Is there anyone who doesn't love This is Spinal Tap?

Huge classic, obviously.

I have the VHS version though.

Though that has a rough odor of urban legend.

Movie or not, can we still take Aerosmith out back?

Plot Outline: Three actors learn their respective performances in the film "Home for Purim," a drama set in the mid-1940s American South, are generating award-season buzz.

Not only that, there's another hour and a half "movie" made up of deleted scenes.

Spinal Tap is possibly my favorite movie (after Alien, of course). Its one of the few satirical treatments of metal that actually 'gets' the genre, and understands its place in the context of rock history. I love how the band is a perfect microcosm of all the most bloated aspects of rock trends from the British Invasion onwards. The film is really just a great satire of the rock and roll biz in general, and the human capacity for self-delusion in the face of failure. The songs are really convincingly well-done and hilarious, too.

There was supposed to be a 'hilarious' BJ scene that got cut or unfilmed, purely because it wouldn't have been included in a 'real' documentary.

OTM, the movie has a lot of little stuff like that. My favorite is after the manager Ian tells the band that their Boston show's been cancelled, then says it's nothing to worry about, "Boston's not a big college town."

Tony Hendra really does a great job playing the manager.

I think it was Kiss that didn't find it funny (or maybe both of them). Maiden's Bruce Dickinson's got a pretty good sense of humor, I'm surprised he didn't find it funny.

Seconded.

It wasn't Bruce, it was Blaze!

Tap is to Guffman, Best in Show and A Mighty Wind as the Beatles are to Wings, Lennon and Harrison solo. And the new film will be Back Off Boogaloo in comparison. (not that that's bad)

It's one of the best movies ever made, ever.

Hugely OTM.

SPINAL TAP
($75.00) (1984) here's the rare 4 hours 45 minute version you've heard about! ...with all the scenes "not fit" for even the the new extended 'uncut' legitimate release - there's nudity! drugs! bad attitudes! plus lots more! 3 tapes; But please take note -- this is a 'bootleg' tape and the quality is not up to our usual standard there are visual dropouts some missing audio spots... we would recommend it for rabid SPINAL TAP fans only -- where else will you see this stuff? ; {the visual quality of this print is rated as B-/C

almost every metal musician i've seen interviewed about spinal tap has been quite positive; inevitably the conversation leads to them describing how this or that bit from spinal tap actually happened to them.

as for kevin dubrow whining about it ... what HASN'T kevin dubrow whined about?

I don't understand what's so funny about this? I used to do the same thing, but only so that I could drink more beer onstage.

That's completely insane.

Tap is to Guffman, Best in Show and A Mighty Wind as the Beatles are to Wings, Lennon and Harrison solo. And the new film will be Back Off Boogaloo in comparison.

Good anology. Guest's other movies are great, as is a lot of Wings and Lennon's and Harrison's solo stuff. But the Beatles are the best band I've ever heard and Spinal Tap is the funniest movie I've ever seen.

my fave moment: dancing dwarfs around the tiny stonehenge

fave subtle line: the argument about going on AFTER the puppet show

speaking of...watch SNL in the 80s sunday night (no law and order!) and they showed a few moments of some classic clips from the season with Shearer and Guest, particularly the all-time classic synchronized swimming skit with Martin Short.

http://snltranscripts.jt.org/84/84aswimmers.phtml

Even the music itself makes me laugh - there's a great bit at the end of one of the songs where Nigel plays a souped-up Mozart guitar solo. Also when he's playing his piano "composition" and talking about how there are all these melodic lines interwoven when in fact he's just playing these really retarded-sounding blocky chords.

With ya there, that's a perfect moment of editing.

Australians: brash, loud, uncultured and tasteless... a bit like Americans really.

... is a stereotype.

^^^ all this and, specifically, that they are perceived as looking garish.

This was the also was the era when Barry Humphries/Dame Edna became an international superstar/megastar and part of the act was about these stereotypes of Australians, also in the Barry Mackenzie movie. The "Australian's nightmare" gag reminds of the "technicolour yawn".
Tried to find evidence of Hendra working with Humphries, but I haven't. Humphries worked with the Private Eye set in the UK, and Hendra worked for National Lampoon, the US equivalent (kind of). Hendra also did the first series of Spitting Image. His paths must have crossed with Humphries. Just a thought.

Do you know what I spend my time doing? I sleep two or three hours a night. There's no sex and drugs for Ian, David. Do you know what I do? I find lost luggage. I locate mandolin strings in the middle of Austin!

I mean, maybe it's intended... he does also do the line about Boston not being a college town.

what is it about australians that someone would condescend to

US teen culture "discovered" Australia in the 1980s, between the release of Men at Work's Business as Usual and "Crocodile Dundee."

Add in Air Supply, "Let's Get Physical" and the 1983 America's Cup races... I cannot overstate this: an American suburban teenager went from having exactly zero thoughts about Australia to saying "shrimp on the barbie" ironically. I assure you we had mostly not heard of whatever a Dame Edna is.

We already had homegrown instances of the neon-and-legwarmers look, but it may have grafted onto our image of Australia with little resistance.

I remember kids in my ‘80s childhood saying “Technicolor yawn” though

I only discovered Dame Edna in the early 90s when public TV ran the show

Did that come with added Les Patterson?

I learned about both the Dame and Les via this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_English

7. The Muvver Tongue: Discusses Cockney dialect and Australian English.

(Seriously, both of them, plus Barry, appeared towards the end -- the Dame briefly, Barry in general conversation, and Les doing a bit.)

Did that come with added Les Patterson?

not that I recall but I wasn’t a habitual watcher.

The talk show did not include Les or any other Humphries characters iirc (there was a silent Madge, and the English actress became the regular inhabitor of the role thenceforth)

The UK also had the likes of Barry McKenzie, Alvin Purple, OZ magazine etc playing up the image of larrikin, crude, nightmarishly uncultured yobbos.

And Jeanine, David and Nigel aren't exactly middle class themselves (unlike Derek!) so her garish get-ups are played as typical rock'n'roll tastelessness.

Everything in his speech is funny, not just because it's all a bit ridiculous, but also because it shows off Ian's general boorishness and the fact that he is only barely smarter than the band but holds himself in high regard by comparison.

i took “Australian’s nightmare” as an oblique reference to Olivia Newton-John

I mean, maybe it's intended... he does also do the line about Boston not being a college town.

Always thought this was him attempting to brush away the cancellation of the Boston show and relying on the group not realising Boston is actually very much a college town

It is.

an American suburban teenager went from having exactly zero thoughts about Australia to saying "shrimp on the barbie" ironically

LOL. This is exactly right. I would also add Mad Max/Road Warrior to the list of Aussie cultural exports around that time.

+ Yahoo Serious

Olivia Newton-John in Grease and AC/DC gave very mixed messages on what Australians might be like, leading up to Road Warrior and shrimps on barbies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMNhc1jMSaE

Olivia Newton-John in Grease and AC/DC gave very mixed messages on what Australians might be like, leading up to Road Warrior and shrimps on barbies

Don't forget about Jacko! And Crocodile Dundee. But I feel like most of these things (from a US vantage) were post-"Spinal Tap." C. 1984, I'm not sure what the the most obvious international Australia touchstone might have been. I'd say not "The Road Warrior" (too cult), and not even AC/DC (I'm not sure if the average American thinks of them as Australian, any more than the Bee Gees, tbh). Olivia Newton-John might have been the most prominent example at the time, especially post "Physical."

I'm not sure I'd ever heard of Barry Humphries/Dame Edna until "Finding Nemo."

The Bee Gees weren't really Australian though tbf.

That's where they formed and had their first success, though, right? But yeah, I guess they moved back out relatively quickly.

Similarly, of course neither Bon Scott nor Brian Johnson were born in Australia, but did Bon have an Australian accent? It's the accent (Americans, at least) think of as much if not more than the culture. I do think Olivia must have been the most visible and identifiable Aussie at the time, internationally.

Bon very much did have an Australian accent! All of the Young brothers were born in Glasgow, Angus had a 100% Aussie accent, George still sounded Scottish when he was in the Easybeats at least, I could occasionally detect a touch of Scottishness in Malcolm's accent.

Brian Johnson is definitely not Australian!

For sure. Geordie all the way, lol.

Whoa!

Ok, we're cool again...

I didn't know Paul Hogan had his own sketch comedy show. (I realize it was popular, but was it any good?)

Also, didn't know this per Wikipedia: "In the early 1990s, a Paramount executive pitched a concept of a Crocodile Dundee and Beverly Hills Cop crossover movie."

I realize it was popular, but was it any good?

No.

All I recall of it is Paul and his sidekick toasting bread with a blowtorch when they got up

The success of Crocodile Dundee took me by surprise because the Paul Hogan shows always seemed so kind of cheap and ramshackle - part of his appeal seemed to be that he was like some guy who'd wandered in from a pub and not at all like a professional performer.

Always confuse Paul Hogan and Bryan Brown.

I didn't know Paul Hogan had his own sketch comedy show. (I realize it was popular, but was it any good?)

I loved it, but I thikn I was 7 when it stopped screening in the UK

I think Paul Hogan had that comedy series withdrawn.

I remember it as being somewhat Benny Hill in content.

My favourite Crocodile Dundee thing is that INXS invested in it as a tax dodge (on the basis that Australian films always lost money) and it ended up being a roaring success and fucking up their tax minimisation dreams

I think Paul Hogan had that comedy series withdrawn.

I think he hosted links for compilation shows of it in later decades and that the 2006 best-of 2DVD is still in print.

I remember it as being somewhat Benny Hill in content.

I remember it as including a Benny Hill parody, of sorts.

The success of Crocodile Dundee took me by surprise because the Paul Hogan shows always seemed so kind of cheap and ramshackle

That seems to define Hollywood cinema of the 1980s, paradoxically done with big budgets.

Olivia Newton-John also English, fwiw

and Angus + Malcolm Young are Scots alongside Geordie Brian. Bon Scott was an Aussie of course.

Eh? Bon Scott was from Kirriemuir.

His nickname even came from "Bonnie Scotland"!

My favourite Crocodile Dundee thing is that INXS invested in it as a tax dodge (on the basis that Australian films always lost money) and it ended up being a roaring success and fucking up their tax minimisation dreams

― Cod:Shellfish (emsworth)

could make for a solid Producers-type movie

xxp well shows what I know. I thought the statue in Freo was because he was born there

Colin Hay, writer of the Australian national anthem ‘Down Under’ has kept a Scottish accent despite living in Oz/US for nearly 60 years.

(xp) There's also a statue in Kirriemuir.

https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-p/0b/1a/f5/82/bon-scott-statue-kirriemuir.jpg

... their other famous son is J.M. Barrie btw.

writer of the Australian national anthem ‘Down Under’

Glossing over a somewhat famous copyright dispute there, mate