I stayed up to catch a 3am showing of Saturday Night Live to see one sketch. The sketch ended up being at the end of the show. It was an episode from December 98 with host Vince Vaughn who was then plugging the Gus van Sant shot by shot remake of Hitchcock’s “Psycho.” The sketch featured Vince, Will Ferrell, Chris Parnell, and Tim Meadows and was called “Delco Cat Toys.” I saw this sketch a long time ago and remembered howling. A rough draft of it is featured in Ferrell’s audition included on his “Best of..” dvd, but strangely the sketch in full isn’t there. Its about over zealous cat toy salesmen who take themselves way too seriously and feel a need to test the products to see if they “can make it move.” It was 4:30am, I laughed and it was well worth it. Also, it was worth it to see the early stages of the friendship that spawned between Vince and Will.
Now that I’ve written that in the style of a 5th grade English paper. Let’s move on.
Here’s an expression I don’t want to hear anymore “It was like a movie…” which is used to describe real moments that are so real, they’re realer than real and can only be described by something that isn’t real but captures things that are thus making a representation of real that is somehow better than what actually is.
Think of the times you’ve used that expression. It implies something that is very true: that we’ve made our everyday lives and experiences so boring and dull that when something good or beautiful happens its out of the ordinary. It can only be described using something that people say they go to “to escape.” Like a sunset that looks so good “its like a movie.” Or that certain events happened to work out in your favor or your mind was so clear you were clever all day “it was like a movie.” That is sad. We’ve seen more sunsets in movies than in real life.
It also applies to horrible occurences. What did a lot of people say who saw the Towers go down? Especially if they saw it on TV like most people?
“It was so surreal: it was like a movie.”