“I’m a babe”

LORELAI: Hey, you know the one good thing we all learned from this?
RORY: What?
LORELAI: [smiling] That I’m a babe.

After the constant flow of insults on her appearance from Rune that night, Lorelai is pleased to receive a hearty endorsement from Todd, a sixteen year old idiot. It’s a tiny bit sad, but shows how badly her vanity was wounded (and how fragile her ego must be).

Although Rory is clearly unimpressed with Todd anyway, his attraction to her mother and to her best friend Lane provides a convenient excuse as to why Dean’s best friend Todd is never shown hanging around with Dean and Rory again.

Richard Simmons

LORELAI: That’s very Richard Simmons of you [that Luke put nutmeg in the coffee].
LUKE: Well, what can I say. Chicks dig a man with a feminine side.

Richard Simmons (born Milton Simmons in 1948) is an American fitness instructor, actor, and comedian. He ran his own gym for many years, and promoted weight-loss through exercise programs, often appearing as a guest on television chat shows.

Simmons is well known for his flamboyant, energetic personality, and his signature outfit of candy-striped short-shorts and singlet top decorated with crystals. His sexuality has long been a subject for speculation, but has never been confirmed either way.

Apparently Lorelai is just saying that putting nutmeg is coffee is “gay” (or at least sexually ambiguous). Not one of her finest moments. Luke’s comment about being a man with a feminine side may be an in-joke, as his character was originally a woman named Daisy.

Anvil

LORELAI: Hey, four menus, a coffee and an anvil please.
LUKE: What’s the anvil for?
LORELAI: For Rune.

Lorelai is referring to a common trope in cartoons where an anvil is dropped on a character’s head with hilarious results. It seems to have first been used in Disney animated films, and was perfected by Warner Bros. in their Looney Toons cartoons. (Possibly not a coincidence that Lorelai sees Rune off with a “Bye, Loon”.

The comedy anvil drop may have its origins in real life. A traditional celebration on the Fourth of July in America was launching an anvil into the air with gunpowder from atop another anvil, then watching it fall onto the other anvil with a thud. Presumably everyone stood well back during this exciting spectacle and hopefully nobody got an anvil on the head.

“Major in Gym”

TODD: If I major in gym, I only have to take four classes my senior year.
LANE: Oh, cool
[Pan to Rory and Dean]
RORY: Gym?
DEAN: We work on our bikes together. He’s got the good tools.

Lane is clearly frustrated by Todd’s apparent lack of intelligence, but their conversation is also making Rory (who has been eavesdropping) doubt Dean’s intellectual capacity. Having Todd as a best friend probably devalues Dean as a boyfriend in Rory’s eyes, despite his excuse that Todd has all the good tools to work on their bikes together.

This comment also reveals that Dean actually does have a motorbike, even though he told Lorelai that he didn’t in Kiss and Tell. Lorelai didn’t believe him, showing that she has excellent instincts. If the motorbike is still not in working order, or wasn’t then, he may have convinced himself he was technically telling the truth.

Attack of the 50 Foot Woman

This is the movie that Rory, Dean, Lane, and Todd go to see on their double date at the Black-White-Read Bookstore.

Attack of the 50 Foot Woman is a 1958 science fiction film directed by Nathan H. Juran (credited as Nathan Hertz), and with Allison Hayes in the title role. It is about a beautiful but rather unstable socialite who increases to a gigantic size after contact with a mysterious alien figure. She uses her new stature to take revenge on her cheating husband.

Made on a very low budget, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman is a technically “bad” sci-fi movie that is fun to watch, and has become a camp classic.

The joke is that they are watching a film about a giant woman while Lorelai is on a double date with Jackson’s cousin Rune, who thinks she is too tall, and acts as if she is freakishly huge.

(A movie date is not really suitable for Lane’s purposes, since she wants to talk to Todd and get to know him better. I’m guessing Lane and Rory chose the cinema as a way to hide from Mrs. Kim – if they went for coffee at the diner or just strolled around town together, there was a higher chance of being spotted. Luckily, Lane only needed a couple of very brief chats with Todd to learn all that she needed to know about him).

Tall Lorelai

RUNE: That’s Lorelai?
JACKSON: Yes.
RUNE: Did you see how tall she is?

Lauren Graham (Lorelai) is 1.75 m tall (just under 5 foot 7 and a half inches), while Max Perlich (Rune) is 1.62 m tall (around 5 foot 3). There’s a height difference in Lorelai’s favour – somewhat increased by heels – but Rune ridiculously compares her to a basketball player, an East German maid, and a freak of “bearded lady” proportions.

(The East German comment refers to the decades-long systematic doping of East German athletes with steroids and testosterone for the purposes of cheating, leading to some impressively large and strong athletes. The program ended in 1989 with the fall of communism, but unfortunately the men and women involved – some of whom were only eight years old at the time – are still experiencing physical and mental health disorders because of the doping. Lorelai is in the right age bracket to be an East German maid who was doped as an athlete in the 1980s: picture shows 1980s East German athlete Marita Koch, who holds the world record for the 400 m, partly due to steroid use).

Lorelai rarely has any trouble attracting men, so having a date openly and constantly insult her physical appearance must be a bizarre experience for her.

“Really nice thing”

SOOKIE: This is a really nice thing you’re doing for me.
LORELAI: Anytime Sookie.

Lorelai might not have done anything to promote the relationship between Sookie and Jackson, but now that Sookie has made her choice, Lorelai is doing everything she can to make their night special. She goes above and beyond for Sookie in this episode, showing that she really can be a good friend and is determined to make up for her thoughtless comment about Sookie’s single status in the previous episode.

Lane’s Date with Todd

LANE: So anyhow, I was wondering if you could talk to Dean about maybe talking to Todd about me.
RORY: I guess.
LANE: And then maybe you could ask Dean to ask him out – for me.

It’s something of a puzzle why Lane doesn’t already know Todd well enough to ask him out herself since they have been attending the same small town high school for two years together. It’s possible that Todd is a relatively new student, starting the same year as Dean, in September 2000. Even so, she’s still had several months to talk to him a few times and decide whether she really likes him, or is just attracted to him. We must assume that Lane’s social skills with the opposite sex are very poor, as the incident with Rich Bloomenfeld demonstrated.

Lane’s New CDs

For the purposes of this episode, it is important that we understand Lane is a fanatic about popular music. Just in case we forgot that, the episode begins with Lane visiting Rory to show her the big stack of new CDs she has just bought.

The Best of Blonde is the first compilation album from the American new wave band Blondie, which was released in 1981. The album went to #30 in the US, but was much more successful around the world, getting to #4 in the UK, and #1 in Australia and New Zealand.

Kraftwerk is a German electronic music band formed in 1969, founded by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Pioneers in electronic music, they were among the first to popularise the genre, and has been highly influential in synthpop, techno, ambient, hip-hop, and club music. Their 1974 album Autobahn was their first to fully embrace the electronic sound, and the title track became a surprise hit around the world. The album got to #7 in Germany, #5 in the US and #4 in the UK.

Young Marble Giants were a Welsh post-punk band formed in 1978, with Alison Statton providing vocals for the instrumentation of brothers Philip and Stuart Moxham. Their minimalist sound was in sharp contrast to the aggressive punk rock dominating the era. They only released one album – Colossal Youth, which came out in 1980. It is one of the most highly-regarded indie recordings of all time and a major influence on Nirvana.

Among the CDs you can see a copy of Up on the Sun, the 1985 album by American rock band the Meat Puppets. The album has a more psychedelic feel to their earlier hard rock punk albums. The band was a great influence on bands such as Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Dinosaur Jr.

You might wonder how Lane managed to afford all the CDs she bought. She worked part-time at the antiques store, and later we learn her parents paid her $100 a month in wages. It seems that Lane also bought most of her music second-hand, and says that she loves a bargain. Later on, we find that Lane buys her CDs from Amazon, the same place Rory buys her books.

Be careful what you wish for

By the end of the episode, Lorelai has received what she said she wanted – she and Max have taken a break from their relationship. Moreover, she doesn’t need to feel guilty as it was he who asked for some space to think things through. And she shouldn’t feel rejected either, as Max has indicated he really does like her, but that things have become too complicated for him.

Of course getting her wish does nothing to make her feel better, and leaves her heartbroken. To her credit, Rory comforts Lorelai in her misery, even though Lorelai has treated her really badly as well during this episode. Hopefully she apologised to Rory off-screen, as we never see her do so on the show.