MovieChat Forums > The Baxter (2005) Discussion > Bar dinner scene

Bar dinner scene

posted 18 years ago by taketori
12 replies | jump to latest

Could any one explain what Paul Rudd, Bradley and Elliot's friends are doing at the bar? They are playing some kind of game, but I was wondering if it was a reference to anything, or just some kind of absurdist humor.

[–] ohcrap 18 years ago

i have searched everywhere trying to figure it out. i can't find annyy information about it.

[–] Xander007 18 years ago

I'm pretty sure they made it up on the spot. The banging the table and weird gestures was just to start the action, and then they did impressions of random people. Then everyone guessed who they were imitating.

[–] tssnpc 18 years ago

I'm relatively sure, that the joke here is the fact they are obviously performing an inside joke, and they make no attempt to bring the veiwer in on the joke and therein lies the humor of performing an inside joke in a major motion picture. I'd bet my balls to a barndance that's what they're getting at during this scene. I must also compliment them for the brilliance of actually pulling off an inside joke onscreen. Touche'.

[–] JohnnyGoodtimes 18 years ago

I'm pretty sure Xander's right. It was just a game of impressions with a goofy lead-up to the imitation, probably something that Bradley and Dan had played before. Just really bad impressions that everyone not only got, but thought were hilarious (Ahaha, Paul Rudd's almost English-sounding Rodney Dangerfield).

"You taste like a burger. I don't like you anymore." -- Andy, Wet Hot American Summer

[–] cephus70-1 18 years ago

I saw this movie at a screening where Showalter was there for a Q&A and someone asked him why this was in there. He said that it was to make the audience feel as on the outside as Elliot felt.

[–] ChillYoda 18 years ago

Wow, that it did. Mission accomplished. Very clever.

- Oh, the usual. I bowl. Drive around. The occasional acid flashback.

[–] davyjonesfever 16 years ago

"Wait til they get a load of me" is hilarious, but I'm not sure who it's an impression of. Is it from Batman?

[–] Paul_Ke 16 years ago

"Wait til they get a load of me" is hilarious, but I'm not sure who it's an impression of. Is it from Batman?

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Yes, I'm assuming it's the Joker's line from Batman. It's so hilarious that the impression is so bad that we're not even sure. LMAO!

[–] doctor-octagon 17 years ago

A constant theme of Stella is how lame cliched, feel-good hijinks are. Their anti-sentimentality comes in the form of charades; jam sessions; xmas carolling and, in "College Reunion," general Big Chill'ing.

The game Rudd, Theroux, Miles, etc. were playing was an example of retarded conviviality -- a central target of Showalter/Black/Wain's humor. To address the Q&A point, I think that anyone with a brain and some insecurity would feel marginalized by that, as in, "How does these broad, moronic iterations make these alpha-males laugh?"

That's the key to Stella's comic psyche -- feeling rejected (if subtly so) and marginalized by the yuppie (in Black's case, artsy) class throughout their lives, Stella approaches them as an impenetrable, though laughable, "Them."

[–] cheesebadger 17 years ago

Wow... Thats really *beep* deep, I just thought it was that drinking game where you take turns doing a new gesture each time, like a memory game, and if you screw up you drink.

All Your Robocops Belong To Us

[–] Billy_Bodiggle 16 years ago

You're right, it's just a memory drinking game, but with an impression at the end. Each person they're doing an impression of speaks with their mouth slanted to the side. I've played a drinking game very similar to this. You go round the table mimicking each other's hand gestures, adding your own, and then doing impressions of celebrities/public figures. There's usually a theme, such as actors with southern accents, celebrities with big eyes, people with speech impediments. Anyone that messes up the hand gestures or does a lame impression has to drink. My guess is that in the movie, they just made everybody do different hand gestures each time.

But hey, at least someone finally got to use "conviviality" in a sentence.

[–] AfroGeek 11 years ago

I'm not an alpha male, but sure cracked up watching the game!

Amy: I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!