My brunch with Mulnch

My Lunch with Lurch

My Supper with Tupper

How about the "Community" episode that was supposed to be a "Pulp Fiction" Parody, but which was hijacked by Abed's sudden fascination with "My Dinner With Andre"? Joel and Abed are sitting around talking while, in another location, everyone else is standing around awkwardly dressed as Pulp Fiction characters, waiting for the party to begin. It was "Community" at its most meta, references piled on references in some kind of POMO trainwreck.

These days, we're all so used to ridiculously fast paced action movies that the original Star Wars movie seems to drag a little, and it's hard to imagine that I once sat through this whole movie in a theater and loved it. Luckily, no one has to sit through the whole thing anymore. You can take it on 20 minutes at a time now.

In 2001, when I finally met my 23 year old daughter (now a son) we were each very impressed that the other had an MST3k Torgo Screensaver, and a VHS copy of this movie.

I'm not going to try to explain the special appeal of this classic. Two middle-aged guys talking. Andre has some amazing fucked up stories. Wallace is fascinated and freaked out in turns. The waiter's facial tic seems to hint that there's more going on here. Maybe that's bullshit, like (I suspect) Andre's stories. Andre later became a successful fashion model. Yep. THAT amazing fucked up story is actually true.

Louis Motherfucking Malle. If he'd made the same kind of movie over and over, he'd probably be a lot more famous. Anybody ever see ZAZIE DANS LE METRO?

AHA! I THOUGHT AS MUCH!

See, I'd never seen "My Breakfast with Blassie" before (thanks for that, OZ!), so while looking it up on Youtube, I happened to glance over some of the related videos, and I noticed a video with "Abed" talking about "My Dinner With Andre". Now I have no fucking clue who "Abed" is (that Jeff Dunham character?), but I *do* know that you, Mr Holmes, like him immensely; you have mentioned him a number of times. So, errhah, I thinks, perhaps this Abed character has something to do with John's decision to post this movie?

Anyway, you should probably specify that this movie is about two middle-aged *douchebags* talking. That is important.

Also, Andre is totally bullshitting.

Abed is an autistic community college student of mixed Caucasian/Lebanese heritage that is obsessed with films and television, using them as bridges to socializing with his peers. He's a very friendly (as best as he can be, given his condition), gregarious (though almost entirely in film/tv metaphors or references to what's happening around him) young man without a mean bone in his body, and one of the more unique characters that tv has seen in decades.

He's a film major, of course. And realizes just how odd it is for him to be so obssessed with what he's obssessed with, and to inject it into socialization so much, but can't help himself, as it's his lifeline.

All of this from the NBC series Community.

I only mentioned the "Community" reference in response to Infinite Zest's "Simpson's" reference.

There are a lot of "Community" fans in here , and I bet most of them will agree with me that Abed is their favorite character. He's the one who talks about their lives as if it was a TV show, making him essential to the show's meta sensibility.

Here's a discussion of "Community" and Postmodernism. I'm pretty sure, most of you hate the Idea Channel guy, so be forewarned.

http://youtu.be/YanhEVEgkYI

My Breakfast with Blassie is the best. One time I saw Johnny Legend himself project it from the only existing 16mm print.

Ah, so Abed is basically every single one of my RL friends? I'll look into that, thanks! (I might skip the Community and Postmodernism thing, however, since Postmodernism is one of my triggers.)

OZ - you should post Breakfast With Blassie. It's got wrassling, and everyone here likes wrassling!

I think Postmodern would be My Dinner with Eric Andre. I put this on when I was falling into a food coma and it reminds me in a way of the Life of Pi, another movie I watched on Thanksgiving.

http://www.poetv.com/video.php?vid=26488

Vote up the resubmit!

Oh wait, isn't that ugly dude the hideous dwarf from Princess Bride?! Does he poison the scrawny, pretentious one?

Wait actually, don't tell. I'm totally going to watch it now just to see how Vizzini manages to poison that Chehkov-loving weiner.

"I can just imagine some beautiful SS man loving the Little Prince."

This is what rich people really believe.

Worst gay porn ever,

There's another line later where he says, in this completely incredulous tone of voice, something to the effect of "I don't think that Buddhist monk even liked kids!"

Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but ewwww. Gross.

... he *does* have a Nazi fetish, right? Because I've counted at least four separate references to Nazis so far, cropping up in totally unrelated stories. Mentioning Nazis once or twice, sure, whatever, nothing strange about that, but he's finding ways to work them in to just about everything he says.

... aaaand now he's comparing himself to Albert Speer.

I really wish he had a DA page. I'm sure it would be delightful.

One last question, then I'll shut up: did Vizzini really play the cat in a stage adaption of The Master and Margarita? Did he really *dress up* like a cat? Are there pictures of this?

48:30-49:30 reminds me of how I watch this movie, and I think the exchange around 56:30-58:30 is of particular relevance to PoeTV.

I think we need our own waiter to stop by and ask us if everything is alright from time to time.

It starts getting really self-referential around 1:15:00. Again, I reiterate: this movie would be LOADS better with some ninjas and a good old fashioned poisoning.

I mean, really; why can't we just redo this movie, only instead of two doughy 40-somethings sitting in some douchebag restaurant for douchebgas, it's two big-breasted anime mecha pilots having an airbender duel on top of Mt Everest?

Oh God, and now Andre is going all Infowars. WACHET AUF!

Erik Satie always reminds of Robert Crumb. That is very inappropriate imagery.

It was nice. Sort of boring. Reminds me of sitting in a New Haven Indian restaurant, one table away from a couple of Yale professors. Should have been called "My Dinner With Alex Jones", though.

So what do you think of this movie, Mr Holmes?

Weird! I was at this mexican joint called Zapata or something in New Haven and they kept ordering Margaritas that they gave to me, because I was only 19. Some professors were there, drunk as all fuck, and they distracted the waitress enough so I could get drunk as fuck too.

Yeah, that sounds like the sort of professor who goes to Viva Zapata. Also, it's possible that they were grad students and/or townies, and simply lied.

>>So what do you think of this movie, Mr Holmes?

I haven't seen this movie in about 30 years. Even though I had a VHS copy, I never watched it. It's unquestionably some kind of classic. I mean, they based an episode of Community on it. How does a movie like this penetrate that far into mainstream consciousness?

Wish I had more time to form a new opinion of the film itself before this drifts off the front page. I'll say this much. For me, the most moving part was the end when Wallace is riding in a cab through the city streets, and remembering scenes of himself throughout his life, at nearly every location he passes. This happens to me a lot when I pass through the streets of my hometown, and it always is accompanied by the deepest, most inexplicable sadness.

My dad had this movie on VHS back in the day. I never sat through the whole thing until just now (although truth be told, I sort of cheated, and had it playing in the background for most of that time). I guess I can relate to that feeling of malign, choking nostalgia you're talking about, although in my case I rarely ever visit my hometown, and the few times I have done so in recent memory, I've made it a point to spend the entire ordeal with my face buried in my smartphone. You could try that next time; it's easy to go about your day when you're looking up internet porn, instead of dwelling on all the things you've lost.

(does that make me a Wallace, or an Andre?)

I'm Leonard Maltin, and I have returned from the grave to renounce myself and all I stand for.

I'm Leonard Maltin, and according to wikipedia, I'm not dead.

Like does he have a car?

I got your reference.