In a previous post I mentioned my fondness for John Hughes' movies. Film.com just put up a tribute to 1987's "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" one of the rare Hughes films not focused on teen angst. It's a holiday road comedy. Nothing complicated, and a minor success in its day. It's too mainstream to be considered a cult classic, but it's become a sentimental favorite for many.
Here's the interesting quote...
It is customary in all comedies that if two heterosexual men are required to share a bed, they will wake up in a compromised position, react initially as if nothing is wrong, do a double-take, then leap out of the bed in horror. (This is so well established that it's only in comedies that two straight men ever have to share a bed. If it happened in a drama, we'd be expecting hilarity when they woke up, and the film's mood would be ruined.) Hughes employs this chestnut, which was already old in 1987, but look at how well Martin and Candy play it. The dialogue itself is classic:
MARTIN: Why did you kiss my ear?
CANDY: Why are you holding my hand?
MARTIN: Where's your other hand?
CANDY: Between two pillows.
MARTIN: THOSE AREN'T PILLOWS!
GG, I know that you reacted with grace and dignity that time you woke up in John Candy's embrace.
Readers, which is the funnier straight-guys-stereotype? The "wake up snuggling double-take" or the "forced (or tricked) into kissing spit-take"? Click comments below.
--Straight Guy
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