How do we decide on a joke or a lead photo (aka topshot) for a post? It’s a long and arduous process involving Google Trends, a divining road, and the all important David Test. The challenge with David is that, unfortunately, his pop culture knowledge is like an ornamental bird bath–neither particularly deep nor particularly wide. Blame an army brat upbringing that limited his adolescent viewing to nonstop reruns of Major Dad or Coach or whatever [Editor’s Note: It was Mail Call and war movies my brothers and I rented from the on-post library. -DT]. So you have to find something that isn’t old enough to be too familiar or so new that it’s overly foreign to him.
It’s my belief that you can never be too old or too young to get a reference. The culture has flattened some because access to certain bits of media is no longer as limited to young people with the time to go diving for records or to old people with the disposable income to sample the finer things in life. I, a dignified older man, can listen to GRRL and you, a young buck, can be obsessed with Sam & Dave b-sides. Or we can both enjoy both. [Editor’s Note: I’m not trying to be funny when I say: I don’t what the hell we’re talking about at this point. -DT].
All of this is preface to a debate we had over this post and, specifically, the image of Steve Martin from his all-time classic film The Jerk.
A quick review for those of you who don’t know what this stuff is and are curious:
- The Jerk
- Planes, Trains and Automobiles
- The mutually agreed upon good Drake albums, even if Drake is annoying:
- “Thank Me Later”
- “Take Care” (begrudgingly, the Jamie XX stuff is good)
- The amazing trio of The Weeknd’s mixtapes in one album. (this includes Loft Music)
- The new 100 Gecs song, and “Doritos & Fritos.” This is in the category of what I call “Soundcloud music.”
- The JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown album.
- Here’s the clip from The Man with Two Brains:
And there you have it. When society crumbles, David will have an entire town operating off of a single 4.0-liter Jeep motor and I’ll be reenacting episodes of Brooklyn 99 for scraps of food.
UPDATE: As Requested in the comments, here’s Drake and The Weeknd replacing Steve Martin and Martin Short, respectively.
Not signing up for this BS just to find out why Martin Short is in that photo, not Steve Martin. Please don’t Jalopnik this site with this silliness.
Honestly, the entire image could’ve been “NEW COMMENTS ARE HERE!” and we’d have probably clicked.
(Also, “Soundcloud music” really undersells 100gecs. I know there’s some good stuff in there, but there’s a lot of “lol someone made a mixtape about Conroe” on there and I’ll forever associate it with “some guy’s unremarkable project.”)
So how do we get into the slack chat? or is it for staff only?
I think it’s time for an annual “Autopian Movie Festival for David Tracy” event.
I laughed out loud at Hardigree’s analogy to describe DT’s pop culture knowledge. Definitely earned my big Vinyl money right there.
Joining the Steve Martin Fan Club here with a tip to his movies “L.A. Story” (which he wrote), “Roxanne” (which he also wrote), and his memoir “Born Standing Up.”
And I rise in defense of “Honestly Nevermind,” which was on heavy rotation with “Renaissance” in our house last year.
DT’s 1.) astonishing and incomprehensible lack of social awareness and 2.) lack of need for normal human comforts like food, heat, sleep, electricity, entertainment and 3.) other so-called human qualities and attributes like not craving for attention, not seeking praise, not caring one iota about physical appearance, a preference for working in the frozen cold dirt, etc. indicates he may be a non-human ‘machine’ or perhaps ‘cyborg’ masquerading as a human being.
Look closely along hair lines and in other more private areas (he won’t care, he’s not human I’m convinced) for hidden access panels for charging ports, battery hot swaps, and other opportune places to add additional or expanded CPU capacity or memory.
You may wish to, as an abundance of caution, attach a ground wire to yourself while you (and others) conduct this belated but necessary investigation.
Big Steve Martin fan but the jerk? That is probably his weakest fart joke movie.
1. You got SNL Two wild and crazy guys.
2. King Tut as mentioned.
3. All of me with Lily Tomlin.
4. Planes trains and automobiles with the great John Candy mentioned.
5. First arrow through the head guy.
6. That marriage movie trilogy. I think Lisa Williams Paisley was his daughter getting married. Then the 2nd one his daughter and wife are pregnant at the same time.
7. I think he did a movie where he was serious not sure.
Hey, I finally found someone else that knows about Mail Call, I thought I was the only one!
R. Lee Ermey was amazing!
Everyone knows that but they forget til reminded. Wasnt Full Metal Jacket he was in that started his career.
Mail Call was amusing, NGL.
I am a member on a 3d printing discord server where there is a weekly movie group watch for a member who has basically not seen any movie. Maybe you guys should do that same for David??? You have to live in a mightly small box to not know who Steve Martin is. Like TINY
Oh shit. Didn’t know Danny B had a new album. Love that man, much as I don’t understand where his head is at.
Also, yes, David has some really weird blindspots.
I’m kinda wondering what classic car movies he has or hasn’t seen. Might be a good article, DT rating classics based on how many Jeeps are in it.
Haven’t seen Blues Brothers.
(Please don’t throw things at me)
You lived in Detroit and couldn’t find time to watch Chicago get destroyed? Isn’t that what us Detroiters live for? Kinda like Boston having some schadenfreude when NYC has some kind of issue?
We need a “what movies that aren’t car movies should I watch” article from you, my man.
I get it. I hate most sports, but I also know that since I’m a dude, I need to be a little informed, at least, about what’s up in sports. Every other dude I encounter during my work day seems to care and I should be able to talk to them.
How about Cannabilistic Humanoids Under Detroit?
But…cop motor, a 440ci plant, cop tires, cop suspension, cop shocks!
Fix the cigarette lighter.
It was built before catalytic converters, so it runs just fine on regular gas! 😉
Dude, it’s like you’ve never been home on a Sunday afternoon before.
Have you also not seen “Road House”?
I don’t think I have.
Do you own a TV? DO you at least have an antenae?
I just got my first TV! (well, someone gave me one)
SELLOUT!
(Fine, I’d probably take one if I was given it, but I don’t know where I’d put it or if it’d get used. Like, I’m not rearranging my living room for a TV.)
Fairly sure you’ve mentioned that before.
I am as disappointed in you, and depressed by that fact now as I was then.
How about Vanishing Point? The original Gone in 60 Seconds? Smokey and the Bandit?
You’re my hero for bringing up Vanishing Point. That and Two Lane Backtop are two of my 70s favorites. I’ll also kinda include Electra Glide in Blue too.
Counterpoint: Vanishing Point is one of those oddball self-important 70’s movies that is convinced that it is all art-house fancy and full of deep meaning, but in reality it is just nonsensical drivel dreamed up by some writer who was out-of-their-skull stoned one one psychoactive drug or another during the entire creation of it. Even my deep abiding love of Dodge Challengers couldn’t rescue that movie for me.
DT you have to fix this. Besides seeing Ray Charles and Aretha being awesome there’s classic car shenanigans. How else will you know how to respond when someone mentions how many miles, cigarettes and sunglasses it takes to get to a destination?
How about the most amount of cars destroyed in a movie record?
My wife hasn’t seen a lot of these movies. Or, if she has, it was only until recently. Her excuse is “I played outside”.
It’s a piteous excuse.
Still? Ok, you are hereby required to sit down and remedy that. It’s got it all: car chases, great music, funny dialogue, Carrie Fisher in a Pontiac Grand Prix, Nazis in a Pinto being dropped from great heights…
We won’t, but we should.
You embarrass us all by your presence. All I can say is DUDE!
David. Fix This. One of the best movies of all time imo, on top of being one of the best *car* movies of all time. That movie introduced me to the blues music genre, and my life has been much richer for it.
I did try while DT was here to at least show him some classic Aussie car movies!
We watched Running On Empty and The Man From Hong Kong.
If I knew Dave hadn’t seen the Blues Brothers I would have forced him to down tools and watch that too, I’ve lost count how many times I’ve seen that movie from about age three til now!
Watched when I was finishing school, bunch of us must of watched it a million times. Have to check out the Aussie movies, they look like a fun watch.
Running on Empty is SO GOOD
Or rate them from a jeep to 5 jeeps?
Uh, um, er… Is it me, or is that Martin Short in the picture with Drake? Instead of Steve Martin?
Or is that part of the experience I’m missing because I’m waiting until my birthday to become an Autopian member?
Autopian must be having an Ed Grimley moment.
I was having a head scratching moment as well. I guess Steve Martin and Martin Short do a lot together, or maybe it’s that Drake is Canadian and so is Martin? Or perhaps, it was intentional to show that if you don’t know him, you might easily confuse him with Steve for some reason
It’s because I was the editor.
I can understand not being familiar with Steve Martin’s recent work, but as a gearhead how has he not seen Planes, Trains, and Automobiles?! It has probably the most famous K-Car ever put on film. I remember this was the first movie I watched in the theater in America when my family first moved here in ’88.
Not to mention it’s become THE Thanksgiving movie. Christmas has a ton of movies that cycle in terms of popularity (currently it’s Christmas Vacation after we all burnt out on A Christmas Story), but Thanksgiving doesn’t really have too many.
Force my wife to watch it every year. She complains, then laughs but good. Another one with great cars is Home for the Holidays. Very under rated. You get to watch RDJ all coked up and a great performance from the whole cast.
So saying “Well excuuuuuuuuuuuuse me” or “let’s get small” are pretty much non-starters, then?
My parents had Martin’s comedy albums on 8-track. Someone get DT an 8-track for his i3.
Mine is on cassette 12 cassettes for a penny.
I’m with Jason on the “jfc” comment. Come on, David. Know some of the biggest pop culture references once in a while.
Probably not the best time to reference “perfectly good waste of a white boy” but here we are. For the record I have $2.
Aaaand, the top photo with Martin Short is there because DT couldn’t tell the difference between him and Steve Martin?
You definitely made the right decision keeping The Jerk reference. That movie is a classic and DT needs to watch it ASAP, as well as Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid and The Man with Two Brains.
I’m assuming the same, but I really would have liked it better if Drake were also replaced to drive home the point.
It’s actually a combination of a still from ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING and the album cover for TAKE CARE. This might be a deep cut.
For sure. OMITB is one of the best series in the past decade. Martin and Short and Gomez are fantastic! But I agree with Drew that having the Weeknd instead of Drake would have made this more obviously funny 🙂
Ooh, the Weeknd would have been perfect.
Three Amigos anyone?
I recognized the Only Murders still, but I don’t really know Drake’s work. I just figure messing with David could have included Elton John instead of Drake and he would be none the wiser. Or, like, a male duck, and you convince David people have bought millions of CDs of duck sounds.
(I am aware that David seems to know who Drake is, but he is unsteady enough with pop culture that you could sow doubt.)
For no obvious reason, David has a dense knowledge set regarding Elton John.
Whew! I was beginning to wonder if DT was actually a space alien or something. Having a dense knowledge of one of the most creative and amazing musicians ever, who’s had an incredibly long career, isn’t a very high bar. But it’s something.
One of four concerts I’ve been to.
Elton is my favorite singer of all time.
I saw Sir Elton in concert about 15 years ago. My wife and I sat in the first row, center stage at the Broadmoor World Arena in Colorado Springs. Also one of maybe half a dozen concerts I’ve ever been to and it was INCREDIBLE. That man had more energy in his 60’s than I had in my 20’s, and he just kept on going until nearly midnight, with 2 encores. And to make it even better, a buddy of mine gave me the tickets for free because I brought him and his family some pizzas in nearly blizzard conditions, with little visibility, on country roads that were nearly impassable. So it was all thanks to my trusty, somewhat rusty, 1996 4×4 Chevy Silverado.
You may not have experience, but you might just have taste, at least.
Did you see Sir Elton when he appeared as himself on the Simpsons? The Simpsons are a cartoon family that hss been on TV for 32 years more or less.
Wait. There’s too much other stuff, but: You’re in your 30s & have only been to 4 concerts? ???? Living in L.A. now you can (read should) rectify that! And now I wanna know the other 3, pls.