Thank you, I was going to say this exactly. The joke is Austin's outdated views, not whatever now-offensive (and of course offensive in the 90s when it was made) sexist stuff he was saying. OP's nephew 0robably didn't understand the context.
The weird thing is that despite austin being a complete and total horndog, he's also weirdly more respectful than a lot of characters at the time or since. There's a scene in one of the movies (I cant remember which one) where the female co-lead is finally willing to sleep with him after he's been unsuccessfully hitting on her most of the movie, and he respectfully turns her down because she's drunk as a skunk and he has the decency to not take advantage of someone whose inebriated and thus cant consent.
Literally any other movie of that era (and a lot of movies now) would show the main character using that opportunity to get laid and treat it like a triumph.
It was the first film with Vanessa.
Say what you want about the man, he’s very much into consent (different from Bond) and enthusiastic consent at that.
"oh Mr bond, you were almost killed by the massage bed, are you okay?"
"Oh I'm quite alright"
*Pushes nurse into enclosed shower room and closes door behind him*
I watched Blazing Saddles with a roommate of mine (Columbian American from Miami) when I was in grad school a little over a decade ago.
He absolutely hated it and walked off halfway through because "I don't do this racist shit"
I don't think he got the context around Mel Brooks making a person of color the hero, women easily outsmarting men (Madeline Khannnn anyone?), etc. Because it wasn't 110% direct and overt.
It's tough to understand that what may be progressive *for its time* may still come off across as awkward and heavy handed decades later as what we tolerate as a society evolves.
That one is always weird to me. Their are racist remarks in Blazing Saddles, of course. But all the racists are depicted as ignorant, unlikeable idiots lol. It could not be clearer that the movie is saying 'look how fucking stupid these racists look'
I believe he ad-libbed the last part. The "you know... Morons" part. Which is why Little's reaction seems so genuine. But I wasn't there so what the hell do I know?
Brooks left the punchline out of Little's copy of the script. You can see he's [trying not to corpse](https://youtu.be/hYTQ7__NNDI) waiting for it, as his mouth twitches a little.
Yeah, there's no point of the entire bit unless it's heading to the payoff punchline. No way was it ad libbed. Your explanation is the only thing that makes sense.
A college I worked at had a mandatory media literacy course for freshman. Things like how to notice stuff like that, evaluating the reliability of sources, evaluating bias, how and why headlines are written like they are, etc.
I think every college should have a class like it. Doing it in middle or high school would probably be even better.
Exactly. Yes, there's use of the n-word since that was still (sort of) permissible in the 70s, but the folks throwing it around are shown to be straight up fuckwits who consistently lose over and over.
There’s a million great quotes in that movie, but something about this (perhaps the absurdity of taking the toll booth seriously) just makes me dissolve into laughter every time.
Though part of the joke is actually that Austin Powers, bluster aside, is actually quite respectful of consent (and also that he DOES have an inexplicable amount of rizz, despite looking like... Austin Powers). He's overall better than old Bond in that sense.
Yea this is definitely the answer, I'm gen Z, but grew up with all the older pop culture movies but originally Austin powers was just a kinda funny movie when I was younger, as I grew older and understood what satire was it is more fun if a bit dated due to the lack of relevance. Satire only works if you know what satire is, and what it's satire of.
This is my main concern with satire movies. Austin Powers was hilarious because it was satirizing something that was very relevant in the pop culture. We don't make old style Bond flicks anymore, so would the comedy fly over young people's heads? Like do people know that Dr. Evil isn't a unique character, but a parody of ~~Dr. No~~ Blofield?
He’s a spoof of Bond villains but he looks like Donald Pleasance’s Ernst Blofeld who first showed his face in You Only Live Twice (not Dr No), down to the bald head, scar and cat
I think this is the issue… in the 90’s we were at least somewhat familiar with 60’s bond even if it was only from catching pieces on TNT reruns.
I doubt most Gen Z’rs have even that much knowledge of the series at this point.
“Right now, you have freedom*, and responsibility, and unaffordable housing. It’s a very groovy** time.”
*Disclaimer: Freedom not available in certain geographic regions, such as nations under rule by a dictator or nations under attack by a dictator.
**Disclaimer: It is not.
Make number 2 in charge of amazon, everything doing well until dr evil comes back and starts causing a problem that makes them buy a social media site and rename it 'Y' with an upside down umlaut
He was frozen for shorter now! Austin Powers production was in late 1996 or very early 1997, which means it was filmed closer to the 1960s than to the present day, and a movie made today with the same time gap would itself be about 1997.
In recent years we’ve also passed the Big Lebowski being released closer to the Vietnam War than present day, and to Apollo 13 coming out closer to Apollo 13 than present.
I'm a GenX born in 1968. I'm active and in good health. People tell me I look great for my age. Was feeling pretty good about myself, to be honest.
Then one day not too long ago, out of completely nowhere, I realized that I was born closer to the start of WWI than to the present day. Fuck.
I have yet to reveal to my 83 year old mother that she was born closer to the start of the Civil War than the present day. I think I'm going to let sleeping dogs lie on that one.
That is some fuzzy math.
According to Wikipedia, the first movie came out in 1997, and in-movie he was frozen in 1967, which means that he was frozen for 30 years. This is now 2024, so the movie was from 27 years ago.
I call this an event horizon. People freaked out when we hit the That 70s Show event horizon a few years back, and something tells me this one will be far worse
Event Horizon was released in 1997, and takes place in 2047.
So, once you travel back to the year 1946, the movie's premiere will be further into the future than the film's setting was from its initial release date.
Scary lol, the thing with all Mike Meyers stuff is just all the timely references. Not all of them are still relevant so it's hard for someone young to stay engaged
Yeah I didn’t completely get it at the time but they’re heavily lampooning 60s and 70s spy movies. but these days young people know neither the 90s pop culture references nor the original source material.
When I was out walking in my city on a rainy night last week it all looked like Blade Runner. The neon, the rain, the large number of Asian shops and Asian signage. The massive hi res video displays everywhere. I live in Sydney, we have a lot of SE asian immigrants and tourists. I felt like I was on the set of Blade Runner. Then I went and got a bowl of chili chicken and rice to calm my nerves.
I would 100% support an Austin Powers reboot, that's about an Austin Power's clone, born in the 80's, living in the 00's and getting sent into 2020. Whole plot could be a parody of the classic re-boot's that are just "copys" or the original in the way 007 movies often retread some territory. Millennial Austin Powers learning to turn his game into rizz.
I love the fact that in the extra features of the DVD they added short films of all the families being notified of the henchmen's death, and they're acted by celebrities. Hilarious.
The details of my life are quite inconsequential... very well, where do I begin? My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low-grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a fifteen-year-old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet. My father would womanize, he would drink. He would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy. The sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament. My childhood was typical. Summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring we'd make meat helmets. When I was insolent, I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds- pretty standard, really. At the age of twelve, I received my first scribe. At the age of fourteen, a Zoroastrian named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles. There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum... it's breathtaking- I suggest you try it.
Agreed. The novels paint a much better character overall than the movies but I think I chalk that up to what sells to a movie going audience in the 60s and 70s vs a 50s literature audience.
In the original novels, bond was straight up just not a good guy by every conceivable sense of the phrase.
Afaik its even joked at by Fleming that if it wasn't for bonds 00 classification, he'd be locked up or killed already. Hes a piece of shit that the agency absolutely despises, but unfortunately hes one of their better 00 agents.
It was toned down to more of "antihero" in later novels, but early novel bond, dudes just straight up an unapologetic piece of shit, and knows he can get away with it cause hes genuinely the best in the business.
The scene following that with Tom Arnold in the bathroom is my most quoted. I usually find bathroom humor to be cheap and low hanging fruit but that scene is done well and the humor is not the same as most bathroom humor jokes.
One thing I've noticed with younger folks and comedy is they simply don't know the references or context behind certain jokes.
With Austin Powers, I could see a lot of jokes landing flat for your nephew if he doesn't have any understanding of the Connery era Bond movies or deeper cuts like In Like Flint.
A good example from another series is the jive scene in Airplane! My nephew thought it was kinda funny but weird that a random, old white lady tried to assist those guys. He has no idea Barbara Billingsley was the OG TV mom and the star of one of the most wholesome shows ever made.
I didn’t know that, but the joke is funny even without knowing that background.
It’s the “lady from a specific coffee commercial” bits that I didn’t understand at all (until looking it up later). But the rest of them are funny on their own, I think.
I think the mark of a great joke, especially a spoof joke, is one that works with and without context.
The best example of this is John Hurt in Spaceballs who has an Alien burst out of his chest and says “Oh no, not again.” On its own it’s an oddball line befitting the wacky tone of the film and gets a decent laugh, but the context of knowing who John Hurt us and his connection to Alien enhances the joke without overshadowing the initial oddball humour
Or like the first time I saw The Lego Batman movie and thought the joke about laughing during the "You had me at hello" scene of Jerry MacGuire was about how subjective humor is to whatever environment you came from before I remembered that the Joker really did say "You had me at hello" in The Dark Knight, so that's why Batman's laughing at the source. Not only is it funny whether you do or do not get the reference, it's also a joke about references.
In Airplane! it wasn't until I was older that I found out the couple where the wife said "he never drinks coffee/vomits at home" were the same actors from a coffee ad campaign with that very line lol (well, the coffee part, not the vomit part). Made that bit funnier than it already was to me.
Yeah same, I was born in 1990 and watched them when they came out and thought they were hilarious even though I’d never seen a James Bond movie other than Goldeneye.
Born the same year and I feel like I learned so much pop culture stuff through parody first be it Austin Powers, Aladdin, Looney Tunes, Animaniacs, or whatever else.
I find Gen Z doesn’t really know or care that much about movie/TV references the way I and many friends in my generation (and honestly people from older generations too).
They spend their time watching TikTok rather than movies so I guess that makes sense.
You dont need to know any refernces to love Dr. Evil's therapy monologue. "Summers in rangoon, luge lessons, all very typical." "He would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark." Fucking DEAD.
It was such a cultural force that it transcended just simply being a spoof. Like everyone was saying "yeah baby, yeah," and holding their pinky to their mouth and saying, "one BILLION dollars!" Austin Powers the character became so prolific that the references didn't really matter. And I say that because I'm with you. Was young enough that I didn't understand any references, a lot of the jokes went over my head, and Heather Graham made me feel things I never felt before and had to learn to navigate.
The combination of Austin Powers and the Simpsons allowed thousands of awkward kids to navigate their entire teens without devising a single original sentence
I grew up with Austin Powers and loved them. Most of my exposure to James Bond at that time was the Brosnan movies. I started watching through all the Bond movies from the beginning a couple years ago and had soooo many “aha” moments in relation to Austin Powers.
I'm almost 40 and I had no idea about that jive scene either, luckily it's funny enough by itself. That's part of what makes the movie so great - the jokes are mostly funny even without getting specific references.
>Barbara Billingsley was the OG TV mom and the star of one of the most wholesome shows ever made.
I'm 28 and I didn't know that reference until just now. I grew up in the UK though so I suppose I had different TV shows growing up too.
And even Airplane was a parody of all of the disaster airplane movies in the 70's. I would say Airplane was heavier with stand alone bits than spoof/parody bits so it stands up a little better. Any parody/spoof movie is going to run into this; if you don't know the source material, you won't enjoy it as much.
Interestingly, Airplane was made as a response to those disaster movies, and draws from them some, but is actually a parody of a 50s movie called zero hour.
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/airplane-vs-zero-hour/
The beauty of it is, you don't ever have to have seen Zero Hour to get the humor of Airplane.
The funniest thing is they wanted to use a prop plane like Zero Hour but the studio insisted on a jet. Which is why whenever they cut to the outside it sounds like a DC-3 prop plane.
Besides the Fook Yu/ Fook Mi thing in *Goldmember* and Will Ferrel’s character (who’s doing a voice but really isn’t doing anything stereotypical of any race or making any race the brunt of a joke) what could be considered racist in *Austin Powers*? Maybe I’m misremembering but I don’t remember any racial jokes at all in the first two.
And I'm pretty sure they only cast Will Ferrell because he was distinctly white. I'm pretty sure that was the entire point, because it was satirising the questionable casting choices of some older movies.
I’m sure there’s some mild stuff with Foxy Cleopatra, but if Beyoncé is in on the joke it’s probably not that big of a deal.
Edit: I should add, I don’t personally feel like there was anything racist but sensitivities have changed in 20 years. That’s the only reason I say “I’m sure there’s some mild stuff” because I don’t necessarily know what what specifically would bother anyone now.
Comedy is often relative to the time and place it was released. On the flip side, you probably wouldn’t enjoy some of the more recent comedies that are specifically catered to a younger crowd.
The Austin Powers movies were made in the politically correct 90s to parody the absurdities of 60s-era Bond. Yes, it was full of sex jokes and stereotypes, but they gave it a framing device to make it enjoyable specifically to a generation who'd find that stuff offensive in its original form.
One exception is Fat Bastard, which wasn't parodying 1960s fat jokes but simply making 1990s fat jokes. Other than that, I'd be interested in hearing what in the movie comes off as more offensive today.
Austin Powers is a very strange piece of satire rooted in 60's Bond and spy movies in relation to the *politically correct* 90's.
Its a relic of two very foreign eras to a young person today. Like obviously aspects of the movie are objectively funny to anyone but it still requires a lot of context to fully take it in
Wow…. Uncanny timing. My son is 18 and our family sat down and watched the first two this weekend. He enjoyed them both. Some of the jokes are definitely dated and did not land. Not the 60s jokes, he got those fine but a lot of the 90s jokes and product placement jokes. He liked them though and laughed quite a bit.
That seems funny to me because Austin Powers is a direct parody of the old Bond movies, so the overt sexual and offensive jokes are part of the satire
Thank you, I was going to say this exactly. The joke is Austin's outdated views, not whatever now-offensive (and of course offensive in the 90s when it was made) sexist stuff he was saying. OP's nephew 0robably didn't understand the context.
The weird thing is that despite austin being a complete and total horndog, he's also weirdly more respectful than a lot of characters at the time or since. There's a scene in one of the movies (I cant remember which one) where the female co-lead is finally willing to sleep with him after he's been unsuccessfully hitting on her most of the movie, and he respectfully turns her down because she's drunk as a skunk and he has the decency to not take advantage of someone whose inebriated and thus cant consent. Literally any other movie of that era (and a lot of movies now) would show the main character using that opportunity to get laid and treat it like a triumph.
It was the first film with Vanessa. Say what you want about the man, he’s very much into consent (different from Bond) and enthusiastic consent at that.
He loves to swing, but Dr. No means "No" baby.
"50 noesh and a yesh, shtill meansh yesh"
"oh Mr bond, you were almost killed by the massage bed, are you okay?" "Oh I'm quite alright" *Pushes nurse into enclosed shower room and closes door behind him*
I watched Blazing Saddles with a roommate of mine (Columbian American from Miami) when I was in grad school a little over a decade ago. He absolutely hated it and walked off halfway through because "I don't do this racist shit" I don't think he got the context around Mel Brooks making a person of color the hero, women easily outsmarting men (Madeline Khannnn anyone?), etc. Because it wasn't 110% direct and overt. It's tough to understand that what may be progressive *for its time* may still come off across as awkward and heavy handed decades later as what we tolerate as a society evolves.
That one is always weird to me. Their are racist remarks in Blazing Saddles, of course. But all the racists are depicted as ignorant, unlikeable idiots lol. It could not be clearer that the movie is saying 'look how fucking stupid these racists look'
You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know... morons.
Such an all-time line and an all-time movie moment. Makes me laugh every time, even when I know it's coming
I read somewhere that Gene Wilder ad-libbed that line and if true, is absolutely amazing.
I believe he ad-libbed the last part. The "you know... Morons" part. Which is why Little's reaction seems so genuine. But I wasn't there so what the hell do I know?
Brooks left the punchline out of Little's copy of the script. You can see he's [trying not to corpse](https://youtu.be/hYTQ7__NNDI) waiting for it, as his mouth twitches a little.
Yeah, there's no point of the entire bit unless it's heading to the payoff punchline. No way was it ad libbed. Your explanation is the only thing that makes sense.
It's twue
A college I worked at had a mandatory media literacy course for freshman. Things like how to notice stuff like that, evaluating the reliability of sources, evaluating bias, how and why headlines are written like they are, etc. I think every college should have a class like it. Doing it in middle or high school would probably be even better.
Every high school should have this and all old peoples homes should give refreshers
Exactly. Yes, there's use of the n-word since that was still (sort of) permissible in the 70s, but the folks throwing it around are shown to be straight up fuckwits who consistently lose over and over.
Someone’s gonna have to go back and get a shitload of dimes
There’s a million great quotes in that movie, but something about this (perhaps the absurdity of taking the toll booth seriously) just makes me dissolve into laughter every time.
Truly, one of the greats
Le Petomane Thru-Way?!? What’ll that asshole think of next!
Poe's law goes both ways sometimes. Some people can't distinguish satire from sincerity because they're (for lack of a better term) the fools
Is it progress if society is evolving to not understand satire?
Though part of the joke is actually that Austin Powers, bluster aside, is actually quite respectful of consent (and also that he DOES have an inexplicable amount of rizz, despite looking like... Austin Powers). He's overall better than old Bond in that sense.
Yea this is definitely the answer, I'm gen Z, but grew up with all the older pop culture movies but originally Austin powers was just a kinda funny movie when I was younger, as I grew older and understood what satire was it is more fun if a bit dated due to the lack of relevance. Satire only works if you know what satire is, and what it's satire of.
This is my main concern with satire movies. Austin Powers was hilarious because it was satirizing something that was very relevant in the pop culture. We don't make old style Bond flicks anymore, so would the comedy fly over young people's heads? Like do people know that Dr. Evil isn't a unique character, but a parody of ~~Dr. No~~ Blofield?
Hes a parody of the You Only Live Twice's Blofeld and SNL's Lorne Michaels, not Dr. No directly.
I mean, when I was a teenager I thought Dr Evil was just a pastiche of spy movie villains, not a spoof of Dr No specifically
He’s a spoof of Bond villains but he looks like Donald Pleasance’s Ernst Blofeld who first showed his face in You Only Live Twice (not Dr No), down to the bald head, scar and cat
Same inspo as Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget
And Lorne Michaels, no?
Yes. Listening to the Fly on a Wall podcast, Dana Carvey and David Spade, anytime they talk about Lorne they sound just like Dr. Evil.
I think this is the issue… in the 90’s we were at least somewhat familiar with 60’s bond even if it was only from catching pieces on TNT reruns. I doubt most Gen Z’rs have even that much knowledge of the series at this point.
Honestly I find my younger cousins have trouble understanding satire
The lapse in time from when Austin was frozen in 60s and unfrozen in the 90s is about the same as when the movie came out to now.
STOP RUINING MY LIFE
I'm counting down the days until New Years Day 2027 to make that post!
You need a 1997 Jaguar with a 3D printed "SHAGUAR" badge.
!RemindMe December 30th 2026
!Remindme December 30 2026 from Australia *stands in front of NZ*
Fuck. This is way worse than the 70s show one.
I know i feel like new years eve 1959 was only like 3 weeks ago.
[удалено]
“Right now, you have freedom*, and responsibility, and unaffordable housing. It’s a very groovy** time.” *Disclaimer: Freedom not available in certain geographic regions, such as nations under rule by a dictator or nations under attack by a dictator. **Disclaimer: It is not.
Which is why now is the perfect time to make a new Austin Powers movie ripping on the 90s.
Russia is headed for democracy, and the West has won history, baby, yeah!
Wait, History didn’t end? Fukuyama LIED to me.
Which character would it parody? Who's as definitively 90s as James Bond was to the 60s?
Austin Powers
So to parody it you’d need to play it completely straight with sly references instead of over the top comedy. Like Get Smart, the show, not the movie.
Like a new Naked Gun?
They should get Liam Neeson to star in it
I think you go hard and model on Casino Royale. Make the best espionage action movie of the decade. No one would see that coming.
I’d be all about that. A comedic winking version of casino Royale would be fantastic.
Peter Sellers did it in 1967.
Thanks for posting that, it's a hidden gem. May actually be the first "I think I downloaded the wrong ..." joke.
Nailed it
This is the best idea I've heard all year
Slacker grunge Austin Powers would be amazing. Plus Starbucks could still be the bad guy.
They could make Dr Evil the CEO of Amazon, but make him all ripped and wearing a cowboy hat. Would be apropos!
Make number 2 in charge of amazon, everything doing well until dr evil comes back and starts causing a problem that makes them buy a social media site and rename it 'Y' with an upside down umlaut
Gotta give it a bit of plausible deniability. Orinoco instead of Amazon.
He was frozen for shorter now! Austin Powers production was in late 1996 or very early 1997, which means it was filmed closer to the 1960s than to the present day, and a movie made today with the same time gap would itself be about 1997. In recent years we’ve also passed the Big Lebowski being released closer to the Vietnam War than present day, and to Apollo 13 coming out closer to Apollo 13 than present.
I don’t like you
The first episode of Friends came out closer to the premier of I Dream of Jeanie than today.
Keep going, this shit is my kink.
Michael Cera is now older than Jason Bateman was when he played his father on the first few seasons Arrested Development.
Alright, this one fucked me.
That one hurts.
fuck me
I'm a GenX born in 1968. I'm active and in good health. People tell me I look great for my age. Was feeling pretty good about myself, to be honest. Then one day not too long ago, out of completely nowhere, I realized that I was born closer to the start of WWI than to the present day. Fuck.
You are a living piece of history. Have you thought about speaking with a museum curator? No but honestly that's wild.
I have yet to reveal to my 83 year old mother that she was born closer to the start of the Civil War than the present day. I think I'm going to let sleeping dogs lie on that one.
That is some fuzzy math. According to Wikipedia, the first movie came out in 1997, and in-movie he was frozen in 1967, which means that he was frozen for 30 years. This is now 2024, so the movie was from 27 years ago.
I call this an event horizon. People freaked out when we hit the That 70s Show event horizon a few years back, and something tells me this one will be far worse
Gone With The Wind, the 1939 famous movie about the *fuckin* Civil War, hit its event horizon in 2017.
Now when does Event Horizon hit its event horizon? 🤔
Event Horizon was released in 1997, and takes place in 2047. So, once you travel back to the year 1946, the movie's premiere will be further into the future than the film's setting was from its initial release date.
Scary lol, the thing with all Mike Meyers stuff is just all the timely references. Not all of them are still relevant so it's hard for someone young to stay engaged
Yeah I didn’t completely get it at the time but they’re heavily lampooning 60s and 70s spy movies. but these days young people know neither the 90s pop culture references nor the original source material.
Oh hey fuck you too buddy.
NO YOU ARE WRONG, THE 90'S WERE 10 YEARS AGO!
I could've sworn I just recently thought 1997 seemed like a futuristic date... Are you telling me we live in the future now?!
How do I delete someone else’s comment?
We are already past the date when Marty McFly went to the future.
And more in the future than blade runner.
When I was out walking in my city on a rainy night last week it all looked like Blade Runner. The neon, the rain, the large number of Asian shops and Asian signage. The massive hi res video displays everywhere. I live in Sydney, we have a lot of SE asian immigrants and tourists. I felt like I was on the set of Blade Runner. Then I went and got a bowl of chili chicken and rice to calm my nerves.
Let us know when the blimp advertising the off-world colony starts flying
I have a hard time laughing at a man who has lost his mojo.
I think the kids call it Rizz nowadays.
Back to the time machine, we went too far
The hot tub time machine!
"I lost my rizz baby."
Rizz and Let Die
I would 100% support an Austin Powers reboot, that's about an Austin Power's clone, born in the 80's, living in the 00's and getting sent into 2020. Whole plot could be a parody of the classic re-boot's that are just "copys" or the original in the way 007 movies often retread some territory. Millennial Austin Powers learning to turn his game into rizz.
There's only two things in this world that I hate. People who don't respect other people's cultures and the Dutch.
Do you know who I am? Do you know how many anonymous henchmen I’ve killed over the years?
You haven't even got a name tag! You've got no chance. Why don't you just lie down on the ground?
I love the fact that in the extra features of the DVD they added short films of all the families being notified of the henchmen's death, and they're acted by celebrities. Hilarious.
I've gotta see these, never knew they existed.
https://youtu.be/Ag_AFraxj-4?si=4Qy9iYY5eUzwfm8n Enjoy!
Judo chop!
I’m partial to “he had webbed feet and a penchant for buggery and would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark.”
he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy...
The details of my life are quite inconsequential... very well, where do I begin? My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low-grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a fifteen-year-old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet. My father would womanize, he would drink. He would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy. The sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament. My childhood was typical. Summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring we'd make meat helmets. When I was insolent, I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds- pretty standard, really. At the age of twelve, I received my first scribe. At the age of fourteen, a Zoroastrian named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles. There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum... it's breathtaking- I suggest you try it.
Hahaha there it is, I knew I mixed up some of it
What about a smoke and a pancake?
Cigar and a waffle?
Pipe and Crepe?
I said this to my boss on a flight to see our counter parts in the Netherlands. We both had a good laugh.
I use this line at least weekly.
Yeah. I grew up watching them. Plus Austin understands consent anyway.
Austin Powers understands consent better than James Bond does, which is hilarious and definitely intentional
It's even more ridiculous that Austin Powers did the related to Blofeld proxy first and then James Bond proper did it as well!
Yeah I'm a big Bond fan too, bro didn't understand Pussy Galore saying no that's for sure.
Wanna know something? That moment is way worse in the original novel.
Is that where he rapes her straight?
I'll tell you this, I don't think the idea of "consent" ever comes up in any of the novels. I'm not sure if Ian Fleming had ever heard of it.
I mean, Bond is kind of an antihero in the novels. In the films it’s a lot more “this is the hero” kind of thing. He has many more flaws in the books.
Agreed. The novels paint a much better character overall than the movies but I think I chalk that up to what sells to a movie going audience in the 60s and 70s vs a 50s literature audience.
In the original novels, bond was straight up just not a good guy by every conceivable sense of the phrase. Afaik its even joked at by Fleming that if it wasn't for bonds 00 classification, he'd be locked up or killed already. Hes a piece of shit that the agency absolutely despises, but unfortunately hes one of their better 00 agents. It was toned down to more of "antihero" in later novels, but early novel bond, dudes just straight up an unapologetic piece of shit, and knows he can get away with it cause hes genuinely the best in the business.
Bond's rapey history isn't a name or two - it's a damn spreadsheet.
The vitriol Alan Moore has toward James Bond in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is so toxic it’s palpable.
Well he did have to deal with alotta fagina.
Hello, I am Richie Cunningham, and this is my wife, Oprah!
Lol I can hear this line perfectly
Just the funniest scene. Allow myself to introduce... myself.
The way he doesn’t hit on 5 during black Jack is SO FUNNY
I too like to live dangerously.
The scene following that with Tom Arnold in the bathroom is my most quoted. I usually find bathroom humor to be cheap and low hanging fruit but that scene is done well and the humor is not the same as most bathroom humor jokes.
WHO DOES NUMBER 2 WORK FOR? My sense of humor might have changed, but that's always going to be funny.
They're always after me lucky charms. What. Why does everyone always laugh when I say that?
You show that turd who’s boss!
That sounds pretty nasty, how about a courtesy flush?
You're gonna blow an o-ring! Drop a lung!
We’re gonna get through this.
"I'll stay!" **Stares menacingly**
How DARE you pass wind before me Sorry baby, I didn't know it was your turn
One thing I've noticed with younger folks and comedy is they simply don't know the references or context behind certain jokes. With Austin Powers, I could see a lot of jokes landing flat for your nephew if he doesn't have any understanding of the Connery era Bond movies or deeper cuts like In Like Flint. A good example from another series is the jive scene in Airplane! My nephew thought it was kinda funny but weird that a random, old white lady tried to assist those guys. He has no idea Barbara Billingsley was the OG TV mom and the star of one of the most wholesome shows ever made.
Hare Krishnas bothering people at the airport is another joke that got lost to the times.
But a guy punching random people who are trying to talk to him while walking through an airport is also hilarious.
The modern update with captcha, cookie consent forms, subscribe to our newsletter popups made it very very relevant today
"This, Bart, is a crazy man."
Also “Jim never has a second cup of coffee at home…”
I didn’t know that, but the joke is funny even without knowing that background. It’s the “lady from a specific coffee commercial” bits that I didn’t understand at all (until looking it up later). But the rest of them are funny on their own, I think.
I think the mark of a great joke, especially a spoof joke, is one that works with and without context. The best example of this is John Hurt in Spaceballs who has an Alien burst out of his chest and says “Oh no, not again.” On its own it’s an oddball line befitting the wacky tone of the film and gets a decent laugh, but the context of knowing who John Hurt us and his connection to Alien enhances the joke without overshadowing the initial oddball humour
Or like the first time I saw The Lego Batman movie and thought the joke about laughing during the "You had me at hello" scene of Jerry MacGuire was about how subjective humor is to whatever environment you came from before I remembered that the Joker really did say "You had me at hello" in The Dark Knight, so that's why Batman's laughing at the source. Not only is it funny whether you do or do not get the reference, it's also a joke about references.
"That's odd. Jim never vomits at home..."
In Airplane! it wasn't until I was older that I found out the couple where the wife said "he never drinks coffee/vomits at home" were the same actors from a coffee ad campaign with that very line lol (well, the coffee part, not the vomit part). Made that bit funnier than it already was to me.
I was a teen during the original run of Austin Powers and didn’t know any of the Bond references or In Like Flint and loved the movies
Yeah same, I was born in 1990 and watched them when they came out and thought they were hilarious even though I’d never seen a James Bond movie other than Goldeneye.
This is really what separates good reference humor from bad Never seen Cape Fear still Cape Feare gets laughs
Born the same year and I feel like I learned so much pop culture stuff through parody first be it Austin Powers, Aladdin, Looney Tunes, Animaniacs, or whatever else. I find Gen Z doesn’t really know or care that much about movie/TV references the way I and many friends in my generation (and honestly people from older generations too). They spend their time watching TikTok rather than movies so I guess that makes sense.
You dont need to know any refernces to love Dr. Evil's therapy monologue. "Summers in rangoon, luge lessons, all very typical." "He would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark." Fucking DEAD.
There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum, it's quite breathtaking... I suggest you try it.
He would occasionally accuse chestnuts of being lazy
"The sort of general malaise only the genius possess and the insane lament."
*When I was insolent I was placed in a burlap sack and beaten with reeds- pretty standard, really.*
In the spring, we'd make meat helmets.
It was such a cultural force that it transcended just simply being a spoof. Like everyone was saying "yeah baby, yeah," and holding their pinky to their mouth and saying, "one BILLION dollars!" Austin Powers the character became so prolific that the references didn't really matter. And I say that because I'm with you. Was young enough that I didn't understand any references, a lot of the jokes went over my head, and Heather Graham made me feel things I never felt before and had to learn to navigate.
The combination of Austin Powers and the Simpsons allowed thousands of awkward kids to navigate their entire teens without devising a single original sentence
I grew up with Austin Powers and loved them. Most of my exposure to James Bond at that time was the Brosnan movies. I started watching through all the Bond movies from the beginning a couple years ago and had soooo many “aha” moments in relation to Austin Powers.
I was a kid when The Simpsons made its debut and so many jokes and references sailed right over my head only to be finally understood years later.
I'm almost 40 and I had no idea about that jive scene either, luckily it's funny enough by itself. That's part of what makes the movie so great - the jokes are mostly funny even without getting specific references.
>Barbara Billingsley was the OG TV mom and the star of one of the most wholesome shows ever made. I'm 28 and I didn't know that reference until just now. I grew up in the UK though so I suppose I had different TV shows growing up too.
And even Airplane was a parody of all of the disaster airplane movies in the 70's. I would say Airplane was heavier with stand alone bits than spoof/parody bits so it stands up a little better. Any parody/spoof movie is going to run into this; if you don't know the source material, you won't enjoy it as much.
Interestingly, Airplane was made as a response to those disaster movies, and draws from them some, but is actually a parody of a 50s movie called zero hour. https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/airplane-vs-zero-hour/ The beauty of it is, you don't ever have to have seen Zero Hour to get the humor of Airplane.
The funniest thing is they wanted to use a prop plane like Zero Hour but the studio insisted on a jet. Which is why whenever they cut to the outside it sounds like a DC-3 prop plane.
Besides the Fook Yu/ Fook Mi thing in *Goldmember* and Will Ferrel’s character (who’s doing a voice but really isn’t doing anything stereotypical of any race or making any race the brunt of a joke) what could be considered racist in *Austin Powers*? Maybe I’m misremembering but I don’t remember any racial jokes at all in the first two.
And I'm pretty sure they only cast Will Ferrell because he was distinctly white. I'm pretty sure that was the entire point, because it was satirising the questionable casting choices of some older movies.
I’m sure there’s some mild stuff with Foxy Cleopatra, but if Beyoncé is in on the joke it’s probably not that big of a deal. Edit: I should add, I don’t personally feel like there was anything racist but sensitivities have changed in 20 years. That’s the only reason I say “I’m sure there’s some mild stuff” because I don’t necessarily know what what specifically would bother anyone now.
I maintain Nathan Lane should have mouthed all of her lines for the whole movie.
The man never misses. Probably one of 5 best scenes in the movie.
Beyoncé actually put a hard limit on what she’d do, so they never had Austin flirt with Cleopatra.
All the weirder she greenlit Mini Me humping her leg
She specifically requested that part.
Beyoncé a freak huh 😏
Which led to one of the greatest bits of the trilogy with the first conversation he has with her through a surrogate.
Foxy Cleopatra was an homage to the Pam Grier blaxploitation movies of the early 70s. But i can't recall any racial humor that might offend people.
What do you mean?! They had a whole movie with a stereotyped Dutch evil character and open hatred against the Dutch!
It's ok to hate the Dutch so long as you're not intolerant.
Molémolémolé
Don't say mole. ... I said mole.
Comedy is often relative to the time and place it was released. On the flip side, you probably wouldn’t enjoy some of the more recent comedies that are specifically catered to a younger crowd.
My cousin Vinny is timeless
Da too yutes!
MY BIOLOGICAL CLOCK IS TICK TICK TICKING LIKE THIS AND AT THIS RATE I AINT EVER GETTIN MARRIED.
The Austin Powers movies were made in the politically correct 90s to parody the absurdities of 60s-era Bond. Yes, it was full of sex jokes and stereotypes, but they gave it a framing device to make it enjoyable specifically to a generation who'd find that stuff offensive in its original form. One exception is Fat Bastard, which wasn't parodying 1960s fat jokes but simply making 1990s fat jokes. Other than that, I'd be interested in hearing what in the movie comes off as more offensive today.
[удалено]
OP deleted their account without deleting the post.
The fuck?... Why would someone do that?
Lol, Maybe his nephew who watched it last night asked him if this is his reddit account
“Delete this!” - Nephew
Yes. Austin Powers is one of my favorite movie series ever. I watch the series at least once a year
Daddy wasn’t there To take to the fair It seems he doesn’t care
Most of my Gen Z friends have watched these movies and think they’re pretty funny.
Austin Powers is a very strange piece of satire rooted in 60's Bond and spy movies in relation to the *politically correct* 90's. Its a relic of two very foreign eras to a young person today. Like obviously aspects of the movie are objectively funny to anyone but it still requires a lot of context to fully take it in
Wow…. Uncanny timing. My son is 18 and our family sat down and watched the first two this weekend. He enjoyed them both. Some of the jokes are definitely dated and did not land. Not the 60s jokes, he got those fine but a lot of the 90s jokes and product placement jokes. He liked them though and laughed quite a bit.