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The Was

Today I learned that Jodie Foster wrote her thesis at Yale on Toni Morrison under the guidance of Henry Louis Gates Jr..

I also learned that Cherie Currie, the lead singer of The Runaways is who played alongside Jodie Foster1 in Foxes2. That's a whole other story in and of itself. The reason for this discovery is a short film called The Was3. It features 150+ films and I watch return to it every so often just to see if I can catch something new. I'm a big fan of both plunderphonics4 and video collages. The audio here from The Avalanches also uses hundreds if not thousands of samples. This one is pretty serious and the references are mostly right in my wheelhouse. I had to go digging for the scene of Jodie Foster eating chips though which is how this came about.

Jodie Foster and Cherie Currie in  Foxes

Here's a clip that contains the Foxes scene which opens with Steve Martin in The Jerk and closes with Bill Murray in Groundhog Day.

You can give the whole thing a whirl at vimeo.com/176637319. I originally bookmarked it almost ten years ago. Every so often I have to load up my favorites to find a reference and I inevitably end up watching The Was again.

Here's an incomplete list of the references in the short film. Someone else compiled it and I've noticed that several are missing... like an audio clip from Pump Up the Volume in the clip above.

The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953) , Above the Rim (1994) , Adventureland (2009) , Allegro Non Troppo (1976) , Amazing Dolphin Video (2012) , American Pop (1981) , Animal House (1978) , Attenberg (2010) , Back to the Future (1985) , Basquiat (1996) , Batman 'Louie, the Lilac' (1967) , Beat Street (1984) , Beavis and Butt-head 'Holding' (2011) , Beavis and Butt-head 'Massage' (2011) , Being There (1979) , Better Off Dead (1985) , Cookie Monster Auditions for Saturday Night Live (2010) , Cruising (1980) , The Big Lebowski (1998) , Blow-Up (1966) , Blue is the Warmest Color (2013) , The Blues Brothers (1980) , Blues Brothers 2000 (1998) , Body Rock (1984) , Bonnie and Clyde (1967) , Boogie Nights (1997) , The Boy Who Could Fly (1986) , Boyz n the Hood (1991) , Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo (1984) , Candy (2006) , Cat Power 'Manhattan' (2012) , Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore (2010) , Chandra 'Concentration' (1980) , Chandra 'Subways' (1980) , Chappaqua (1996) , Cheech and Chong's Next Movie (1980) , Children of the Corn (1984) , Citizen Ruth (1996) , Class of Nuke 'Em High (1986) , Clerks II (2006) , Coming to America (1988) , Coneheads (1993) , Control (2007) , Crooklyn (1994) , Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus (2013) , Daisies (1966) , Daria 'Arts 'n' Crass' (1998) , Dazed and Confused (1993) , Death Wish (1974) , Derailroaded (2005) , The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015) , Dog Day Afternoon (1975) , Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996) , Dope Zebra (2012) , Drugstore Cowboy (1989) , Dumb & Dumberer (2003) , Dumbo (1941) , Easy Rider (1969) , The Ed Sullivan Show (1970) , Edward Scissorhands (1990) , Encino Man (1992) , Enlightened 'Pilot' (2011) , Fame (1980) , Fast Time at Ridgemont High (1982) , Father of the Bride (1991) , Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) , Firestarter (1984) , Four Duos Video (2009) , Foxes (1980) , Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby (1999) , Fritz the Cat (1972) , Garfield's Thanksgiving (1989) , Ghost (1990) , Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) , Ghost World (2001) , Gimme the Loot (2012) , Go (1999) , Good Burger (1997) , Grey Gardens (1975) , Groundhog Day (1993) , Gummo (1997) , Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004) , Head (1968) , Heathers (1981) , Heavy Metal (1981) , Hesher (2010) , Hey Good Lookin' (1982) , The Holy Mountain (1973) , The Hurt Locker (2008) , Imagine: John Lennon (1988) , Janis et John (2003) , The Jerk (1979) , Jubilee (1978) , Kids (1995) , Krush Groove (1985) , La Chinoise (1967) , Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains (1982) , Lords of Dogtown (2005) , Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1982) , Magic Mike XXL (2015) , Man on the Moon (1999) , The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) , Masculin Féminin (1966) , Men at Work (1990) , Milk (2008) , Monster (2003) , Moonwalker (1988) , Mouth to Mouth (2005) , Mr. Freedom (1969) , Mr. Mom (1983) , My Blue Heaven (1990) , My Own Private Idaho (1991) , Mystery Train (1989) , Napoleon Dynamite (2004) , National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) , A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) , Oh, God! (1977) , Over the Edge (1979) , Patty Hearst (1988) , Pierrot le Fou (1985) , Pink Flamingos (1972) , Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982) , The Plague Dogs (1982) , Police Academy 2: The First Assignment (1985) , Polyester (1981) , Psychomania (1971) , Punk in London (1977) , The Punk Singer (2013) , Putney Swope (1969) , Rising Arizona (1987) , Reality Bites (1994) , Repo Man (1984) , Rockers (1978) , The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) , Saturday Night Fever (1977) , Seinfeld 'The Cigar Store Indian' (1993) , The Simpsons (1989-90) , Some Days are Better than Others (2010) , Somewhere (2010) , Space is the Place (1974) , Stand by Me (1984) , Stop Making Sense (1984) , Street Trash (1987) , The Stuff (1985) , Suburbia (1983) , Subway (1985) , Sympathy for the Devil (1968) , Taxi Driver (1976) , This Is England (2006) , Thrashin' (1986) , Times Square (1980) , The Tonight Show (2014) , UHF (1989) , Uncle P (2007) , The Universe of Keith Haring (2008) , Up in Smoke (1978) , Velvet Goldmine (1998) , The Wackness (2008) , Wassup Rockers (2005) , The Warriors (1979) , Weekend at Bernie's (1989) , Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995) , West Side Story (1961) , Wild in the Streets (1968) , Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) , Wilmoth Houdini 'Bobby Sox Idol (Frank Sinatra)' (c1944) , The Wiz (1978) , Yellow Submarine (1968) , Zombieland (2009)



Footnotes​

  1. Jodie Foster - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jodie_Foster ↩

  2. Foxes - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxes_(film) ↩

  3. The Was - https://vimeo.com/176637319 ↩

  4. Plunderphonics - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plunderphonics ↩