LORELAI: You’re all acting like I walked into that room tossing condoms in the air.
LOIS: You might as well have.
LORELAI: Fine, next time I will. I’ll bring a banana and we’ll have a little show and tell.
Show and tell, also called show and share, or sharing time, is a common classroom activity in elementary school or primary school in North America, the UK, New Zealand, and Australia. Typically, a child will bring an item from home to discuss it.
Lorelai refers to sex education classes where teenagers are taught about safe sex by learning to put condoms on a banana.
Lorelai always calls anyone who stands in her way a Nazi or a Fascist – first Taylor and Headmaster Charleston, now it’s actual children. Lorelai has a disturbing tendency to verbally attack or insult teenagers, as if she was one of them.
DEBBIE: Well, I felt obligated to tell the other moms about your little performance at school before they heard about it elsewhere.
LORELAI: Really, ’cause usually I like to meet up at Sardi’s after a performance, wait for the reviews. I hope The Times liked me.
Sardi’s, continental restaurant in the theatre district of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded by Vincent Sardi Sr and his wife Jenny Pallera, and first opened in 1927. It is known for the caricatures of Broadway celebrities on its walls, of which there are over a thousand. Sardi died in 1969, and the restaurant declined in the 1980s, being sold in 1986. After closing temporarily in 1990, it reopened with new staff.
The restaurant is considered an institution in Broadway theatre. It’s known as a place to gather before and after the theatre hangout, as well as a location for opening night parties, and was where the idea of the Tony Award was devised. Lorelai sarcastically puts herself in the role of an actor waiting at Sardi’s for the reviews of their performance in the New York Times.
High Noon, 1952 Western film directed by Fred Zinnemann, and starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. The plot, which occurs in real time, focuses on a town marshal whose sense of duty is tested when he must decide whether to face a gang of killers alone, or leave town with his new wife, a Quaker pacifist.
High Noon won four Academy Awards, including a Best Actor for Gary Cooper. It is revered as an iconic film and an early example of the revisionist Western, because for most of the action it focuses on a moral and psychological dilemma, rather than on gunfights and chases, and because the marshal’s wife, Grace Kelly, plays a pivotal role at the climax. It’s one of the most influential Westerns, its ending in particular inspiring numerous films.
Luke is referring to the way the mothers of Stars Hollow line up menacingly to confront Lorelai, in the same way that the gang of killers face down Gary Cooper’s character.
As Lorelai and Luke leave the school after their talks, Debbie Fincher leads a posse of concerned mothers, presumably other members of the PTA, who are appalled to hear what happened during Lorelai’s talk. Not appalled enough to put a stop to it or anything, but appalled nonetheless. It’s all to drive home the point, yet again, that Lorelai is a “cool mom” and not like any other mother around.
I am not sure how Debbie managed to get all these women together at once so quickly – were they all hiding around the corner, just waiting for Debbie to come fetch them? Did Debbie leave early in order to round the other mothers up? I suppose we are meant to presume that their lives are so empty that they have literally nothing better to do.
Note that the Stars Hollow moms all dress alike in the same kind of brown patterned cardigan, and all wear blonde bobbed wigs. It’s the episode for bad wigs, this one.
According to the credits, the other two mothers besides Debbie who speak to Lorelai are called Jan and Lois, played by Julie Wittner and Merry Simkins.
LUKE: Not from your angle. From mine, it was An Evening at the Improv.
An Evening at the Improv, cable television series running from 1982 to 1996. It showcased live comedy from The L.A. Improv comedy club, which opened in 1974, the sister venue to The Improv in New York City, which opened in 1963. Originally for singers, then singers and comedians, it became a stand up comedy club in the 1970s.
Some of the comedians featured on An Evening at the Improv include Bill Maher, Gary Mule Deer, Jerry Seinfeld, Janeane Garofalo, Steven Wright, Rich Hall, Rosie O’Donnell, Adam Sandler, George Lopez, Sandra Bernhard, Tim Allen, Drew Carey, Dave Chapelle, and Jim Carrey.
SHANE: [on phone] Uh huh . . . All I know is I don’t have it, so it’s gotta be at your place . . . You’re not looking for it, you’re watching TV, I can tell . . . Yeah, whatever. I’ll just get a new one. So, what are we doing tonight? . . . I don’t know, I’m sick of eating. I’ve been eating like a pig, I feel all bloaty . . . It is so a word, it’s a word ’cause I said it. That’s how words get invented, ’cause people say them and then other people say them . . . You’re such a jerk sometimes and I’m always nice to you . . .
We have seen Jess and Shane embrace and kiss on the show, but this is the only time we ever hear them communicate, and it’s just one side of a brief telephone conversation. When a jealous Rory overhears it, she seems to use it as ammunition against Shane, as evidence that Shane is not “smart” enough for Jess (like she is).
This is a clear parallel to how Jess feels about Dean – that he’s not smart enough for Rory (like he is). Jess seems to have deliberately chosen a girlfriend who will make Rory feel the way he’s been feeling all along.
What the viewer can pick up from Shane’s side of the conversation is that Jess is not an attentive boyfriend, and Shane is aware of it. She can tell he’s watching television while pretending to be searching for her lost item (we don’t know what it is, but in a later episode she leaves a bra behind, so that could be it). She is also aware that Jess can be a “jerk” to her sometimes, and perhaps Rory should take this as a red flag, because later he isn’t a very attentive boyfriend to her, either.
Whatever Rory thinks of Shane, we can tell that Shane is smart enough to see through Jess to some extent, and is not deluding herself about the relationship. She can also speak up for herself, and lets Jess know how she feels. These are skills that Rory herself will later be lacking in her own relationship with Jess.
LANE: This is the most radical thing a Kim has done since my cousin Nam got caught reading Maxim at summer camp.
Maxim, a men’s magazine launched in the UK by Felix Dennis in 1995, but based in New York City since 1997. It’s known for its photographs of prominent singers, actors, and female models. It has been criticised for its sexual objectification of women, and publishes a Hot 100 List – in 2002, #1 was actress Jennifer Garner, the first time someone had debuted in the top spot.
Nam is a very popular Korean boy’s name, which means “south”.
A Kodak Picture Spot, or Kodak Photo Spot, is a location with a Kodak-sponsored sign indicating a recommended spot from which to take a photograph. They are found in areas popular with tourists, and are particularly common in Disney theme parks. This situation lasted until 2012, when Kodak filed for bankruptcy, after which they became Nikon Photo Spots.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 