I was re-watching Meet The Fockers for what was probably the 40th time or so (literally - I have a habit of re-watching movies over and over again, sometimes multiple times in the same day - I’ve done this since I was a little kid - I know, it’s fucked up - Howard Hughes also used to do it.) ANYWAY, in Meet The Fockers, Greg Focker’s dad (played by Dustin Hoffman) is a sex-crazed eccentric who is constantly boasting and joking about his and his wife’s sex life, to the dismay of uptight Jack Burns (Robert DeNiro.) He and Barbara Streisand discuss the details of their sexual habits over and over again, embarrassing the hell out of their son.
Anyway, towards the end of the movie, Greg and his father Bernard (Hoffman) take off in a car chase, in their Volkswagen Thing 4x4 (possibly the only appearance of said vehicle on film, and much appreciated by a 4x4 buff such as myself.) The scene opens with a close up shot of the rear of the vehicle, centered on the license plate, which them zooms out.
The license plate reads: TMI 105.
I’ve seen this movie dozens of times but only just noticed this. Very clever in-joke. I highly doubt this was a coincidence.
Wanna fill the rest of us in? Is it just because TMI means Too Much Information, because unless the 105 is important too, it’s likely just a coincidence.
Yes, it’s Too Much Information, because Bernard Focker’s personality epitomizes that concept. He talks way too much about his sex life all the time. I have a very hard time believing it’s just a coincidence, especially since the shot opens with a close-up of the license plate. I think it was thrown in there by someone with knowledge of internet abbreviations, with the intention of being noticed by other people who know those abbreviations. Like US.
I’d say that’s not really an in-joke, just a joke. When George Takei’s character on Heroes had a license plate that said NCC 1701, that was an in-joke. (Do I remember that right?)
TMI is not an internet abbreviation. In school we used to say “TMI!” when our friends would talk about gross stuff, like kissing and girls and things. This was in the late '70’s.