This Is Spinal Tap Thread
 

Ok, I watched it yesterday. After Roger Ebert called it one of the funniest movies of all time, and hearing people I know say how awfully funny it was, it was time.

This movie is NOT that funny. If anything, it's amusing. But one of the funniest movies of all time? Not by a long shot. Sure, it has its moments, but it's nothing compared to REAL "funny" movies (and I'm not talking about Jim Carrey).

Perhaps it was over-rated or something? I just kept hearing it was so fucking funny, you laugh through the entire thing. But I kept waiting for the monster laughs and hysterical scenes, and they never happened. If anything, the movie was down-right GRUNGY. Grungier than Married With Children.

The parts I thought were funny: Explaining how the drummers kept dying.

The "11" notch on the amp.

The 18" Stonehenge.




See? Three parts! Three parts....that were funny. The rest was just amusing at the most. What happened? I consider myself very leniant for movies, but it just wasn't that damn funny. The acting was superb (they kept a straight face and the like) and made it seem real, but they did not make it laugh-out-loud, funniest-movie-of-all-time worthy.

I was thinking, maybe everyone likes it so much because it's such a GOOD movie. But the movie honestly wasn't THAT good, either. Just a run of the mill amusing mockumentary :)


Anyone agree? Disagree?

Haven't seen it for a couple years, but it definitly is one hilarious movie. Maybe it's just not your cup of tea, afterall 'It's such a fine line between clever and stupid'

What are some of the movies that you consider "REAL" funny movies?

I rented it a few weeks ago for a plane ride, and I must have laughed out loud a dozen times as people kept staring at me.

It may not be the funniest movie ever, but it's a damn sight funnier than that Monty Pyton stuff, now that I just don't get.

Spinal Tap's sublelty is what really gets me.

also you need to realize that the movie was almost all adlibbed, and the actors did their own music

If you want more of that uncomfortable fun, check out Chris Guest's other Mocumentaries such as "Best of Show" "Waiting For Guffman" and "A Mighty Wind". All are wonderful and these also star Eugene levi (sp), who helped write BoS and AMW.

Funniest. Movie. Evar.

No Redjake, I don't think you're missing anything. Different people just have different senses of humour. Personally I found Spinal Tap to be absolutely hilarious, but there are plenty of things which I find merely 'amusing' which others find sidesplitting.

I thought it was OK. My problem was that I'd heard ALL of the jokes by the time I saw it, except for the Elvis and the pod scenes. So, those were the only parts I laughed out loud.

The reason Christopher Guest movies are funny is they poke fun at people who take themselves waayyyyy to serious. Musicians, dog owners, etc.

Most, as has been mentioned, are ad-libbed and done in mocumentary form.

It's not so much as the film is funny, it's the whole premise. My favorite part of Spinal Tap is when they show him writing a love song. He's playing this pretty piece on the piano when Reiner askes him what it's called, he says "I call it Lick My Love Pump."

Everyone knows people like the ones in the films. That's what makes it funny.

At least for me.

Plus, if you have a deep familiarity with the hard rock/metal scene in the 80's, it's all the funnier. I can watch each scene and pick out who is getting "mocked": Kiss, Ronnie James Dio, Iron Maiden, etc.

On the contrary, I found Waiting For Guffman EXTREMELY disappointing. This is because I do theatre professionally, and I was waiting to really get made fun of. But i thought it took it too easy...

Yeah.....I understand it a little more now. So basically, the movie isn't really trying to be gag-funny, it's more of "now that I think about it, that scenario/event WAS funny!" type of funny....

Yeah, the more I think about the movie, the funnier it gets. Maybe it takes more than one viewing?

I think this movie was the EPITOME of "situational comedy." Just imagine yourself rocking the house, your band members erupting from alien pods on the stage, and yours not opening :) That would be terrible......

.....and that's why it's funny I guess :)

I might have to borrow it and watch it again

Best in Show is one of the all time funniest movies I've seen. Great show. I was really pumped for A mighty Wind, but it didn't do it for me the same way Best in Show did.

Great stuff.

Aww, c'mon. The script is brilliant. Almost every scene is a comedy gem.


<b>The Guitars...</b>

Nigel: The sustain...listen to it...
Marty: I'm not hearing anything.
Nigel: You would, though, if it were playing, because it really... it's famous for its sustain... I mean, you could, just hold it....
Marty: Well I mean so you don't....
Nigel: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa.... You could go and have a bite an'... aaaaaaaaa... you'd still be hearin' that one.

Nigel: Don't touch it! Don't touch it! No one...no one...no! Don't touch it.
Marty: Well uh I wasn't...uh I wasn't gonna touch it...I was just pointing at it... I....
Nigel: Well don't point, even.
Marty: Don't even point?
Nigel: No. It can't be played...never...I mean I....
Marty: Can I look at it?
Nigel: No.
Marty: Don't look at it.
Nigel: No, you've seen enough of that one.


<b>The Albums (and the reviews)...</b>

Intravenus de Milo - (They are treading water in a sea of retarded sexuality and bad poetry)
The Gospel According to Spinal Tap - (This pretentious ponderous collection of religious rock psalms is enough to prompt the question: "What day did the Lord create Spinal Tap and couldn't he have rested on that day too?")
Shark Sandwich - (Shit sandwich)
Smell the Glove - (Well you should have seen the cover they wanted to do. It wasn't a glove believe me.)


<b>The Songs...</b>

Marty: It's pretty.
Nigel: Yeah, I like it, just been fooling about with it for a few months now, very delicate...
Marty: It's a, it's a bit of a departure from the kind of thing you normally play.
Nigel: Yeah, it's part of a...trilogy really, a musical trilogy I'm doing... in... D minor, which I always find is really the saddest of all keys really. I don't know why, but it makes people weep instantly, you play a..baaaaa...baaaaaa it's a horn part.
Marty: It's very pretty.
Nigel: ...baaaa, baaaaa, yeah, just simple lines intertwining, you know very much like, I'm really influenced by Mozart and Bach, it's sort of in between those, really, it's like a Mach piece really, it's...
Marty: What do you call this?
Nigel: Well, this piece is called "Lick My Love Pump".

Derek: You know, we've grown musically... I mean, listen to some of the rubbish we did early on, it was stupid...
Marty: Yeah.
Derek: ...you know. Now, I mean a song like "Sex Farm", we're taking a sophisticated view of the idea of sex, you know, and music...
Marty: ...and put it on a farm?
Derek: Yeah.


<b>The Struggle...</b>

- Going through airport security
- Getting lost under the stage
- Derek getting stuck in the cocoon
- The Air Force base gig


Definitely one of the best comedies ever.

lol...thanks for those, platypus....made me laugh at the office...

See what I mean? The script is pure genius.

It could very well take more than one viewing to enjoy it like others do.

I liked it the first time I watched it, but I noticed a lot more the 2nd/3rd times around.

Best in Show was awesome as well. Waiting For Guffman and A Mighty Wind are ... eh. They have their moments (like Fred Willard's character in AMW going on about his show and "I CAN'T DO MY WUURRRRK"), but overall they aren't as funny as Spinal Tap or Best in Show.

I have to say that I enjoyed A Mighty Wind simply because I got to hear more original music from the Tap guys. If anyone has seen the DVD, I think the best song was left on the cutting room floor. There is a deleted scene called "Corn Wine" which is a riot.

Fred Willard is God: "Wha' happen'?"

When I flew to Ireland I watched this on the way there and Waiting for Guffman on the way back. Laughed so hard my ribs hurt. My company had paid for 1st class, I can definitely say the rest of the cabin was NOT amused. The looks I got...it was great.

I love this film. So many pants-wettingly funny scenes...

Marty DiBergi: "This tasteless cover is a good indication of the lack of musical invention within. The musical growth of this band cannot even be charted. They are treading water in a sea of retarded sexuality and bad poetry."
Nigel Tufnel: That's just nitpicking, isn't it?

Nigel Tufnel: We've got Armadillos in our trousers. It's really quite frightening.

Mick Shrimpton: As long as there's, you know, sex and drugs, I can do without the rock and roll.

And the DVD extras are classics, too.

It's probably really funniest to those of us who've played in bands before. I always laughed at different stuff than everybody else.

"He choked on vomit. They're not sure whose vomit. You can't really dust for vomit."

"There's a fine line between clever and stupid"

Marty DiBergi: Do you feel that playing rock 'n' roll music keeps you a child? That is, keeps you in a state of arrested development?
Derek Smalls: No. No. No. I feel it's like, it's more like going, going to a, a national park or something. And there's, you know, they preserve the moose. And that's, that's my childhood up there on stage. That moose, you know.
Marty DiBergi: So when you're playing you feel like a preserved moose on stage?
Derek Smalls: Yeah.

Really? As a theatre person I was highly amused, it just was so true. All of my theatre friends think it's the greatest thing, you get so much more out of it if that's the environment you're in (a la Office Space) while my non-theatre friends liked it, they weren't as amused as we were.

This is Spinal Tap is a brilliantly subtle piece of comedy. Watch it again, and this time, look at the situations and the dialgue instead of waiting for the comedy set-pieces.

Subtly brilliant film.

But you are right in that you need to know a fair amount of rock history to get alot of the gags.

For example the Nigal playing the guitar with the violin isn't funny unless you recall how Jimmy Page played the guitar with a violin bow.

Also, the "choked on someone elses vomit" isn't that funny unless you know about how Sid Vicious died by choking on his own.

Or how the WHO lost drummers, or how the ridiculous umlaut (sp?) over a consonent or....

Was thinking about this on the way into work. Two brilliantly subtle moments spring to mind.

One is when Duke Fame comes through the hotel and sees Tap there. "Sorry guys, love to stay and chat but we've got to go sit in the lobby and wait for the limo." Then David St Hubbins is like "Remember when he opened for us? The crowd was still booing him when we came on!"

And the other? "Artie Fufkin, Polymer Records." I love that cat. "Kick this ass for a man!"

I've loved it for years, its in my top 5 funny movies. When the DVD came out and I watched it the new running commentary was just like watching a whole new movie, that was just as funny as the original!! :)

This was one of a few movies i didnt finish watching.. It literally bored me to the point of not finishing it.

wasted netflix queue it was... :/

It had its momments, but the hype KILLED it.

All my theatre friends are the same, but I just think that it wasn't taken to the fullest extent like Spinal Tap was. In fact, I think that Noises Off (the film based on the play) is a much funnier theatre movie.

Hah, I thought I was going to be the only one on this thread. This type of humor definitley isn't my style, and after an hour of not laughing once, I just turned it off. That and Gothika are the only two rentals i've ever turned off.

Especially if you played in bands in the 80's.