Blog Responce 4: The Dude

Although I personally have never see the film, The Big Lebowski, I have certainly heard of it and come in counter with it’s spheres of influence. The movie is certainly memorable to most who have come into contact with it. In preparation for this blog I was speaking to some friends of mine about the film, and every single one had something to say about it even if it was just “yeah that’s my dad’s favorite movie”. Now what is it that makes a somewhat silly drama like this so impactful on a culture? As Zach said, the film is extremely quotable. The “take it easy man” has become a common saying in a sense and even has been used in other works. There’s a quite memorable episode of Drake and Josh, where Drake gets a part in a movie saying the line “take it easy man”, this entire episode was likely a reference to The Big Lebowski.

The film is undeniably hilarious, even in the little moments I’ve seen. The whole idea of Jeff Lebowski referring to himself as the dude is laughable in itself. He once says he will accept being called “his dudeness or duder or el duderino”. The notion of a grown man referring to himself as the dude is in a sense ridiculous and extremely easy to laugh at. His sense of pride in this as well is laughable. This goes with superiority theory as it is extremely easy for an audience member to feel above him, or poke fun at him. Not even just his title but his mannerisms and way of life as a whole are comical in their extreme relaxation. Taking such a mellow character and putting him into to these extremely out of the blue traumatic situations creates incredible and memorable comedic contrast as we see throughout the film. The dude was created as memorable, understandable, and laughable character, and that’s exactly who he is. To this day characters are being created in an effort to recreate this relaxed humor, everyone wants to be The dude.