So Many Hidden Jokes


Everytime I watch "Guffman", I see something new that makes me laugh for the first time. Most recently, I noticed the snack machine in the back of the gym where they are rehearsing is always empty.

Dont know if it is an intentional joke, but it worked for me.

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I love this movie on many levels....and one of them is the surprises that you get after watching it 4 or 5 times.

I'm not really an actress...but I play one on TV.

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One thing that people dont usually catch the first or second time seeing is during Ron and Sheila's audition. Keep your eye on sheila's face when Ron's talking during in the "in between" chats they have during their audition. I'm not gonna spoil it for you, heck, you might know what she does alreadY!

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I just recently noticed Corky's fondness for owls. If you check out the shots of his house, like when the coucil tries to get him to come back, there are strange owl statues and embroderies in the background. They might be in his store at the end, too. I love it because there's no way to explain it. Corky just likes owls for some unknown reason.

Also Corky won't let Doctor Pearl wear his glasses for "Covered Wagons" because it's not historically accurate (though I'm pretty sure they had glasses at that time), yet Corky does the whole show with his dimond earring in. Wonderful.


The music ignites the night with passionate fire
--"The principles of surgery are the same above and below the neck."--

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Did anyone notice while Corky was trying to get the guy who played the narrator (i can't remember his name) to join the cast on top of his t.v. there is a regular plastic drinking water bottle on a stand with a ship in it. The bottle has all the ribbs in it and the spout that pulls off the get water out of it. I though that was pretty funny.

"If yesterday could be tomorrow, I would change today." -
www.pwmin.org/soulfishin

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There is! There's a huge owl right behind him during his interview in his shop!

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I caught it the first time and absolutely laughed my butt off. I can't help but watch her when they audition.

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What does she do?
Now I'll have to go watch it again!XD

"Good luck exploring the infinite abyss."
"Hey... you too."
(-Garden State)

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I just noticed this one for the first time tonight - and this is perhaps my sixth viewing!

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One thing that people dont usually catch the first or second time seeing is during Ron and Sheila's audition. Keep your eye on sheila's face when Ron's talking during in the "in between" chats they have during their audition. I'm not gonna spoil it for you, heck, you might know what she does alreadY!

I KNOW EXACTLY. ITS HILARIOUS!!!. ive watched the film twice this week already after discovering it an old box of VHS films i forgot i had.
JUST READING THESE POSTS IS MAKING ME SMILE!!!

"...Other than that, lifes a bowl of Palmolive and I'm soaking in it".

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Great thread-- I hadn't picked up on some of those!

I love in the "Nothing Ever Happens in Blaine" scene when Dr Pearl runs off stage before the lights go off (presumably to get into his alien costume).

Also, when the actors are applauding Corky upon his return to the show, be sure to watch Lloyd in the background. Oh the jealousy!

Finally, I always get a kick out of the picture of Blaine Fabin with the bear and the fact that the bear is stepping on his foot.

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I'll be back here...after I rewatch the scene...don't remember it well

Important advice


[spoiler][/spoiler]

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All I see is her smiling and staying in character. What's so funny?

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OK, this time I noticed that she mouths his dialogue while he speaks it.

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I agree. And I've seen it, counted, over 100 times. I still laugh. My wife and I are dressing up, for Halloween, like Ron and Sheila in their track suits. When people ask who we are we're going to go into the whole "Midnight at the Oasis" bit.

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What a great idea of a Halloween costume!!!!!
I'm not really an actress...but I play one on TV.

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I love that you and your wife are dressing as Ron & Sheila! I hope she's got an adequate supply of aqua net for the bangs.

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Yes it's great even after watching many times.

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Just watched it for the first time last night and loved it.

A kind of hidden joke is when the spaceship lands.

The camera pans away to the cast as it's landing and you can see the Alien walk from the side of the stage to hide behind it. Then the door opens as if he's been in the spaceship all along.

I'm sure it was a deliberate joke about the half assed way community theatre is done.


Oh yeah, and I also loved the penant / scarf with "Blaine - Stool Capital of The World" on it.

Cracked me up!

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my favorite is when the councilman who likes Corky congratulates him after the show, just before he turns away he blatantly checks Corky out...don't know if that was obvious to most people but it took me a few watches before I got it

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I don't know if this technically counts since the reactions of the judges are edited in, but the looks of hatred that Bob Balaban gives Ron and Sheila during their audition are wonderful. You can tell he likes Dr. Pearl, but despises Ron and Sheila.

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Who cannot LOVE Dr. Pearl??? He glows like a little kid at Christmas. :-)

...and that's all I have to say about that.

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Me too! I'd seen the movie at least 4-5 times before I caught that. I can't believe I didn't realize the councilman was gay! The Barbra love should've tipped me off but somehow it got past me. "GODIwishIwereinthisshow!"

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There was a deleted scene/ending that showed the two of them going to NY as a couple.

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Did anyone notice at the end of the movie, outside of the Alabama DQ, the only thing parked in a parking spot is a wheelchair...and not even in a Handicapped spot.


*Really a Gnome with tits....wow.

I'm not trying to be annoying...it just always works out that way.

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There's a reocurring bit about Dr. Pearl catching a glimpse at the "belly dancer" or whatever she is at the audition. Then in an intercut later, you can see Ron watch a woman walk by and you hear the jingle of her costume--belly dancer outfit. I think that was genius.

Joel: Sand is overrated. It's just tiny, little rocks.
Tern Sunshi

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Yes, Dr pearl is not so subtly peeking down her cleavage....too funny

I'm not trying to be annoying...it just always works out that way.

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Oh my you have a good eye! I never would have known that...it is so subtle, but quite amusing.

I'm not trying to be annoying...it just always works out that way.

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I love this thread! The only things that I can think of right now is Deborah Theaker's spot in the crowd is almost exactly the same spot she sits in during the Tribute Concert in A Mighty Wind. It would have been hilarious if they had a shot of her blubbering like a baby in Guffman too, because thats one of my favourite parts of AMW - she looks so funny.

Also, during "Nothing Ever Happens on Mars" Sheila almost gets to use her new technique, where so looks at the person when she talks but she closes her eyes, and when she looks away and stops talking, she opens them. In the musical number, she opens her mouth (and eyes, I think) every time she looks back at the crowd, and closes them when she turns her head. Ok, its not that similar, but its still funny.

Does anyone else feel gipped that they didn't include "Nothing Ever Happens In Blaine" in the movie, but included the "Mars" version? Because Catherine O'Hara and Parker Posey's dance number is absolutely brilliant. I wish I could play the movie with all the deleted scenes included.

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I love Gwen Fabin-Blunt's face during the first part of the play, the part with Blaine. She just sits there with this deeply satisfied smile on her face; you can tell exactly what she's thinking: "finally-my heritage on the stage. Blaine Fabin would have been proud."

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Another great one is Ron having Sheila do his hair before a number-and being anal about it. When they get on stage, he is wearing a hat.

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LMFAO, are you serious graymin? Now I have to go back and watch it, that's hilarious. Never caught that.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Check out the Catherine O'Hara Fansite at: http://catherine_ohara_fan.tripod.com/

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When Corky and Parker Posey are singing the duet and the camera pans over to the councilman and he has tears streaming down his face... LOL

And during Dr. Pearl's audition he sings "Swanee Ribbah" instead of 'river'

My fave line is Corky's "Everybody dance!" in his weird effeminate voice. Laughing so hard!

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that's because she's doing his hair for the bulging river scene that was taken out. its in the deleted scenes on the dvd

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I've been trying to, um... re-edit... Red, White, and Blaine so that it has ALL the numbers. I'm halfway up the learning curve, I've got a complete one but it has a lot of mysterious sound static :(

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I must correct you...I noticed her necklace back when I first saw the movie, and if I'm not mistaken I believe that it's in the shape of a tooth. Her husband is a dentist, after all...

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I love that Corky is wearing his earring on stage ... a few days after he berated Dr. Pearl for wearing glasses.






"Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. Hit a man with a brick and you can have all his fish. And his wife!"

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someone already said it, but i want to repeat it cause its phenomenal.
but fred getting anal about his hair, when he wears a hat for that song!!

too much. just too much

love this film.

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I don't get why that's so funny.

...and that's all I have to say about that.

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It's funny because they make a fuss about his hair to be JUST RIGHT, but in the next scene, he's wearing a hat that COVERS his hair, so it didn't matter what his hair looked like. I LOVED that part. So many little parts like this that make this film great.

And I love when his wife mouths his words during their audition while he's speaking, just like amateurs and kid actors do. Ricky Schroeder did that on Silver Spoons at first. When other people would talk, he would mouth their words. It's a kid thing, but making her do it was brilliant. It just showed how immature and NON PROFESSIONAL they all are.


If there's an empty space, just fill it with a line. . even if it's from another show.

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I know what you mean, while the parade planner is talking with the white-board behind him, you can see what is presumably the parade route; and it consists of one turn and then it's over. I found that small item hilarious.

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EVERYTHING about this show is priceless. I was born and raised in a small Missouri town and this movie is so accurate it is frightening. Thankfully my town is nowhere near as eccentric as Blaine. Everything has been captured . . . like the small-town, upper-crust citizen who thinks her life can be compared to that of the Kennedys. Sure.

One of my favorite little gags (although it isn't hidden by any means) is that they request a sniper to be on top of the courthouse to protect the pie eating competition. What the!?!

Brilliant film . . . I wish everybody knew about this gem.

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I like that part where they are all running up the steps to corkys apartment and one of the characters is like" You know, a lot of athletes in training will...Hey corky you in there? Corky?" ..anyone remember that??

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I'm not sure this is "hidden," but I like that Corky's jeans are on backwards during the "muse of dance" scene, a la Kriss Kross who had blown up at the time.

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I just noticed for the first time Fred Willard's double-take, then triple-take, as Corky hits a high note at the end of the additional scene, "Bulging River."

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Guest says in the commentary that the first time the backward jeans were an accident, but that it looked so ridiculous he kept them that way.

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When the kids choir is singing, they aren't doing sign language, it is actuallly the little hand signals for Do-Re-Mi, etc that music teachers teach kids in elementary school to help them learn music. Now THAT is funny.

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I love at the end of the movie when theres a close up of corky and the my dinner with andre action figures (HA!) and corky has a wedding ring on. HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA.



everybody dance

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My favorite part of the movie is when Guffman shows up during the performance and Corky is telling the cast that he's there. Fred Willard, kind of in the background, can be heard saying, "Should we start over?"
Every time I think of this line, I can't stop laughing. Such a funny response.

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This is a hidden visual joke that is actually well known, but I had to post it regardless...when "Guffman" is backstage, behind a coatrack, there is a really creepy woman just standing there, but she disappears the next time. It's so hilariously awkward.

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the look that brian -doyle murray gives corky while he's talking in the auto shop is hilarious.

also , not really a hidden joke but a funny ,subtle line nonetheless, is when the council is talking about backdraft and the one guy just leans forward and says "YOU CAN STILL FEEL THE HEAT" and then sits back in his chair

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I think he did that because he can't handle his caffeine?

I'm not trying to be annoying...it just always works out that way.

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funniest for me is during "penny for your thoughts" when the camera goes to steve stark in the audience and he has a tear running down his face...gets me every time!

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I enjoy the snacks at the rehearsal at Corky's house. The tiny vienna sausages wrapped in a blanket. I wonder how they tasted?

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Sausages next to an ashtray full of half smoked cigs....ughhh.


I'm not trying to be annoying...it just always works out that way.

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Brilliant stuff. I'm loving this thread. One of my favourite moments is the audition scene with the guy doing dialogue from Raging Bull - "you ***** my sister"!!

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Mmmm thing about Raging Bull is; the two characters involved in that scene are brothers played of course by Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci. Jake was paranoid and all but I don't think he accused anyone of incest. I don't even think they had a sister....

Yeah the sausages wrapped in whatever it was cracked me up...very appetising if you like that sort of thing I'm sure.

"Man's mind is so formed that it is far more susceptible to falsehood than to truth"

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The vienna sausages in pastry are a classic middle american hors d'oeuevre. I'm not sure they were supposed to be funny. It was good attention to detail though.

"The great act of faith is when a man decides he is not God."
-Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

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It's funnier than that, "Did you *beep* my sister?" isn't only from Raging Bull (1980), It's also from the movie "Rocky" (1976), Paulie to Rocky (about Paulie's sister, Adrian).

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Well also "Here's lookin' at you, BABE".. misquoting right before making fun of his wife for not getting the references! Ha!

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Even that's funny, though, because if you look at the cig butts, it's clear he's only taken one or two drags off each one before putting it out. It cracks me up.

Could be worse...could be raining!

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"Which brings me back to the number 5. There are 5 letters in the name Blaine. Switch...Swirl them around and you get Nebali...Nebali...a planet way way...way out there..."

"You step into that circle it is always 67 degrees with a 40 percent chance of rain. Always."

Now I will give a lollypop to anyone who can figure out the little jokes in those two quotes...

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Well for one, Blaine and Nebali have 6 letters, not five.

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Great film!

Nice touch was the alien 'expert' guy in the corn field misses an anagram of Blaine: Alien!

Priceless.

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Balien? Alienb?

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Another little point on this... the Scientist (that's what I'll call him for now) quotes the whole Nebali theory, but at the end Dr. Pearl's alien comes from Mars... just plain ol' Mars... no Nebali!





"CORKY!!! WE WANT YOU TO LIVE!!!"

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