# the Big Lebowski - How did that kid's homework wind up in the Dude's car? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 2, 2015, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-how-did-that-kids-homework-wind-up-in-the-dudes-car/726825 "2015-08-02T21:33:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2015, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-how-did-that-kids-homework-wind-up-in-the-dudes-car/726825/21 "2015-08-03T20:32:04Z")
I don’t think we can clearly say when Larry was in the car. After all, some homeless people used it as a toilet before the police towed it. So it wasn’t just the thief who was in it. Maybe he and some friends used it for some person (drinking/smoking/whatever) after it was crashed by the thief and before the homeless people dropped in. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2015, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-how-did-that-kids-homework-wind-up-in-the-dudes-car/726825/22 "2015-08-04T02:37:54Z")
It never occurred to me that Larry didn’t steal the car. My wife’s car was stolen by some teens for a joy ride, it happens all the time. ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2015, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-how-did-that-kids-homework-wind-up-in-the-dudes-car/726825/23 "2015-08-04T03:32:24Z")
maybe the real car thief stole Larry’s homework and planted it there as evidence to frame him ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_jeffrey_lebowski/32/215_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Jeffrey_Lebowski)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2015, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-how-did-that-kids-homework-wind-up-in-the-dudes-car/726825/24 "2015-08-04T06:26:52Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > I’d read that too. Also both Walter and the Dude are based on real people. Walter is based on John Milius, and The Dude is based on Jeff Dowd. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2015, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-how-did-that-kids-homework-wind-up-in-the-dudes-car/726825/25 "2015-08-04T06:49:14Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > If Larry didn’t steal the car, who did? Do you have any leads? “Leads? Yeah, sure. I’ll, uh, just check with the boys down at the crime lab. They got four more detectives working on the case. They got us working in shifts. [laughing hard] Leads?” [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/v7acD4q0lp0/maxresdefault.jpg "The Big Lebowski - leads?") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7acD4q0lp0) ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2015, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-how-did-that-kids-homework-wind-up-in-the-dudes-car/726825/26 "2015-08-04T06:55:02Z")
My two favorite scenes in the Big Lebowski is the scene where the dude is being slick and runs over to make a rubbing of the pad where Jackie Treehorn has just been writing, only to discover it’s a dirty picture and the scene where he asked the cops if he had any leads. I just love the transition of the cop’s behavior from professional and sympathetic to outright derision. This thread has driven me to watch the movie again tonight. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2015, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-how-did-that-kids-homework-wind-up-in-the-dudes-car/726825/27 "2015-08-07T22:04:10Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > maybe the real car thief stole Larry’s homework and planted it there as evidence to frame him Wasn’t something like this the whole premise of _Branded_? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2015, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-how-did-that-kids-homework-wind-up-in-the-dudes-car/726825/28 "2015-08-07T22:08:45Z")
[quote=“Larry\_Borgia, post:25, topic:726825”] “Leads? Yeah, sure. I’ll, uh, just check with the boys down at the crime lab. They got four more detectives working on the case. They got us working in shifts. [laughing hard] Leads?” [/QUOTE] See post 16. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2015, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-how-did-that-kids-homework-wind-up-in-the-dudes-car/726825/29 "2015-08-07T22:22:02Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > See post 16. Well, uh, I did link to the video! ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2015, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-how-did-that-kids-homework-wind-up-in-the-dudes-car/726825/30 "2015-08-07T23:22:08Z")
One of the main points of the film is that it’s a parody of films noir and the detective genre in general: The main character is not a detective, the narrator thinks the film is a Western, we get the whole plot spelled out by his friend early in the plot, and the plot, overall, doesn’t even matter. It’s a complete wash which amounts to the Dude losing a specific rug, one of his friends dying of a heart attack (which had little to nothing to do with the plot… it was foreshadowed before the last scene with the nihilists), and him fathering a child because he was mistakenly drawn into a pointless whirlwind of coincidences for a while. A normal detective story has a complex clockwork plot with no extraneous movements or elements. In this story, the majority of the plot is extraneous, like one of those pointless Rube Goldberg machines which does the least amount of actual work with the greatest amount of effort and fooling around. They even tell you that it was set in a specific era for nothing more than a dumb throwaway joke. So, yes, the kid stole the car and accidentally left his homework in it. No, it doesn’t connect up with any other part of the plot. It’s just another throwaway, something to drive home the fact that the plot as a whole doesn’t matter. ---
**Author:** ![candide](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/46a35a/32.png) [@candide](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/candide)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2015, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-how-did-that-kids-homework-wind-up-in-the-dudes-car/726825/31 "2015-08-08T01:58:41Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > One of the main points of the film is that it’s a parody of films noir and the detective genre in general: The main character is not a detective, the narrator thinks the film is a Western, we get the whole plot spelled out by his friend early in the plot, and the plot, overall, doesn’t even matter. > > It’s a complete wash which amounts to the Dude losing a specific rug, one of his friends dying of a heart attack (which had little to nothing to do with the plot… it was foreshadowed before the last scene with the nihilists), and him fathering a child because he was mistakenly drawn into a pointless whirlwind of coincidences for a while. > > A normal detective story has a complex clockwork plot with no extraneous movements or elements. In this story, the majority of the plot is extraneous, like one of those pointless Rube Goldberg machines which does the least amount of actual work with the greatest amount of effort and fooling around. They even tell you that it was set in a specific era for nothing more than a dumb throwaway joke. > > So, yes, the kid stole the car and accidentally left his homework in it. No, it doesn’t connect up with any other part of the plot. It’s just another throwaway, something to drive home the fact that the plot as a whole doesn’t matter. What a buzzkill you are, man. It wasn’t about the nihilists or Jackie Treehorn or Sioux City Sasparilla or a bag full of Walter’s underwear. Everyone knows the movie was all about about the rug: it really tied the room together. ---
**Author:** ![Apocalypso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Apocalypso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apocalypso)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2015, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-how-did-that-kids-homework-wind-up-in-the-dudes-car/726825/32 "2015-08-08T02:31:51Z")
I guess I’m over thinking it then. It’s just that I would have expected the film to show Larry stealing the car, or joyriding in it. That, and the lack of any reaction from him at all when confronted by Walter, made me wonder if something else had happened but just wasn’t explained very well. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2015, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-how-did-that-kids-homework-wind-up-in-the-dudes-car/726825/33 "2015-08-08T05:28:04Z")
> [@candide](#): > > Everyone knows the movie was all about about the rug: it really tied the room together. That’s actually a good point: In the usual detective story, the detective actually cares about the case. The detective risks life and limb to solve the mystery. The Dude… cares, some, but, you know, he’s mainly interested in his rug, and getting compensation for that. The rug, which in a more normal show would have been a minor plot point to use to draw the main character into the actual narrative, here was one of the few important elements. > [@Apocalypso](#): > > I guess I’m over thinking it then. It’s just that I would have expected the film to show Larry stealing the car, or joyriding in it. That, and the lack of any reaction from him at all when confronted by Walter, made me wonder if something else had happened but just wasn’t explained very well. Maybe I’m misremembering, but I’m pretty sure The Dude was the viewpoint character, so we wouldn’t expect to see anything he didn’t see. This is, actually, par for the course in standard detective stories (and, in fact, one of the rules of a “fair play mystery” is that the viewpoint character can’t be the one who did it\*); the catch is that the mystery of who stole the car is both a legitimate mystery and a complete non-sequitur to the main plot. \*(Another rule is “No Chinamen should appear in the story”, which is oddly relevant here. [I’m not making this up.](http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~stb27/gadficconcept.htm)) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2015, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-how-did-that-kids-homework-wind-up-in-the-dudes-car/726825/34 "2015-08-08T16:41:09Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > …\*(Another rule is “No Chinamen should appear in the story”, which is oddly relevant here. [I’m not making this up.](http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~stb27/gadficconcept.htm)) Uh, “Asian” is the preferred nomenclature, I think, Dude. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2015, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-how-did-that-kids-homework-wind-up-in-the-dudes-car/726825/35 "2015-08-08T17:16:14Z")
I’ve been thinking over this concept of the homework being planted. (I know, over thinking this movie is … not good.) Who planted the homework? Someone who knew the Sellers and had a longstanding beef against them. Someone who might have come across the homework when it had been dropped on the ground. A neighbor perhaps. Maybe one who had just bought a Corvette. One who got a big pile of karma dumped on him by Walter. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2015, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-how-did-that-kids-homework-wind-up-in-the-dudes-car/726825/36 "2015-08-08T17:27:39Z")
But that’s not what happens when you fuck somebody you know in the ass ! ---
**Author:** ![Apocalypso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Apocalypso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apocalypso)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2015, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-how-did-that-kids-homework-wind-up-in-the-dudes-car/726825/37 "2015-08-09T02:15:09Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > That’s actually a good point: In the usual detective story, the detective actually cares about the case. The detective risks life and limb to solve the mystery. The Dude… cares, some, but, you know, he’s mainly interested in his rug, and getting compensation for that. The rug, which in a more normal show would have been a minor plot point to use to draw the main character into the actual narrative, here was one of the few important elements. > > Maybe I’m misremembering, but I’m pretty sure The Dude was the viewpoint character, so we wouldn’t expect to see anything he didn’t see. This is, actually, par for the course in standard detective stories (and, in fact, one of the rules of a “fair play mystery” is that the viewpoint character can’t be the one who did it\*); the catch is that the mystery of who stole the car is both a legitimate mystery and a complete non-sequitur to the main plot. > > \*(Another rule is “No Chinamen should appear in the story”, which is oddly relevant here. [I’m not making this up.](http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~stb27/gadficconcept.htm)) Well there were several scenes where we DID get a glimpse of things The Dude didn’t see, like the woman who gave up her toe driving down the road. Close up of her foot on the gas pedal, sans the littlest piggy. Also Jesus going door to door telling people he was convicted of a sex crime and would be moving into the neighborhood. The Dude saw neither of those things, yet they were in the movie. So why not at least a brief shot of Larry joyriding in the car? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2015, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-how-did-that-kids-homework-wind-up-in-the-dudes-car/726825/38 "2015-08-09T02:21:59Z")
> [@Apocalypso](#): > > … things The Dude didn’t see, like the woman who gave up her toe driving down the road. Close up of her foot on the gas pedal, sans the littlest piggy… No, it was the German female nihilist who sacrificed her toe, as we saw in the beneath-the-table closeup at the pancake place. The other Lebowski’s trophy wife, Bunny, in her sportscar, IIRC had all ten of her toes still intact. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2015, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-how-did-that-kids-homework-wind-up-in-the-dudes-car/726825/39 "2015-08-09T02:29:45Z")
The Big Lebowski is an homage to The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. In the original (if memory serves) the chauffeur drives off of a cliff and dies, it is never explained why and is entirely irrelevant to the plot. Larry’s unexplained car theft would be the equivalent is my guess. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2015, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-how-did-that-kids-homework-wind-up-in-the-dudes-car/726825/40 "2015-08-10T21:45:00Z")
Actually, the entire story is being told from the viewpoint of The Stranger (Sam Elliott). He does the opening and closing narration. (For which The Dude is not present.) As well as some other brief bits. (“Darkness warshed over The Dude - darker’n a black steer’s tookus on a moonless prairie night. There was no bottom.”) _He_ is presenting the story. Apparently he thought the story of how Larry’s homework got in the car wasn’t worth relating. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-how-did-that-kids-homework-wind-up-in-the-dudes-car/726825.md?page=1)