Blog 5: The United States Soap Queen

Laughter is a universal language. While watching Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, our class communicated in that intrinsic mother tongue at specific moments of irony, embarrassment, or just plain humor.

In many of the film’s moments, I found myself chuckling when a character would say something and the punchline of the joke landed slowly, like at the beginning of the film when Freddy Benson (the American hustler) sat across the table from a wealthy lady and cited his grandma as “the one who taught me it is better to be truthful and good… than to not.”

As a class, we were thrown into a fit of giggles when jokes were made at another’s expense. For example:

• When Lawrence Jamieson (a British con artist) descended into an extended allegory about being a bad painter and recognizing his own limitations, but concluded his story by telling Freddy, “You are a moron.”

• When Janet Colgate opened the door to “Dr. Emil Schaufhaussen!” (Lawrence), as Freddy watched in complete shock.

• When Lawrence asked Freddy, “Don’t you ever have an emotion that originates above the waist?”

Not only that, but our class was particularly tickled by some of the more egregious moments in the film. To list a few:

• Anytime Freddy engaged in his outrageous acting, like screaming, “Oh god, they’re dancing!” or running down the stairs with the wheelchair in his hands

• The entire “stand up and walk to me” scene

• Janet saying, “He’s gonna drown himself,” as Freddy rolls past pitifully

I also personally found myself cackling at moments of full-body physical comedy, like:

• When the lady from Omaha called Freddy over to her on the plane, she beckoned him with an awkward look back and a slight head tilt, indicating she wanted to speak with him.

• When another lady came up to Lawrence, Freddy, and Janet’s car outside the hotel, she said “Your highness” to Lawrence and bowed repeatedly. At the end, after Lawrence called her just another patient who was “incurable,” the car began to drive off. As they rolled away, it was revealed that this woman was now crouching all the way down, head bowed and knees bent in an incredibly low curtsy.

Many of the moments in which we laughed would align with the Incongruity Theory of Humor. According to this theory, as referenced in the article Dr. Williams gave us in class, “humor results from the sudden recognition of dissonance of incongruence where our expectations had prepared us for something completely different.” This theory posits that the initial confusion of a joke is resolved once we understand its punchline, and that this confusion is subsequently replaced with humor.

I would agree with this theory. When I laughed at Janet opening the door to “Dr. Emil Schaufhaussen!” (Lawrence), I knew it would be him on the other side because the movie had previously set it up, so the audience knew that was who Janet believed Dr. Schaufhaussen was. So, as Freddy watched in complete shock, I sat back and enjoyed the dramatic irony because I understood the punchline when the character (the butt of the joke, honestly) did not.

Another example of how the Incongruity Theory applies to Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is, well… the entire movie. Before the scene where the seemingly naive Janet Colgate introduces herself as the "United States Soap Queen,” Janet (unbeknownst to the audience) intentionally drops the contents of her purse on the floor, calling attention to her as a “wealthy” woman. The men make a bet to deceive her based on her feigned obliviousness, and they are rudely awakened by the end of the movie when she deceives both of them. She influenced Lawrence to believe that Freddy deceived and abandoned her, when in reality she made love to Freddy and made off with his money and his things.

At first, I thought Dirty Rotten Scoundrels would be about two con men who are incredible at their jobs. As the puzzle began to come together, with each scheme more elaborate than the last, I was led to believe that the picture would end simply: two con men, Freddy and Lawrence, who are skilled at what they do. It wasn’t until Lawrence opened the bag, which he thought contained $50,000, to find Freddy’s clothes inside instead, that I began to realize: the United States Soap Queen was the biggest (and best) scoundrel of all.

References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_Rotten_Scoundrels_(film)
The article given to us in class, entitled “Why do People Laugh?