The kids were awful to Vern. Why was he friends with those jerks?
Seriously.
shareNo no no...it's the way guys are.
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MovieChat Forums > Stand by Me (1986) Discussion > The kids were awful to Vern. Why was he ...
Cos he was the token fat, funny dude, right?!
I think I was the only one guffawing at almost every scene he was in...which in turn, prompted the majority of theatre goers to crack up too.
It's pretty sad, but this is how society is conditioned. Apparently it's masculine and preferred that guys fight and make fun of each other, even good friends :/
Some light teasing is fine, but I agree that it's not too great when there's one friend almost exclusively singled out for most of that teasing. It was probably because Vern was an easier target and rarely had a comeback, tbh.
Because before kids became so pussified like they are today, this was normal. I grew up in the 70s and 80s, and the "fat" kids like him were very few and far between, not like today. And they were picked on. Everyone was open game for being picked on for one reason or another, we just accepted that. We had one friend that we always called Augustus, after the character in Willy Wonka, because he was the fat kid of our group. Now, over 30 years later, we are still friends with him (and just like Jerry O'Connell, he grew up and lost all that weight).
shareHow were they awful? They tease him, but they did like him. It was childhood kidding.
shareSomething boys do. In my Stand By Me quartet we didn't have a fat kid but we had a spindly weak kid that we'd always tackle, put in a headlock et cetera. Our favorite thing was to pants him because we knew it would make him cry and give us a laugh. Would he tell us to go to hell and never hang out again? Of course not, he was always back the next day.
"Jesus, does anyone?"
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They weren't awful to him. He was the one who brought the news, & he was the one who helped push Gordie with Chris & Teddy.
Teddy kinda ragged on him, but I'm sure Vern realized that Teddy's own life hadn't been ideal- he probably recognized that he was simply Teddy's outlet. Besides, it's Teddy & Vern who're bantering about Mighty Mouse & Superman together on the tracks- they surely have a kinship before & after the film's events.
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