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This Is Spinal Tap

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

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McChesney Duntz

Well, it's a damn shame you don't enjoy this film, Mr. Eel.  And a separate but equal shame that you feel it necessary to tar those of us who do with condescending terms and put-downs.  But that's the nature of the beast - forget it, Jake, it's the internet - so, best to let it slide. 

Anyway, here's a longish piece about the lawsuit Harry Shearer is spearheading to prize the residuals from the local yahoos, or whatever: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-04-20/this-is-spinal-tap-s-400-million-lawsuit

Eye-opening stuff in terms of the film biz' "creative accounting."  Shearer may be an utter pain in the ass to work with (and it breaks my heart a little knowing that he and McKean have been on the outs for some time), but he's tenacious - if anybody will take up the fight for Tap's (big) bottom line and see it through to the bloody end, he's the man.  This could get quite interesting.

Kane Jones

Quote from: the science eel on April 25, 2017, 10:08:17 AM
Not funny, no.

All the examples of humour cited have been subtle little observations. It's a film for smart arses to nod smugly to. Pat yourself on the back that you've recognised the habits of third-rate rock bands, the thought processes of not-very-bright muso types.

Hmm. Well done.

Black_Bart

"It's not your job to be as confused as Nigel!"

the science eel

I like "a separate but equal shame" tho'!


Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: the science eel on April 24, 2017, 09:55:06 PM
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.

Yeah, I prefer Best in Show as well, but I think we're probably in the minority.

Harlan Pepper was a fucking dapper.

McChesney Duntz

Thank you.  Nothing like an allusion to one of my country's most shameful examples of institutional racism to spice up a debate about a damned comedy film, I always say.

ASFTSN

Only on CaB could This Is Spinal Tap be considered 'punching down' at third-rate rock bands.

McChesney Duntz

But come on now, Nigel's solo showcase is a mini-masterpiece of comic escalation in just under a minute (the Jimmy Page allusion is a nice bit of texture but not necessary to enjoy it - I certainly didn't catch it for a good couple of decades after I first saw it) - the final capper takes it from "funny" to "genius" in my fakebook...

https://youtu.be/wBiJ-K0IpDA


Shit Good Nose

Everyone mentioning Guest's films could, perhaps, do with being reminded that Tap has an awful lot of input from Rob Reiner, and Guest has often said that it's as much Reiner's baby as it is his.

That being said, I bloody love it.

I'm also a huge fan of The Return, which often gets overlooked.  Nigel's inventing shed and the foldable wine glass, David's soccer school for pale young boys (for which he gets a stipend rather than a salary), Derek's christian death metal band and failed property investments, and Marty Di Bergi's corridor office just by the public toilets.  Plus a proper Tap live concert, and support by The Folksmen.

Black_Bart

"No one knows who they were or what they were doing"

colacentral

That comment about it being too subtle and not laugh out loud funny - outrageous bollocks! Maybe it is more connective with a big music fan, I dunno, but those of us who do enjoy it aren't bullshitting. It is laugh out loud funny throughout, and has that Simpsons quality of being funny over and over again no matter how many times you see it.

My opinion on all Monty Python: sometimes funny, but mostly just consistently entertaining. I always liked watching the films and Flying Circus but I rarely actually laughed. It was an enjoyment of the whole tone, the performances, the animation, and the sense of fun.

Van Dammage

Quote from: the science eel on April 25, 2017, 10:08:17 AM
Not funny, no.

All the examples of humour cited have been subtle little observations. It's a film for smart arses to nod smugly to. Pat yourself on the back that you've recognised the habits of third-rate rock bands, the thought processes of not-very-bright muso types.

Or you just don't find it funny and others do.

chocky909

On bass, Derek Smalls... he wrote this...

Sydward Lartle

When did this business with a 'giant capo on the amp' take place? Whenever that happened, I'm glad I missed it, because that sounds like absolute fucking bullshit.

Fun side note - other celebrity fans of the Rutles include Heart's Nancy Wilson and the Bangles' Vicki Peterson (who ignored my nerdy question about guitar strings on Twitter, but sod that because I'm Facebook friends with Susanna Hoffs).

shiftwork2

Quote from: Black_Bart on April 25, 2017, 03:40:28 PM
"No one knows who they were or what they were doing"

Actually, the whole of that bit.  Hewn.

McChesney Duntz

Especially the final verse...

And where are they now?
The little people of Stonehenge
And what would they say to us?
If we were here, tonight

hey you know this popular thing

that's shite that is


Sydward Lartle

Surprised nobody's steamed in yet to tell me that Withnail and I is the funniest, bravest and most important film ever and that I'm basically a psychotic paedophile axe murderer for not liking it. Mind you, there are  a lot fewer cackling opportunistic hyenas and faux-bohemian middle-aged gadabouts on here than there used to be.

Back to This is Spinal Tap, though... I don't think it's laugh-out-loud funny. Well, maybe in a few places. What it definitely is, and that's beautifully observed. It manages to take something that's effectively beyond parody and still make a good job of sending it up. It helps, of course, that there's a lot more going on besides - the pastiche of white  London groups of the early sixties latching on to black music and learning their songwriting trade by churning out twelve-bar-blues numbers. The spot-on parody of the flower power / psychedelia movement. The fact that certain rock and prog groups made diversions into classical music and attempted to 'rock up' classical compositions. One really superb gag that never made it into the film was Spinal Tap's brief flirtation with glam rock from the mid-seventies with an album called Bent for the Rent, which was possibly excised because glam rock didn't really mean much to Americans until KISS and that band who had a massive hit with a cover of a Slade song came along.

the science eel

Quote from: Sydward Lartle on April 25, 2017, 08:29:19 PM
Back to This is Spinal Tap, though... I don't think it's laugh-out-loud funny. Well, maybe in a few places. What it definitely is, and that's beautifully observed.

I agree. And that's all I was really saying. I enjoyed the film enough.

It's just a little frustrating when EVERY OTHER PERSON tells you you're wrong, you're missing something. Even (especially?) when their assertions are polite. I mean, there must be others who've watched it and didn't find it gutbustingly hilarious.

This is something that happens with single-themed threads on message boards anyway. People see the title and chime in to add praise. It's rare to find dissent.

Ho hum.




thraxx

Quote from: Black_Bart on April 25, 2017, 03:40:28 PM
"No one knows who they were, or, what they were doing"

FTFY...

The commas are so important in that line...

I love the fact that in the song they then go on in very great detail as to exactly what they were doing, they being everyone else there apart from the druids.

colacentral

#80
I don't agree with the suggestion by eel and Lartle that subtle, character-driven humour is not conducive to the involuntary physical reaction of laughing out loud. I'm sure that's not the intention but that's how it comes across. It might be more difficult, but if you're on that wavelength it absolutely is easier to laugh at those things than broader, jokier humour.

Take On Cinema as a perfect example. It's hard to articulate why so much of it is funny, but it has a snowball effect on the viewer (based on mine and other forum users experiences) where the knowledge of the characters and the universe build and build until the tiniest things become funny - a flash of Peter Jackson on a monitor in the background, an item of clothing, a shot of people enjoying a bowl of chilli. In the recent Oscar special I laughed at Greg telling the Dubai hotel to ask Tim to call "our cinema", and Mark's insistence that he ask if they'd heard any sirens. These tiny things, like Spinal Tap, make me laugh more than just about any other form of humour, but I'd be hard pressed to articulate exactly why.

McChesney Duntz

I wonder, seriously, if anyone anywhere's ever been able to convince anyone else to find something laugh out loud funny that they didn't before.  Or vice versa.

The stuff in TIST that continues to crack me up is not so much the big gags but the nonplussed reactions to the gags.  Derek Smalls when he first realizes his pod isn't opening, for one.  Or St. Hubbins' gaping mouth as the Stonehenge monument descends.  Ian Faith trying to process the phrase "money talks and bullshit walks."  And any of half a dozen perfectly-timed pauses from Nigel.  "None more black" is funny.  The half-second between "the answer is..." and "well, none" is HILARIOUS.

(x-post with colacentral there)

Sydward Lartle

Quote from: the science eel on April 25, 2017, 09:12:47 PM
I mean, there must be others who've watched it and didn't find it gutbustingly hilarious.

From the IMDB user reviews...

"All those stupid gags and dumb jokes and situations are so bland and tedious to watch. It gets too repetitive and uninteresting"

"The entire film was the exact same joke (that they're idiots and they're not very popular) played out over and over again"

"Watch it for the cleverness and the truly fine acting throughout, but not for laughs"


Lost Oliver

One of my favourite films. Every time I watch it I find something new to laugh at.

Artie Fufkin.

Kane Jones


thugler

Hate the idea for this thread, and the old withnail one. If it doesn't make you laugh, fine but why do you feel the need to whine about it. It obviously does make plenty of us laugh like drains. Tap is for me one of the most rewatchable films ever too. So many layers of jokes and subtle moments.

In summary, it's you, not the films not being funny.

the science eel


HappyTree


Black_Bart

"You're sweet, but you're just four feet
And you still got your baby teeth
You're too young, and I'm too well hung..."


Dr Rock

Hey science eel can you list five comedy movies you do really like? Just curious.