Question about Big Lebowski?

actuallylike

Hi,
have to ask if anyone feels the same as me about a certain element of BL. I spotted something that I thought was really obvious but whenever I mention it to friends, they don't seem to see it.
It starts when Dude meets Maude in her art gallery place. She's talking to him and mentions the term 'johnson'. After she says this, it cuts to Dude repeating it like he's never heard the term before (possibly meaning that it's a term that is never used in LA)
Next bit is when the nihilists break into his apartment and throw the gerbil in the bath with him and threaten to cut off his 'johnson'. Dude asks for him to repeat and he emphasises 'JOHNSON' (with a little echo on it and it shows the confused face of Dude almost like he's putting together a link between the two)
Is it just me or does this show that their is a link between Maude and the Nihilists?

Kai

It was a fu***** Marmot.*

Im sure the whole Johnsons thing is just another subtle plot element designed to further confuse the Dude.

*It was actually a ferret

Karl Hungus

actuallylike wrote: »

Is it just me or does this show that their is a link between Maude and the Nihilists?

They did know each other. There's one moment there, where Maude says to the David Thewlis character "You remember Uli don't you?", (Uli being the main nihilist, aka Karl Hungus) and she produces a record the nihilists made.

Kess73

This thread is a good reminder that I need to watch the film again real soon.

Valmont

I've had it saved on my Sky box for two years!

spylon

I think this demonstrates the phenomenon whereby when you register a word or phrase for the first time, suddenly that word or phrase seems to appear everywhere, and you wonder how it is possible that you never remember hearing it before.

"The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon occurs when a person, after having learned some (usually obscure) fact, word, phrase, or other item for the first time, encounters that item again, perhaps several times, shortly after having learned it."

If applicable to the recurrence of the word "Johnson" in The BL, this would be in keeping with the Coen's obsession with the ways people encounter and deploy new words - a related phenomenon is the way that characters in the film will often hear an expression and then use it themselves; for example, early on the Dude hears George H.W. Bush on television saying, in relation to Saddam: "This aggression will not stand"; the Dude will later use the same expression in a different context.