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Corynne Steindler Cirilli's avatar

I feel bad because I actually have thought for a while that he had already passed on. It’s very sad and this is such a sweet memory.

Fish Spunk?! 😂 my guesses are: 1) someone’s high school band name, 2) a description of funky semen, and/or 3) something super innocent like a funny thing Charlotte or a kid said.

Sorry to mention kids and semen together that feels gross … but I guess you kind of asked for that with this post of yours!

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Jane Pratt's avatar

Ha ha ha ha I love those guesses! And I love the way your quirky mind works – always. It's never dull!

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Derek Kupper's avatar

I never encountered him, but he's part of some of my favorite stuff in the world.

Tombstone, Willow, The Doors, Real Genius, Top Secret....

Real Genius is part of what made okay being a nerd. Top Secret merged with Monty Python and Police Squad to form my bizarre humor. The Doors turned me in to a hippie for like 10 years. Willow was fantastic. And like many other Gen X dads, I quote Tombstone generally and Doc specifically at least once a week.

"I'm your huckleberry."

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Jane Pratt's avatar

Thank you for this! Now I want to check out even more of these. The Doors might be the only one I've seen but I did see that like 7 times.

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Derek Kupper's avatar

I had it on VHS and had a framed version of the movie poster along side Dracula and Sleepy Hollow.

Top Secret is one that everyone should see. It's a great absurdist comedy that a lot of people don't know about.

Real Genius was the least problematic of the Nerd Comedies of the 80's. It was genuinely funny, treated the nerds as people with weird eccentricities but also people. It had a romantic interest that was not traditionally pretty, was smart, weird, but realistic and also a whole character in her own right (Jordan). It was a *little* sex obsessed because it was the 80's, but nothing like Revenge of the Nerds or Weird Science.

A great article from a person who inspired Jordan (I didn't have it bookmarked or anything, but I remembered reading it 10 years ago and found it pretty quick):

https://slate.com/technology/2015/08/real-genius-30th-anniversary-how-i-helped-inspire-the-lead-female-character.html

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Juliet Panebianco's avatar

His son Jack narrates the documentary Val because Val couldn’t because of his throat cancer— which makes it ever the more poignant. I remember that day so clearly Jane. ❤️

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Jane Pratt's avatar

I want to go rewatch the documentary now.

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Juliet Panebianco's avatar

Me too

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Jane Pratt's avatar

I'm so so glad you were there to remember it also. And poor Michael, who we were there to see, had to work that day and missed it. But was there in spirit, of course! Always!

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Juliet Panebianco's avatar

Yes!! He missed it! I remember how beautiful his son was too ❤️. Cherubic

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