Comments on: Imitating Oscar

By: Anthony Lattimore

Anthony Lattimore — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:21:21 +0000

I am doing a research paper for school and i need infomation about Larry Hoover not the all negative things but some of the positive things and ideas he had

By: Seamus McCauley

Seamus McCauley — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 07:27:23 +0000

Hi Grant. I saw this extract and thought of you:

“…a country where gangbangers and mafiosi learn how to dress and act by watching movies about themselves. Chicago gangs did not use machine guns, Gator Bradley says, until they saw Al Pacino with an uzi in the movie Scarface.”

From here: http://gangresearch.net/ChicagoGangs/BGD/vote21.html (HT Freaknomics blog)

By: LK

LK — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 13:02:52 +0000

Also interesting is how things move through the parody pipe. Kids of my friends, kids who are under 10, often shock me with their knowledge of 60′s,70′s, and 80′s…catchphrases, physical gestures, inflections. The one that totally floored me was when they did the Edward Munch “The Scream” face, and called it “The Scream”, because they had seen it on, yes the Simpsons. For more on the topic of iintertextuality and memes in popular culture a wonderful authority is Jonathan Gray, author of “Watching The Simpsons”, and currently a Media Studies Professor at Fordham University in NY (and a former classmate of mine at Goldsmiths College, University of London; Respect to the class of 2000!)

http://www.amazon.com/Watching-Simpsons-Television-Intertextuality-Comedia/dp/0415362032/sr=1-5/qid=1166723956/ref=sr_1_5/105-3751109-6667657?ie=UTF8&s=books

By: Eric

Eric — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 06:48:47 +0000

What’s interesting is that it’s possible to pick up catch phrases from movies I’ve never seen. They exist in the cultural ocean and are so omnipresent (like “Yeah baby!”) that one can’t help but be aware of them even if one hasn’t seen the movie itself. As a geek, I knew half the lines of Monty Python’s Holy Grail before I ever saw the movie. I had the same feeling when watching Aliens for the first time – “_That’s_ where all these catch phrases come from!” So I think it’s definitely possible to “channel” films that have only been seen once, or even not at all, if one is part of a community of others who have absorbed that movie.

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 05:50:06 +0000

Grant — great post, as always! Welcome back.

One thought: Where do Hollywood writers get their phrases from in the first place? Mike Myers is Canadian. Did he happen to hear the same guy you heard in the bar in Montreal saying “Yeah, baby”, and then decide to borrow the phrase for his Austin Powers character?

This might seem a strange comment, but one of the comedians on a popular British TV sketch show, “The Fast Show”, has revealed that most of the characters and their catch-phrases came from the actual people in a pub he used to frequent in London’s East End.

And, the US has the example of Chicago’s Second City Comedy Club begatting Saturday Night Live begatting loads of Hollywood comedy films. Maybe these catch phrases all originate with a drinks waiter in a now-defunct bar in Forest Park?

By: Tom Guarriello

Tom Guarriello — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 23:23:05 +0000

The thing I always want to ask these sui generis identity constructionists is where it is, exactly, that they think we’re supposed to get the raw materials for these selves, anyway? Make ‘em up? The power of those Hollywood (fill in the blank here: archetypes, memes, role models) is so great that we’re really only kidding ourselves if we don’t at least find some vestiges of them somewhere in there; like trace elements in the flesh of fish caught far at sea.

Good to see you’ve hit the ground running upon your return here.

By: Brian Kenny

Brian Kenny — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 21:11:30 +0000

Grant — I hope the respite from the blog was relaxing, and welcome back.

Three comments on your Hollywood post:

(1) We eat some pretty rough stuff in my household, and this often leads to collective re-enactment of certain scenes from the movie ‘Blazing Saddles’ (and none of us remotely look like Mel Brooks, Cleavon Little, or any other members of the original cast). We blame Hollywood.

(2) A friend emailed me a note about the University of Minnesota football team, and my response was ‘Yah sure, you bet’. That response launched us into discussion that my e-mail was mimicking an accent, and we concluded that Hollywood had conscripted us. My friend noted that it happened even as early as during the Charlie Chaplin silent movie era, and I noted my viewing of cowboy movies (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence — 1962 — had a character named Peter who used an accent from Scandinavia). I also noted that the old political cartoons in the late 1800s newspapers conveyed ideas like ‘drunk Irish policemen with red nose’ without motion or sound. We are highly susceptible to thinking in stereotypic fashion using iconic words and images and actions.

(3) Imagine the mental template of what Jesus Christ looks like — the image we conjure is a bit older than Hollywood, and we fall for its instant recognizability everywhere. Some of the problems we have with the Muslim world (and they with us) is over our iconic remnants. They hate icons and tear them down (Bamiyan Buddhas; the World Trade Center). We love icons and build them up and re-mix them loosely and dynamically.

No wonder we love Hollywood, while they find Hollywood a cultural and religious assault.

By: Carol Gee

Carol Gee — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 15:34:14 +0000

Grant, this was a fascinating post, full of stuff with which I identified. We do need shorthand; the trick for me is to use it sparingly, and in those “just right moments.” Otherwise, I feel that my own command of the mother tongue should be exercised. But If I do “copy” a line, in one way it is in homage to the originating writer.
- From an incurable movie fan