]

@Marley23

They’re just creating a scene for Mongo to interrupt. The full dialogue lasts just long enough to create a friendly atmosphere in the bar - it’s something like

Guy 1: “Gentlemen, did you know that even now, in France, Louis Pasteur is working on a vaccine that will cure anthrax? Just think of it- the end of hoof and mouth disease!”
Guy 2: “Nevermind that shit, here comes Mongo!”

Then Mongo wrecks up the place. I’ve found Guy #2’s line very useful in my daily life.

Also, in the song at the start of the movie, he is referred to as “Anal” Johnson, who always kept things nice and clean. Spits in cup.

[Gulo_gulo]

@Otto

And, um, what? Only line in the film that falls utterly flat. Is the joke related to wearing clean underwear in case you get in an accident? Not wanting to be caught dead in long underwear? Some obscure cultural reference? Fortunately Bette almost immediately becomes maudlin and full of self-pity, and thus magnificent, but it’s still a sore thumb of a line.

I’ve always interpreted that as “not wanting to be caught dead in long underwear”. They’re high society gals & should be thought of as only wearing silk frillies, not woolen long johns.

[Freudian_Slit]

@Annie-Xmas

Rosemary’s Baby–Rosemary has been suffering horrible pains through her 2nd and 3rd months of pregnancy. When her friends convince her to see another doctor, the pains vanish.

Were the pains physical from carrying Satan’s child, or were they inflicted by the Satanists to keep her away from other people?

I assumed that gestating Satan’s baby is just a bitch. What with the horns and so forth…

Then again, I do remember the neighbor lady (Mrs…Cassavetes?) giving Rosemary the special drink every week. But I never thought that was the cause of it. Because she stops taking and then retakes it, but the pains never come back.

It did make for a good plot device. I guess I’ll just go on assuming it was the baby.

[Annie-Xmas]

@Freudian Slit

I assumed that gestating Satan’s baby is just a bitch. What with the horns and so forth…

Then again, I do remember the neighbor lady (Mrs…Cassavetes?) giving Rosemary the special drink every week. But I never thought that was the cause of it. Because she stops taking and then retakes it, but the pains never come back.

It did make for a good plot device. I guess I’ll just go on assuming it was the baby.

When she starts taking the drink again, she also gets a little cake of something like marzipan to eat with it, which could be a device to negate the pain.

[MrSquishy]

@Gulo gulo

I’ve always interpreted that as “not wanting to be caught dead in long underwear”. They’re high society gals & should be thought of as only wearing silk frillies, not woolen long johns.

I think this is right. I think she’s saying “I don’t care what your intentions are, we’re wearing long underwear (that we don’t want anybody to see if we get in an accident), so be careful!”.

[ArrMatey]

@Marley23

They’re just creating a scene for Mongo to interrupt. The full dialogue lasts just long enough to create a friendly atmosphere in the bar - it’s something like

Guy 1: “Gentlemen, did you know that even now, in France, Louis Pasteur is working on a vaccine that will cure anthrax? Just think of it- the end of hoof and mouth disease!”
Guy 2: “Nevermind that shit, here comes Mongo!”

Then Mongo wrecks up the place. I’ve found Guy #2’s line very useful in my daily life.

According to an interview I heard with Mel Brooks, it was a riff on something apparently common to westerns at the time. To wit: Things added in to point out the ‘historical significance’ of the time. The mention of Louis Pasteur, out of the blue, was his stab at the various ‘out of the blue’ mentions of other historical things he saw / heard in movies and found vaguely ridiculous.