NASCAR Audience So Desperate to Feel Adrenaline They Don't Get That They're Being Laughed At!
This whole story could be in what we in Chicago know as the Onion. But it's a true story!
On August 4th Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby opened in theatres across America. A young man who works for a lumber supply store knows Will Farrell (Ricky Bobby) and looks up the movie trailer online. Looks like a great comedy so he and the Mrs. head down to (let's say) the Wehrenberg Theatre on 247 Siemers Drive in their hometown Cape Girardeau Missouri. That's the theatre showing it on the GS Mega Screen. They thought they'd arrived early but came to find out the movie was sold out and there was a line streaming out of the building! Good thing they'd bought tickets in advance!
Once they got inside and endured the twelve minutes of premovie commercials the fun began. The couple were prepared to laugh, and laugh hard! What happened instead is now the stuff of legend. While they sat and smirked and politely chuckled at the first few jokes most of the audience sat in silence. Suddenly a young man down in front jumped out of his seat yelling, "Hey that's Atlanta Speed Way! I've been there!" The audience sprang to life with raucous approval. They'd all been there. Suddenly Jeff Gordan appears on-screen. The heretofore sedated audience cheer with such enthusiasm that our Lowe's aisle walker jolts in surprise. He swears he just saw popcorn poof in the air. The mood in the room changes for good from this point on. Someone starts the wave down on the front right. It begins and streams all over the theatre until it reaches our couple. They jump too late and he gets shoved from behind. "Retard." But the stream continues and then back twice. "What have we gotten ourselves into?" They wonder. Needless to say, this clash of cultures could be taking place as I write all across America. Perhaps tens of thousands of redneck NASCAR fans across America are going to NASCAR.com and seeing the ad for Talladega Nights. They're buying out tickets at their local theatres and turning this spoof on their culture into an anarchical red-neck sporting revolution!
Earlier on in my blog I noted that satire requires a certain kind of audience. As a Chicago city-slicker (albeit from Missouri) I get a laugh considering that in Cape these folks just don't get it. But really I think they do. They just don't care to play along. Hell, when was the last NASCAR movie that hit the big screen? I'll tell you. "Days of Thunder" with Tom Cruise in 1990. Well there was that Herbie movie a few years back. And there are all those TV specials. I'm trying to sympathize here but I can't. Come on people! This movie was made by the same people that did "The Anchorman"! I mean did all the TV broadcasters buy out tickets and root for each other? Or when Will Farrell made "Elf" did the Manhatten Christmas workers arise as one and buy out their local theatre to throw a party? Maybe, I never heard.
Anyway, I went to RickyBobby.com and I am "Chris The Clutch Master." But I won't be putting that on my Myspace page. Do check out the hilarious letters to Ricky on this site. And remember fellow non-NASCAR loving Will Farrell fan. Laugh, but the last laugh is from some red-neck on you!
Disclaimer: the facts of this story were related to me by my sister whose husband told her, who heard it from the man himself. I assume responsibility for mistaking which theatre where and whether the couple did the wave wrong or saw popcorn in the air. If anyone at this showing from Cape comes to hurt me now, "Step off! I respect your difference."
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1 comment:
I heard from a friend who heard it from his neighbor's cousin... the ushers were working up a sweat keeping the crowd in line. The guy who told the story says he couldn't hear half the movie, but the audience provided an even better show.
By the way, you mispelled the name of Jeff GordOn! Shame, shame! Your midwest roots do not run deep enough.
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