MovieChat Forums > Lars and the Real Girl (2007) Discussion > This movie contains the very best joke o...

This movie contains the very best joke of all time -- SPOILER--


This movie contains what I think is probably the best joke I've ever heard in movie:

The joke is in the reason they give that Bianca can't go bowling with them. (I don't want to give away the actual joke here. PM me if you want to know and you don't mind if it's spoiled for you.)

That joke floored me. After years of living in a small city, I recognized it as a perfect commentary on how things really are in such places!!

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how you going to know someone pmed you. imdb is retarded like that.

sweat tooth shows prowess in each limb//
but still is unable to escape the world of NiM//

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Click on the "Message Boards" link at the bottom of the home page.

Then look on the upper left side of the message boards main page and you will see info about your PMs. If you have a new one it will show (1 new)

Or on your "My Profile" page click on the link at the upper right that says "Private Messages"

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He just says:

School boy meeting, Bianca got elected so...
I feel I drop off Bianca,
I become free

I don't get the "very best joke of all time", sadly...

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The joke is :

that the townspeople elected an actual dummy to the school board. It's a joke because small towns often elect living, breathing dummies to their school boards (at least ours did.) The town in which Lars lives just took that to the next level.

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That's the best joke of all time?

That's just *beep* retarded!

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It's subtle (within the context of the movie) and multi-layered. So that's probably why you don't get it.

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It's not really all that subtle.

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my real doll hated that part, cause i bursted out laughing.

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Bad joke. Not subtle, no layers.

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It wasn't intended for goons, that's all.

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I see.

So it was just intended for people who want to pretend that something very base and meaningless equates to subtlty and depth so they can make themselves feel smart...I got ya.

...It takes more than a very simple and uninspired double entendre to qualify as 'subtle and layered.'

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Oh lighten up, masterofallgoons, it was just a joke - Sheesh! I had nothing to do with choosing your username, btw, so you walked right into it.

Why are you so sensitive about a joke that you don't appreciate? It's everyone's right to like or not like a joke...Who cares?

FYI, you might want to check up on the definition of "double entendre"; it doesn't apply to the Bianca/school board joke at all.

And the joke is subtle, because the backstory humor is not obvious at first blush, and it is layered, because on the surface it's funny that they went so far in accommodating Lars as to elect a dummy, and beyond that is the commentary on small town school boards in general repeatedly electing egregiously unqualified people to irredeemably ill-define our kids' educations.




Dorsal Fins and Cucamonga

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beatthedevil56, "my real doll hated that part, cause i bursted out laughing."

This is funnier than the Thread Maker's joke.

DISPLAY thy breasts, my Julia!

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"This is funnier than the Thread Maker's joke."

Clearly...

"Oh lighten up, masterofallgoons, it was just a joke - Sheesh! I had nothing to do with choosing your username, btw, so you walked right into it."

Only someone who finds this movie as funny as you do could possibly have enjoyed your piece of s hit joke on my user name. I'm not mad or upset or anything, but my god, that was pathetic.

"Why are you so sensitive about a joke that you don't appreciate? It's everyone's right to like or not like a joke...Who cares?"

Wait a minute... You are telling me that I am overreacting?? You called this non sequitar 'the very best joke of all time.' The creator of this massively hyperbolic thread is telling me that I am oversensitive? I'm drowning in irony.

"FYI, you might want to check up on the definition of "double entendre"; it doesn't apply to the Bianca/school board joke at all."

Maybe you should check it out. The elected a physical dummy as opposed to a figurative one.

"And the joke is subtle, because the backstory humor is not obvious at first blush, and it is layered, because on the surface it's funny that they went so far in accommodating Lars as to elect a dummy, and beyond that is the commentary on small town school boards in general repeatedly electing egregiously unqualified people to irredeemably ill-define our kids' educations."

Well, if you consider that very subtle and layered then fine. I don't think it's particularly hard to decipher. It's pretty well on the surface. That doesn't by definition make it bad, but to say it's the very best joke of all time is just stupid.

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Obviously the title of my original post is merely my own opinion. And there's no point in arguing about opinions on a single joke.

Your opinion is that it's a "bad" joke, and that's great, but beyond that the fact is that this joke is both subtle and layered, as I've explained as per the factual definitions of those words. And that demostrates the line between fact and opinion.

Also, the fact that the title is such hyperbole ought to have given everyone a clue that I was being a bit tongue-in-cheek about it, although just a bit.

You are certainly entitled to defining your own "best joke of all time" - to me the one in Lars still stands, IMO, of course. (For today, that is.)

Do you really think I'm expecting anyone else to agree that my favorite cinematic joke must be his/her favorite also? If so, that's a bizarre train of thought. I couldn't care less if anyone agrees with me on that or not. But I would prefer not to be insulted just because of one of my opinions.

The main reason I posted the original thread was on the off-chance that one of the writers or other creators involved with Lars might drop in for a glance someday, notice my "stupid" title post, and open it to enjoy a bit of appreciation for their sophisticated and entertaining work.

BTW, it's really not a double entendre, because the words of dialogue in this scene don't have any double meanings that would make sense in their context. The characters didn't say anything about a "dummy" in the scene (I don't know if they even mentioned the word in the entire movie.) This joke, as it is, might be a symbolic metaphor or something, but there was no double entendre involved. There must be words (or possibly puns) possessing multiple meanings actually being spoken (or written) for a joke to be a double entendre.

I did not intend "subtle" to describe this joke as "hard to decipher"; I was using it in the sense of "understated; indirect". Although both are valid meanings, among others.

Also, you might want to check up on the true meaning of "irony"; I am aware of its current colloquial use (which doesn't really apply here either), but the only official meaning of "irony" is different than the one you employed.

I still don't see why you have such a bee in your bonnet about this. Just let my opinion be mine, and your opinion be yours. If you're still bothered because I made a joke from your username, well then, I apologize: I'm sorry and I won't do it again.

(P.S. I don't need to do anything to make myself "feel" smart. I know exactly how smart I am, and I thoroughly enjoy working with people who are much smarter than I.)

(P.P.S. I don't understand how the school board joke qualifies as a "non sequitur". It isn't one of those, either.)

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This is sad.

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[deleted]

That's because that isn't what he said (what you typed doesn't even make any sense). Good grief!

If your nose runs and your feet smell, you were built upside down.

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People are sooo insecure! They have to make sure that what they said was understood by others on the web....If someone doesn't agree with you on a subject or idea....Why do we as humans HAVE to continually "Prove" our point?..I am NOT attacking you...Merely making an observation....To explain yourself in detail, especially when the person you are debating your or an opinion with clearly has no idea what they are talking about...or just hasn't reached a certain level....anyways....Take care cheers!
"None are More enslaved then those who truly believe they are free!"-David Icke
ikarus

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I think you misread the intent of my replies.

One thing that annoys me is when people cannot tell the difference between opinion and fact.

When masterofallgoons posted "Bad joke." I was fine with it because that is his opinion. No problem.

But when he posted, "Not subtle, no layers" he's attempting to refute facts. So I thought I should point out that he's just being argumentative, and I offered evidence to back up my assertion that the joke is in fact both subtle and layered. That's all.

I was also trying to educate him a bit regarding the correct usage of phrases such as double entendre and non sequitur; it troubles me that so many people on the internet use so many words incorrectly when it is incredibly easy to look them up on various dictionary sites.

Believe me, if there's one thing I ain't, it's insecure!

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By the way, I thought the joke was funny...!!...and I loved the movie!

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Excellent - I agree - I think it's a superb movie, one that expertly walks the fine line between realism and absurdity, and never strikes a false note. Plus it finally convinced me of Gosling's awesome acting talent. (Half Nelson was lost on me, for the most part.)

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I laughed my butt off at that line while my boyfriend gave me a weird look. Definitely much funnier if you have lived in a small town.

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"It's subtle (within the context of the movie) and multi-layered. So that's probably why you don't get it."

The guy said your OMG BEST JOKE EVAR was *beep* because it was. But then you had to go ahead and imply the only reason he didn't find it funny was because he/she lacked the intellectual competence to appreciate said joke. Then the goons guy saw it for what it was, you applied the same assumption with Masterofallgoons and it came back to bite you in the ass when he owned you on all fronts.

He wasn't arguing that the joke was unfunny, he was arguing with your belief regarding why people don't find it funny.

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I liked when Karin talks about Bianca about having complete external female genetalia - the woman says she one of the "girls"

I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine and he shall be my Squishy.

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dude, i also thought it was hilarious.
I think just in the way Gosling delivers it, he sounds a little fed up with Bianca's recent surge in popularity, and it's really the only time in the entire movie that he shows he's actually entirely aware that Bianca is a doll, otherwise he wouldn't be so upset at how ludicrous it is that not only did Bianca apparently get nominated for the school board, but she also ran, delivered a non-existent speech, and won over the majority of the members present.

I think the movie has so many small, hilarious one-liners like when he asks Bianca why she's yelling when we see them get into the car for the first time and the relationship is still fresh. Also, when he throws the flower away as soon as he sees Margo... god damn that was hilarious.

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I liked the scene where the children are being traumatized by the creepy dummy "reading" a book to them. I thought it was a very subtle joke, alluding to G.W.Bush reading to that class when 9/11 happened. Very political!

Or maybe I'm reading too much into it. It happens.

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I'll bet you're right; I didn't catch that when I watched it. That's exactly the kind of subtly in this film I admire and enjoy most. I'm planning on seeing LatRG again; I can't wait to watch this scene and read that political commentary into it. Great catch! (IMO seeing GWB with his typical deer-in-the-headlights look was one of the all-time low points in American history. I'm still surprised that this great nation survived his shockingly inept presidency reasonably intact!)

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Im with you OP. i got that school board joke when he said it thought it was pretty hilarious.

"Everyone has an opinion....and then you die."

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bianca's a flirt!




Silver Lining Accounting Service: "We satisfy or we eat it."

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And what is that joke?

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