Day 4 topic of the 31-Days Movie Meme is a movie that always make me laugh. The one movie that never fails to get me hurling on the floor laughing is an old classic of mine. I first saw it with my family in Jr High or so, but to this day, my love and fascination for it never waver.
The Gods Must Be Crazy
Rarely has the voice-over narration got so much laugh for its sheer witticism and hilarity. At the beginning of the movie, the narrator contrast the life of the bushmen and those in a metropolitan city, I love how they poke fun the latter and make it look like a documentary.
Only 600 miles to the south, there’s a vast city. And here you find civilized man. Civilized man refused to adapt himself to his environment; instead, he adapted his environment to suit him. So he built cities, roads, vehicles, machinery, and he put up power lines to run his labour-saving devices. But somehow he didn’t know where to stop. The more he improved his surroundings to make life easier, the more complicated he made it. So now his children are sentenced to 10-15 years of school, just to learn how to survive in this complex and hazardous habitat they were born into. And civilized man, who refused to adapt to his surroundings, now finds he has to adapt and re-adapt every hour of the day to his self-created environment. For instance, if it’s Monday and 7:30 comes up, you have to dis-adapt from your domestic surroundings and re-adapt yourself to an entirely different environment. 8:00 means everybody has to look busy. 10:30 means you can stop looking busy for 15 minutes. And then you have to look busy again. And so your day is chopped into pieces, and in each segment of time you adapt to a new set circumstances. No wonder some people go off the rails a bit…
“No wonder some people go off the rails a bit…” How true! I saw this over a decade ago but I find myself still quoting from this movie: “It’s really an interesting psychological phenomenon…” or my personal favorite “ayayayayay” 😀
All of the characters are hilarious: The anthropologist Mr. Steyn (“I collect manure…”), Xi the Bushman, and Steyn’s BFF Mpudi, I can’t pick a favorite as I love them all! The narration is so well-written and they find the most amusing way to describe the most mundane thing we see every day, as they’re seen from the point-of-view of the Bushman. One of them is when describing Steyn’s jeep driving past Xi as he’s resting on the ground: “One day, a very noisy animal rushed past where Xi was sleeping. It left very peculiar tracks, as if two enormous snakes had slithered past.” But more than just funny for funny sake, the movie’s also quite poignant and the message of appreciation for life is still relevant to this day even if the depiction of the Bushmen is no longer accurate.
I had to include a scene from this movie in my Top 20 Favorites, but the movie is chock-full of uproariously funny scenes. This one is my absolute favorite:
If you’re ever in the lookout for a good, clean, fun comedy, I highly recommend this one!
FLIXCHATTER FILM BLOG 
I have never seen this, my mother has the DVD, I saw clips and for some reason it turned me off. I’ll have to watch it eventually…you’re not the first I’ve seen praising.
You have to give this a shot, Andrew, it’s wildly funny and you really feel for all the characters. It also makes me appreciate life’s simplest joys! 🙂
My one-word answer: CLUE.
Ok I’ll bite. I take it it’s a movie?
Ha. Yes it’s a movie, not to spam (not my post anyway) but see here:
http://sortathatguy.blogspot.com/2010/08/movie-meme-day-04.html
You have never seen Clue? Are you serious??? Netflix it immediately! Seriously, it’s an utter classic. (Good blog post, btw, sir. Excellent choice.)
No, but I just checked out the link from Andrew and I’m intrigued.
Glad you liked these post. Thanks to Andrew, I’m just participating what he and his friend Ryan started 🙂
I should get into this meme but so busy on the blog as of late. Maybe this weekend! As for The Gods Must Be Crazy, this is one of those movies I need to see, heard some good things about it.
Too many meme, too little time, Castor 🙂 I’m trying to participate on your 31DBBB event as well as this movie meme, that’s why I can’t participate every single day. If you want to see it I have the dvd, looks like you live in my neck of the woods (literally within 15 miles!) so how about we meet up one day? 🙂
Sounds good, we really should!
Absolutely loved and laughed throughout TGMBC the first time I saw it, not so much watching it again recently. Movies that never fail to make me laugh: The Blues Brothers, Coming to America, Night Shift and Blazing Saddles.
I really should see Blazing Saddles, it won the comedy tournament on Castor’s blog: http://www.anomalousmaterial.com/movies/2010/07/the-greatest-comedy-tournament-sweet-16-day-2/
I know my brothers love the Blues Brothers, maybe ’cause they’re twins?? 🙂
Clue is my number 3 movie of all time. Tim Curry is comic genius in it and all the wonderful character actors are brilliant. On top of that the multiple endings, the subtle hints you only catch with multiple viewings and all the humor is great.
TGMBC though is an amazing movie. It was my grandma’s favorite movie ever and we would watch it constantly. It did always make me laugh a lot.
-Travis
WOW, 3 people vouch for Clue in one day! All right, I’m sold!
Glad you like TGMBC too, it just never gets old with me for some reason.
THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY was a humongous cinema blockbuster in my country back in the 80’s when I was very little, and after that the national television has played it millions of times and many kids grew up with this movie, The cult scene was the one with the little black boy who is trying to trick hyenas 🙂
Was it Dez? That’s cool! I don’t even remember if this played in the theaters in Indo, I saw it on VHS tape, but have since bought the dvd to watch over and over. Too bad the sequel isn’t half as good as this one.
This was part of my high school movie curriculum. In religion class, for obvious reasons.
I’m so sad I can’t do this meme. Effing job hunting.
Oh I wish it had been shown in MY class, that’d be the best day in school 🙂
Hey Paolo, I pray that your job hunting goes well. What is your field of work if you don’t mind me asking? As always, life takes priority over the blog, right? Good luck, man!
I’m showing my age here, but I saw this in the theater! I haven’t seen it in years, but I remember loving it.
Hi Colleen, that must be fun to see this on the big screen though it’s nice seeing it at home so I can just hurl on the floor laughing and not get strange looks from people 🙂
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