Tag: Oh Really?

Tasmanian Devil

SOOKIE: And did you see [Jackson’s] eyes?
LORELAI: Tasmanian Devil.

Lorelai refers to the character, the Tasmanian Devil, or Taz, featured in Warner Bros cartoons, Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. Taz is generally portrayed as a ferocious, albeit dim-witted, carnivore with a notoriously short temper and little patience. Although based on the Australian mammal, the Tasmanian devil, it doesn’t resemble the real animal very strongly (Americans often have an exaggerated idea of the Tasmanian devil’s size and ferocity, possibly because of the cartoon). He made only a few appearances in the short films of the 1950s and 1960s, but enjoyed a resurgence of popularity in the 1990s.

“The second maid called in sick”

RICHARD: It’s chaos here. The second maid called in sick, the first is busy with dinner, and your poor mother is at the hospital. Her DAR group suffered a surfeit of strokes this week.

Richard and Emily started out with a cook and a maid, then the maid seemed to do the cooking as well … now they have two maids. Perhaps one of the maids does all the cooking, and nothing has changed.

Encyclopædia Britannica

MAX: Well, I’m glad to hear it. And Rory’s good?
LORELAI: Oh, yeah, she’s the Encyclopædia Britannica definition of good.

Encyclopædia Britannica, (Latin for “British Encyclopædia”) is a general knowledge English-language encyclopædia, first published in the 18th century in Edinburgh, Scotland. Though published in the US since 1901, the Britannica has for the most part maintained British English spelling. Since 2016, it has been published exclusively as an online encyclopaedia.

If you look up “Good” in the Encyclopædia Britannica, you will find an article on Gnostic philosophy and spirituality, where the Good is a transcendent deity. Probably not what Lorelai was thinking of!

Cowabunga

MAX: I’ve been in California.
LORELAI: Well, cowabunga dude.

Cowabunga, a phrase of unknown origin which was popularised (as Kowa-Bunga) on the children’s TV show Howdy Doody in the late 1940s and early 1950s, where it was used by a character named Chief Thunderthud as a fake Native American greeting [picture shows it as Cowabonga, just to confuse things]. It became associated with the surfing subculture, who spelt it cowabunga, and used it to express delight or satisfaction.

By the early 1980s it was used as a catchphrase by Cookie Monster on Sesame Street, and became more widely known in the late 1980s and early 1990s due to its use by the cartoon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Bart Simpson from animated series The Simpson gave it even broader recognition in the 1990s.

Lorelai presumably thinks of it as a particularly Californian phrase because of its use by surfers. It seems as if almost everyone who leaves Connecticut goes to California! Max is Lorelai’s second ex to move to San Francisco.

“There was a person inside that cow”

PARIS: Hey, I was trying to give the kid some human contact. He’s been talking to nothing but a cow for a year and a half.
BRAD: There was a person inside that cow, I’ve told you that!

The role of Milky White the cow in the 2002 Broadway production of Into the Woods was played by actor and singer Chad Kimball [pictured], who was also the understudy for Adam Wylie’s role of Jack. He has been in a few other Broadway shows, and several regional theatre productions.

Paris says Brad was in Into the Woods for a year and a half, but it was only about a year – perhaps she is counting rehearsal periods. However, Brad seems to have been missing from Chilton for around eleven months.

Sookie is Pregnant

SOOKIE: Oh my God, I’m pregnant! …
RORY: That’s great!
[they all scream and hug]

Lorelai suggests to Sookie she may have some kind of minor illness affecting her taste buds, then she goes into the lobby to talk to Rory, before Sookie comes out of the kitchen and announces she’s pregnant.

Pregnancy can certainly affect the sense of taste of smell, explaining Sookie’s suddenly horrible food, so this makes sense – but how can Sookie be sure? Did she just throw up in the toilet (which could be something else), did she do the world’s quickest pregnancy test, and if she had one all along, why didn’t she use it before? Has she had some other little sign, like her periods stopping, breast tenderness, and weight gain, and she’s put all the clues together?

Who knows? She just apparently knows she’s pregnant, even though she’s seemingly never been pregnant before, and everyone gets super excited and jumps around hugging each other. Nobody asks Sookie how she knows, or suggests she might be mistaken, or that it might need to be verified by, oh I don’t know, science.

Lorelai Convinces Rory to Enter the Speech Contest

Rory tells her mother that she had no plan to enter the speech contest for the Chilton Bicentennial, but now Paris is being so annoying and competitive that she actually wants to win so she can rub it in her face.

Lorelai asks why she didn’t plan to enter it, even though Rory has successfully given speeches before, as Vice-President (and for the debating team). She is said by Paris herself to be the best public speaker at Chilton! (Ha).

Lorelai makes a very good point that if Rory is serious about being a journalist and a foreign correspondent (hm, okay), then she should be comfortable with speaking in public, and that this is her chance to step up. This argument persuades Rory to take part.