I understand it's not the kind of thing a mom wants to hear, but did anyone else think her reaction to Lisa telling her about Gary's, ahem, bathroom behavior was completely over the top? She sounded like Gary had murdered somebody or had committed some despicable act. She was completely shocked and on the verge of tears. He's a teenage boy. Of course he tosses off.
shareI understand it's not the kind of thing a mom wants to hear, but did anyone else think her reaction to Lisa telling her about Gary's, ahem, bathroom behavior was completely over the top?
But isn't that a wonderful exaggeration of how horrific it would be as a teenage boy to be in that situation? Kind of the polar opposite of the teacher reading Ralphie's essay in "A Christmas Story".
And, of course, Gary's parents may as well have been Archie and Edith Bunker, though I think Edith Bunker was a more forward thinker than Gary's mom.
I don’t need you to tell me how good my coffee is..
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was completely over the top?
Tossing off is an English term for jacking off.
The Mothers reaction to this was indeed intentionally over the top. It reminds of a similar scene in Seinfeld when George gets "caught" by his mother ("treating his body like it was an amusement park!")
Who doesn't know where "tossing off" originates from, unless you're female.
And spare us the Seinfeld commentary. A show about nothing has to make jokes about something.
But really, it was only over the top if your were still sperm in 1985. If you were a kid in the 1980s you knew full well the world was a great deal more conservative than it is today.
I"m not sure I agree that it was all THAT different back then. I think they were just portraying really old fashioned parents and It just made the scene all the more hilarious because of her reaction and the line about combing his hair lol.
shareWhat made that scene even better was in addition to his mother's statements of "You told me you were combing your hair!!" and "the water's running all day", was her next line "And you didn't even tell your own mother!" LOL! Like a teenage boy would say "Mom, I wasn't combing my hair, I was tossing off to magazines".
Add to that Gary's hand motions of tossing off while claiming he NEVER tosses off. Classic!
The fact that he uses two hands, usually the preserve of a pornbitch clutching two black plonkers, makes it incredible. It’s the little details and genius delivery that make John Hughes movies so special.
I was 10 when this came out, and I agree with others here that grew up in the '80s:
We knew about the facts of life & such, but kids then were much more 'sheltered' from the more gritty sides of it.
Such as 'tossing off'. I knew what she meant, but I can see how many would not have then.
Truthfully though, I found it a bit odd back then that they used that term at all.
Ditto the British term Lisa calls Chet later: A *wanker*.
At 10, I couldn't even understand what she said. I heard "wynka", and was like "What?!"
American audiences, circa 1985, wouldn't have all been so familiar with that reference. There was no Internet, for one thing.
I'd say this cloud is Cumulo Nimbus.
Didn't he discover America?
Penfold, shush.
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Just to be historically accurate, the Internet did exist in 1985, but use was restricted by the US government. (The World Wide Web wasn't developed until the early 1990s.)
shareIt's a comedy and the mother's overwrought reaction was for comedic effect.
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