What happens when men live together without the influence of women?

12 Comments

1. Rob in Maine says:

   5 May 2020 at 3:34 PM

   I’ve always loved that scene, particularly the garbage disposal with the pigs!
2. Ms. M-S says:

   5 May 2020 at 3:41 PM

   Really barbaric or really efficient? We have all too many reminders that it’s possible to be both at the same time.
3. Semper Gumby says:

   5 May 2020 at 5:41 PM

   There are houses, then there are homes.

   In “Seven Wives for Seven Brothers” there’s an epic scene when Jane Powell cooks a meal for her new husband and his six brothers at their farm. The men pause, wide-eyed at the bounty spread before them on the table, then, in a remarkable display of rustic appetites, mayhem ensues. She restores order, then sets about civilizing the brutes.

   The happy middle ground between efficiency and barbarism is the scene in “A Night at the Opera” when the Marx Brothers, stowaways on a cruise liner, stumble into a feast on the main deck. (Followed by the classic “Cosi Cosa” sung by Allan Jones and piano performances by Chico and Harpo Marx. True, not a home but the deck of a ship, but that’s civilization.)
4. Mario Bird says:

   5 May 2020 at 6:42 PM

   Ha! Now I can see where Nick Park got the Wallace & Gromit table shtick. This is great.

   Keaton deserves film accolades for many reasons…including playing out the water tower scene in Sherlock, Jr. with a broken neck. That’s right up there with Mortensen breaking his toe kicking the orc helmet and Caviezel’s shoulder separating under the cross. Those are all on my top ten list of stunt injuries that made the final cut.

   @Gumby: “They named him Frankincense…’cause he smells so sweet.”
5. Semper Gumby says:

   5 May 2020 at 7:31 PM

   Mario Bird,

   Adam: Smells good enough to eat.
   Milly: Tastes good too, so they tell me.
   Adam: Got any ketchup handy?
   Milly: My stew can stand on its own feet.
6. Simon_GNR says:

   6 May 2020 at 4:29 AM

   When I was very young silent comedy films and Laurel & Hardy talkies were quite often on television. Buster Keaton was, to me, by far the funniest silent performer. Charlie Chaplin barely brought a smile to my young face: Keaton had me laughing out loud!
7. Bryan Baldwin says:

   6 May 2020 at 9:16 AM

   “Really barbaric or really efficient? We have all too many reminders that it’s possible to be both at the same time.”

   cf. O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin novels (sometimes mentioned on this site)–the otherwise ship-shape and well-run house with a large animal undergoing a slow necropsy in the front parlor being but one example.
8. Bryan D. Boyle says:

   6 May 2020 at 12:58 PM

   That brought a smile on this Wednesday afternoon.

   There is no doubt that women can civilize us brutish men. Not all women can (some are decidedly more brutish than men and vice versa), not all men are brutes.

   But consider what civilization would be if there was no maternal influence on the whole.
9. Semper Gumby says:

   6 May 2020 at 3:45 PM

   Bryan D. Boyle: Good point.
10. The Masked Chicken says:

    6 May 2020 at 3:57 PM

    I don’t know. Call me a throw-back, but those drop-down dispensers look really cool and useful to me :)

    The Chicken
11. Unwilling says:

    6 May 2020 at 5:28 PM

    I thought it was funny. Everyone in my family loved it. Simple. Innocent.

    And maybe timely… I caught an interview excerpt yesterday, in which a [allegedly] prominent American comedian lamented P.C., because you [professional jokesters] can’t get a laugh out of students these days with even the mildest bit of raciness. “Those” were the days!
12. philosophicallyfrank says:

    6 May 2020 at 7:32 PM

    The clip comes from a 1920 film with Buster Keaton and Edward Cline called “The Scarecrow”.

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