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This Is Spinal Tap

Started by the science eel, April 24, 2017, 02:14:46 PM

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the science eel

It's really bugging me that everyone finds this one hilarious and I watched it for the second time two nights ago and it honestly didn't even raise a smile.

WHAT'S SO FUCKING FUNNY about it?!?!

Rizla

When they play the song "Big Bottom" both guitarists are playing bass, but the actual bass player feels the need to have a double-necked instrument, presumably in order to feel secure in his role.

When they do Stonehenge, you can tell it's one of Nigel's, from their proggy phase. The rest of the band, initially unconvinced about putting it back in the set, are just starting to really enjoy it, as are the crowd, when it all goes tits up. This build up is to me far funnier than the dwarves dancing around the comically undersized set.

Lots of wee things like that.

Blumf

Quote from: the science eel on April 24, 2017, 02:14:46 PM
It's really bugging me that everyone finds this one hilarious and I watched it for the second time two nights ago and it honestly didn't even raise a smile.

You don't even like the bit around the mini-monolith?

Have to admit, it's never really 100% gelled with me, but I do get what it's up to, and do get a fair few laughs out of it. I wonder if it's an age thing, the situation being mostly suited for people who were around for that 70s/80s rock scene.

EDIT:

What Rizla says above kinda leans into this. There's lots of very tiny details like that which, if you're not on the same wavelength, just pass over you. Which is what I tend to get watching it, I know I'm missing stuff.

checkoutgirl

Quote from: the science eel on April 24, 2017, 02:14:46 PM
WHAT'S SO FUCKING FUNNY about it?!?!

The script, acting and situations.

To be serious though, you don't have a god given right to find everything funny just because loads of other people do. I was once friends with a guy who said he hated Vic and Bob and couldn't see why people thought they were funny. Now I was disappointed but quickly understood that nothing I could say could make him suddenly realise that Vic and Bob are funny.

Same thing with Spinal Pap. If you've given it two good goes and still don't laugh then I would say you've done more than give it a chance. Put it down to having a faulty funny bone and move on with the rest of your futile life.

That's my advice.

checkoutgirl

Quote from: Blumf on April 24, 2017, 02:28:44 PM
I wonder if it's an age thing, the situation being mostly suited for people who were around for that 70s/80s rock scene.

It can't be that. I mean the line "I envy us", you don't have to like hair metal to find that funny. Also the bit where the three guys all have cold sores, suggesting they've all been kissing the same girl. Also the line "No we're not gonna do fuckin' Stone'enge", it's an immortal line.

It's packed with zingers.

the science eel


Black_Bart

"I'm just as god made me, sir!"


Gulftastic

Nigel's tour of his guitar collection is one of my favourite scenes.

And obviously 'just simple lines, intertwining..'

checkoutgirl

"Fuck the napkin" is probably my favourite line.

checkoutgirl

Quote from: Gulftastic on April 24, 2017, 04:42:52 PM
Nigel's tour of his guitar collection is one of my favourite scenes.

And obviously 'just simple lines, intertwining..'

"a Mach piece"

chocky909

"It's like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is none... none more black."

Sydward Lartle

The problem with This is Spinal Tap - and I say this as someone who really enjoys the film - is that it's been so horrendously over-praised over the years that it's nigh-on impossible to approach with an open mind, and there'll always be the nagging sense of disappointment to newcomers if they don't find themselves in fits of helpless laughter every few minutes. Same deal with Withnail and I, which I hated first time I saw it, because it came at the end of over twenty years of people telling me how brilliant it was, people quoting the dialogue chapter and verse and almost unanimous critical praise, and I honestly couldn't see what the big deal was. I've kind of warmed to it since then, and I can understand why people like it, I can appreciate the performances and the writing, but it's still not really my kind of thing.

As I say, I really enjoy Tap, but I'm not blind to its flaws - the part where Nigel 'plays' his guitar by dragging a violin (as opposed to a violin bow, as pioneered by the Creation and copied by Jimmy Page) across the strings just feels like an awkward 'too silly to laugh at' mis-step, for example - and the endless cries of 'FUNNIEST FILM EVER!' are acutely annoying. Funnier than the Producers (1968)? I don't think so.

I think you really need a certain level of understanding about the rock business around that time to get the most joy out of it. The band Spinal Tap is a generalised parody of several British invasion bands who followed roughly the same career trajectory - starting out as a skiffle band, turning to R&B, embracing psychedelia and then turning to heavy rock / prog rock and enjoying mainstream, globe-trotting success before burning out or ending up in the 'where are they now?' file, as the film has it. There are lots of references to actual incidents and creative mis-steps, too - 'Jazz Odyssey' always felt like a nod toward the number of jazz musicians who ended up playing in rock bands because that's where the money was (Charlie Watts, Jack Bruce); Nigel's ribcage t-shirt is a nod to John Entwistle's infamous leather skeleton suit, which - in true pre-Tap fashion, he'd had made so tight he couldn't sit down in it; 'Big Bottom' is obviously the Tap universe's answer to Queen's 'Fat Bottomed Girls' off their successful but critically slammed Jazz album... and so on.

Apparently, Harry Shearer saw the double-neck bass in a music shop and asked the assistant 'what's the point of that?', given that both necks had four strings and were exactly the same scale and length as each other. The assistant was forced to reply 'There's no point, it just looks cool' - and Shearer knew he'd found the ideal bass for Derek Smalls.

ASFTSN

Rizla's got it right.  It's packed with details that underpin some great character studies. 

However, I could easily see someone watching it for the first time and it falling totally flat, mainly because from the way people talk about it - it's quoted as if it's packed full of one-liner zingers.  It's been over quoted to death and they're all quotes that sound shit when delivered when delivered by anyone apart from these characters.

Plus I suppose really having a genuine love of heavy metal or hard rock helps.

EDIT:  More or less beaten to the punch by Sydward there.

Sydward Lartle

The actual songs are also bloody good. Although it begins in the manner of Black Sabbath, the synth bit in the middle of Rock and Roll Creation is so much like the Who at the peak of Townshend's ARP synthesizer / keyboard loop / backing tapes fixation it's uncanny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-bfep7wp40

mothman

^ What the last two posters said. I first watched it a good quarter of a century ago, when it was only about a decade old, and already it had "LOL NO funniest fillum EVAR" tags attached to it. And I don't think it is. For one thing, it starts slow; granted you need time to get into it, but still - it starts very slowly. I think to appreciate it you probably hgave to have seen more "classic" feature-length documentaries that I had at the time; also, I think the greater ex[posure we have to fly-on-the-wall stuff, mostly via reality TV, sadly, also helps...

the science eel

All the examples cited might be funny, but belly-laughs? I really don't think so.

It's closer to pastiche than parody, the characters aren't dissimilar to real rockers, and this means you're more likely to nod with recognition or smile sympathetically than guffaw. No?

Quote from: Sydward Lartle on April 24, 2017, 05:26:42 PM
Funnier than the Producers (1968)? I don't think so.

Right.

Quote from: Sydward Lartle on April 24, 2017, 05:34:28 PM
The actual songs are also bloody good.

Right, yeah.


ASFTSN

Thinking about the lame referencing of Johnny Appleseed in America makes me laugh quite often.  An American comedian laughing at a shit bit of Americana by way of how a stupid British rock musician would write a shit song about America without knowing anything about it apart from touring there in their stupid British rock band.

NoSleep

#17
Quote from: Sydward Lartle on April 24, 2017, 05:26:42 PMThere are lots of references to actual incidents and creative mis-steps, too - 'Jazz Odyssey' always felt like a nod toward the number of jazz musicians who ended up playing in rock bands because that's where the money was (Charlie Watts, Jack Bruce)

I think it's more that Derek wishes he was as good as the likes of Jack Bruce, Jon Hiseman et al; he's nowhere near that level of musicianship. It's all in the title of his " jazz" piece; the Odyssey was a ten-year long ordeal.

royce coolidge

The manager Ian Faith makes it for me,slightly understated from some of the more obvious moments,but it gets me everytime.
                "you can ram it right down their throats"

Sydward Lartle

"Quite exciting, this computer magic!"

Twed

Quote from: royce coolidge on April 24, 2017, 07:28:00 PM
The manager Ian Faith makes it for me,slightly understated from some of the more obvious moments,but it gets me everytime.
                "you can ram it right down their throats"
Not always in the best light, but he's a good British icon. He's got that way of controlling a situation through irreverence[nb]Take Withnail's "you can stuff it up your arse for nothing and fuck off while you're doing it" attitude but really apply it in a practical way and you've got Ian's personality[/nb]. I've had flashes of pride thinking back to his solid oak cricket bat.

NoSleep

Ian Faith is an odd character well played. Somebody who is a bit of an also-ran, as far as managers go, that has managed to tag along with an also-ran band. His aggression and frustration is all borne of that.

Most telling scene is when the successful band is met in the hotel lobby and he starts ingratiating himself toward their manager.

Sydward Lartle

"We had to apologise for him with our set, d'you remember that? They were still booing him when we were on."

Just a small thing, but I think Christopher Guest and Michael McKean had the best London accents I've ever heard from American actors.

thraxx

Quote from: Sydward Lartle on April 24, 2017, 05:34:28 PM
The actual songs are also bloody good. Although it begins in the manner of Black Sabbath, the synth bit in the middle of Rock and Roll Creation is so much like the Who at the peak of Townshend's ARP synthesizer / keyboard loop / backing tapes fixation it's uncanny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-bfep7wp40

They are indeed.  When I'm enthusiastically pointing this out to anyone who will listen, especially about the way the absolutely nail the parodies, it's this song and those two passages that I pick out.  It's the bit when the 16ths on the high hats comes in gets me, followed by the developing synth lines. They totally fucking nail it.  Kills me every time.

The first time I watched Spinal Tap though, I too was non plussed.  I watched it under duress from my fawning pals and sat there with my arms crossed and a face like a smacked arse.  Second time I watched it, about 4 years later I was bowled over by it, everything is so on, point, packed with jokes, packed with detail, everything is quotable and works on different levels.  Getting into playing music and being in bands in the meantime certainly must of helped, and I've often wondered if that is the key to it.  Is it the funniest film ever?  Probably not, but I'd find it hard to name a film that is funnier.

My favorite viewing was me and some bloke I didn't knew in hotel lobby somewhere in Lincolnshire.  We both turned out to be musicians and it was a nice bit of common ground.  Just us two were watching it and some other grumpy prick came in to watch Corrie.  We said sorry, 'we're watching this', so he stayed and watched the film in complete silence at the back of the room while we cackled and choked our way through the film.  At the end he jumped up, obviously furious at missing Corrie, stood in front of us with his arms crossed and hissed petulantly "that was terrible!  what's the point in making a documentary about such a shit band?!", before storming off in a sulk.  Fuck me that was funny.

Finally, regarding the violin being used during the solo, it's really just another musical in-joke, and I don't think it's any less plausible than Lick My Love Pump, Don't look at it, Stonehenge, or the 'do you have any idea how much it will cost to dress the band as animals scene'. 

I think my favorite line is 'oh, you've all stuff over you again'.  It's the addition of the word 'all' that somehow takes it to a whole other level.

thraxx


You see, that's what a I love about this Film.  I just watched the aforementioned 'dress the band as animals scene', and there's a great line in there that I never noticed before as they are all bickering: David StH lamenting  "We've got the drabs!"

Sydward Lartle

I've been in "Still got the old tagger on it, never been played... no, don't touch it, don't point, even" territory quite a few times myself when I've had a shiny new guitar.

thraxx

Quote from: Sydward Lartle on April 24, 2017, 09:10:04 PM
I've been in "Still got the old tagger on it, never been played... no, don't touch it, don't point, even" territory quite a few times myself when I've had a shiny new guitar.

Too easy to get that way.  That's why I today own an excellent selection of £50 guitars.

mobias

I agree with those that think it somewhat over praised. I love it, its got a lot of fantastic scenes and some incredibly funny improvised dialogue but its not flawless. Its not as good as some of the other legendary comedies out there. Airplane, Holy Grail, Life of Brain and even Withnail and I are if not actually flawless certainly more flawless than Spinal Tap. I tend to think the final quarter of Spinal Tap is a bit weak, its like it runs out of steam a bit.

I sometimes wonder if one of the reasons Tap gets praised so much is that people somehow view as more than just the movie. They've done so much Spinal Tap spin off stuff like Break Like the Wind and all the other extras, which are sometimes even funnier than what was in the original film.

I genuinely think Christopher Guest's later film Best in Show is better that Tap and the best of his seres of films. Its far more subtle than Tap and more consitantly funny than A Mighty Wind or Waiting for Guffman. That recent Mascots film really showed how easy it is to get these sorts of spoof documentaries wrong and what an achievement it is when they're done right. 

the science eel

I certainly prefer Best in Show and Waiting For Guffman.

I'm still not getting any indication that Tap is laugh-out-loud funny for people - just that it's smart.


Holy Grail is another one I rewatched lately and it didn't tickle me one bit.

Now I've named the only two major film comedies I don't like, mind. I do have a sense of humour, really.

NoSleep

Holy Grail is one that I watched recently and fucking laughed out loud (and had seen when it was originally released, also). You are a sock puppet or a spotty youth with no gravity.