Friday, September 18, 2009

Community, Chevy Chase and movie references...


Ok, so I just got finished watching the pilot to the show Community, starring Joel McHale and the legendary Chevy Chase. It was actually pretty funny, and I am looking forward to watching the next one.

Watching the show brought up an interesting thought (or at least I think it is interesting):

Why don't people in shows recognize the people they are acting with?

Let me give you an example from the show.

In the pilot, several students of a community college get together for what they think is a study group for their Spanish class, but it really was a chance for the lead (played by McHale) to get a chance at a date with a pretty girl from class.
He is surprised when several people from class show up, including a former CEO (Chevy Chase).

There is quite a bit of 80's movie references thrown about during the episode, specifically to The Breakfast Club, but to other 80's movies like Meatballs and Stripes.

My question is, if someone in the show has such a great knowledge of 80's movies (including being able to recite perfectly a key line from The Breakfast Club), shouldn't he look over and say, "Holy Crap! You look JUST like Chevy Chase!"? I know that if I was in that room, and a guy who looked just like Chevy Chase walked into that room, that is exactly what I would say.

This has always bugged me when the TV shows and movies cross that 4th wall. If they are going to reference things that aren't supposed to exist in that universe, they need to take it all the way through.

Another example was from an episode of "The Big Bang Theory" last year where they encountered Summer Glau from Terminator:The Sarah Connor Chronicles. They instantly recognized her as someone from the TV show. Therefore, shouldn't she have instantly recognized them as the cast from "The Big Bang Theory"?

All I am saying is that that 4th wall is no longer sacred. You could cause some kind of time vortex that could doom us all.

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