June 4, 2008

Short Cuts: "I Speak Jive"

Airplane! (1980). Written and directed by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker; starring Robert Hayes, Julie Hagerty, Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, Leslie Nielsen, Kareem Abdul-Jabaar, and Robert Stack.

10 comments:

  1. Thanks for posting this. It's such a classic!

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  2. This movie damaged my tiny little 11-year-old mind...and I'm glad!

    And this scene is one of the of the best.

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  3. haha - awesome montage of clips ... I went to the YouTube site of the user who posted the Jive video and found one for "Johnny the office boy" too -- good stuff.

    I really don't think they make these kind of comedies any more - why? Are they too low-brow, or too high-brow? Is it considered too lame to have endless word puns thrown into the mix these days? Are constant-string-of-gag comedies just not in fashion any more?

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  4. Even though there are numerous great scenes from this movie, this one sticks with me because it has no equal.

    I think they're definitely too high-brow, Josh. The modern spoof is something like Superhero Movie or Meet The Spartans - bodily fluid humor and inane ripoffs of movies that are, ironically, in theaters at exactly the same time. I was going to say that something like Airplane! would be considered too politically incorrect these days, but I don't think it's true.

    Incidentally, the same writing team from Airplane! had what I thought was there last gasp almost 10 years ago with High School High. That still had some fresh comedy.

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  5. The most recent comedy I've seen that did what Airplane! did successfully was 1999's Dick. Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams have a surprising flair for comedy. But I wonder if people who didn't grow up in the Nixon era or who weren't familiar with it would find it as hilarious as I did.

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  6. Really? I have to say it was Kirsten Dunst who actually kept me away from that one. I suppose I could try to overlook her, but that's asking a lot of me, haha...

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  7. Seriously? I really like her and think she's a very good actress. I was more leery of Williams, but she nailed her character.

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  8. Somewhere between Spider-Man sequels I totally lost my appreciation for her. I didn't see Marie Antoinette and I know people loved her in that. I don't know what it is about her. I'm sure she's a nice person...

    Williams, for her part, didn't impress me until The Station Agent, but I thought she was great in Brokeback Mountain and I'm Not There as well.

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  9. Ah, classic is the word for it. I love the fact that the so-called "jive" is actually a blend of ebonics, period street slang and (during the dinner ordering scene) greasy spoon shorthand.

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  10. I like the find, Sarah! This first Short Cut is one of my favorites. I wish I knew someone who I could reenact the scene with. Guess I'd have to memorize it first.

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