What Keeps Us Laughing...Funny Or Not

Last night we rented "There Will Be Blood", starring Daniel Day-Lewis. This is one of those unbelievably good films, where you can totally understand why the actor received the Academy Award. We have been talking about this film sporatically today, and then just rehashed it again around the table with friends tonight. I highly recommend it.

While the entire film is fantastic--dark, serious and rich in character and story development--Adam and I found the last 20 minutes to be off-putting and unsettling. It's almost as if during the last bit of shooting, John Waters stepped in to give the director a break. The movie turns into a dark comedy, so you're laughing, but feeling guilty for doing so, and then feeling a little grossed out. Adam and I kept looking at each other, like "Did that really just happen??"

In particular, there's a big confrontational scene between two of the major characters, and the line "Bastard in a basket!" is chanted over and over. It was really hateful and awful, and I just couldn't believe the scene in which it was uttered. Later, a good half hour after the movie ended, Adam was out on our front porch, watching a thunderstorm roll in. I joined him on the porch, only to have him start snickering, then laughing soon after. When I looked at him for a explanation, he immediately came out with, "Bastard in a basket!" then collapsed into laughter. I couldn't help myself and started laughing, too, even though it really wasn't very funny. But that was what made it even funnier--trying not to laugh at something that wasn't funny. From there, we started associating this line with other familiar movie lines--"She puts the lotion in the basket..." (don't tell me you don't know this movie reference!)

We're a lost cause. I'm sure it's got something to do with being home with an infant all day long; even the littlest things give us the giggles. Not surprisingly, round table discussion with our friends tonight entered the forays of explosive poo, projectile breast milk, and teasing about homoerotic attractions to each other, to name a few. Granted, these are often our typical topics of discussion, baby or no baby. But I'm beginning to think we're getting to be a bit more hopeless.