LUKE: First I have to buy it, then I have to eat it? LORELAI: Hey, the basket of botulism does come with my company.
Botulism is a rare and potentially fatal illness caused by a toxin produced by bacteria. The illness begins with fatigue and blurred vision, followed by weakness in the chest and limbs. Vomiting and diarrhoea can also occur. Paralysis can last for 2-8 weeks, and 5-10% of cases end in death. The most common cause is food poisoning. There are an average of 145 cases of botulism in the US each year, often caused by home-canned foods.
I’m not sure Lorelai is entirely joking about the chance of botulism.
LORELAI: Yes! Ha, ha, sorry guys, don’t feel bad. I’m totally into Dungeons & Dragons.
Dungeons & Dragons (often abbreviated to D&D or DnD) is a multi award-winning fantasy tabletop role-playing game originally designed by Gray Gygax and Dave Arneson. First published in 1974 by Tactical Studio Rules Inc, in 1997 it was published by Wizards of the Coast (now owned by Hasbro).
Dungeons & Dragons was developed from miniature wargames, but instead of working in military formation, each player creates their own character to embark on imaginary adventures in a fantasy setting. A Dungeon Master serves as a referee and storyteller. The characters form a party who interact with the world and each other by solving problems, engaging in battle, exploring, gathering treasure, and gaining knowledge. In doing so, characters gain Experience Points, becoming increasingly powerful.
Dungeons & Dragons was the first modern role-playing game, and remains the best known and best selling in the US, with an estimated 20 million people having played the game, and more than $1 billion in sales.
Lorelai tells the guys that they’ve had a lucky escape, because she’s into Dungeons & Dragons (and must therefore be a hopeless nerd). However, today the games have become more popular than ever, and are actually quite fashionable.
LORELAI: Oh, please God. TAYLOR: Sold for fifty-two fifty.
Worried that she will end up sharing her crummy picnic basket with one of Miss Patty’s choices for her to date, Lorelai begs Luke to save her. After some obligatory grouching, he does the right thing and buys Lorelai’s basket – the Miss Patty Brigade apparently decided to set an upper limit of $50. By bidding $52.50, Luke wins.
This scene is closer to the ending of the box social auction in Oklahoma!, with Luke in the role of the chivalrous Curly who manages to stump up the cash to save his girl. Luke doesn’t have to sell everything he has to buy the basket, but he does find money that the others don’t have or aren’t willing to spend.
LORELAI: Luke, you gotta come out there with me. Patty gave my picture out to all these guys because she thinks I need a man. LUKE: You do. One with a nice couch and a deep knowledge of Freud.
3 different types of cookies, including heart-shaped ones covered in pink icing
a tart topped with fresh fruit
a lemon meringue pie surrounded by ladies fingers
miniature wedding cake
bottle of champagne
candles
flowers
probably a lot more we don’t see
the basket itself is an edible pretzel with a goat cheese filling!!!!
How did this go for only $35??? Incidentally, this helps to partially justify Lorelai and Rory’s complete lack of effort. If Sookie can work for hours to make a beautiful picnic basket and it only earns $35, what exactly is the point of slaving in the kitchen for the Bid-on-a-Basket Festival?
TAYLOR: Thirty-five going once, thirty-five going twice . . . sold to Kirk for thirty-five dollars. KIRK: Yes, finally! You know, if it hadn’t have been for me I could’ve had it for twenty-five.
After Andrew withdraws from the bidding, Kirk wins Sookie’s basket, spending ten dollars more because he bid against himself. It seems as if Kirk didn’t really want either the food or Sookie, but simply the joy of winning something.
Sookie is naturally devastated, because Jackson didn’t talk about how he felt, but sulked and took petty revenge against her in public.
Jackson is piqued because Sookie hasn’t picked up on his hints he wants to move in with her, and petulantly refuses to bid on her basket. With nobody else making a move, Andrew from Stars Hollow Books puts in a bid for it. At this point, Andrew appears to be single, but it’s unclear whether he wants the delicious basket, or Sookie herself. He certainly doesn’t seem worried about upsetting Jackson.
The point where Andrew and Jackson’s names are said together is almost certainly a joking reference to Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), lawyer, soldier, and statesmen who served as the 7th President of the United States, from 1829 to 1837.
RORY: [follows him] Please don’t walk away like that. DEAN: Sorry, I’d do a silly walk but I’m not feeling very John Cleese right now.
John Cleese (born 1939), British actor, comedian, screenwriter, and comedian. He is most famous for being a founding member of Monty Python, the comedy troupe responsible for the surreal comedy sketch show, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, initially broadcast on BBC1 from 1969 to 1974.
Although Monty Python had little success in the US during their first American tour, Monty Python’s Flying Circus began airing on the PBS station KERA Dallas in 1974; other PBS stations followed and by 1975 it was the most popular show on these stations. It helped open the door for other British comedies in the US. Monty Python’s Flying Circus also aired on MTV in 1988.
Dean is referring to one of Cleese’s most famous sketches, “The Ministry of Silly Walks”, in series 2, episode 1, entitled “Face the Press”. In the sketch, John Cleese plays a civil servant responsible for developing silly walks, and spends the sketch walking in various silly ways in a thoroughly serious and determined manner.
Rory and Dean may have watched a DVD of the original show, or of the 1982 documentary, Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl, where the Monty Python team performed both classic sketches and new material. It was the last time the “Ministry of Silly Walks” sketch was performed in public. John Cleese had a hip and knee replacement in 2010, so that he was unable to perform the silly walks again.
DEAN: Don’t go. JESS: Oh geez man, she’s not shipping off to ‘Nam.
Jess sardonically compares Dean’s distress over Rory going on a picnic with him to someone being sent to the Vietnam War (1955-1975).
Although the US had been involved since World War II in a very limited capacity, the first US ground troops arrived in Vietnam in 1965, reaching a peak in 1969, by which time more than half a million Americans were stationed in Vietnam. This was also the year in which the dreaded draft lottery began, where young men were called up for service based on their birthdate.
Opposition to the war played a key role in sparking the Civil Rights Movement and the hippie counterculture, as well as wide-ranging changes in popular culture. The last American troops pulled out of Vietnam in 1973, by which time there had been more than 58 000 US casualties.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 