The Maid--Taxi Driver

There was a discussion here a couple of weeks ago about whether there is a specific parody of any part of "Taxi Driver" in "The Maid" (the whole prostitution angle). I watched both the movie and the episode in the past week, and there clearly is one small bit taken from the film: in "TD", DiNiro tries to pay Harvey Keitel (the pimp) on the street, Keitel steps back, hands raised and says, "Pay the girl." In "The Maid," Jerry attempt to pay the owner of the cleaning service (on the sidewalk), who steps back, raises his hands and says, "Pay the girl." (Note: both quotes are paraphrases.)

^^^^^^ "Art is often hailed as the grandest expression of human spirit, but we know now ... that the grandest expression of human spirit is whatever it takes for a man or woman to rush back into a burning building to save more people."

On 06 Mar 2002 03:45:17 GMT, [email] (Art Vandelay) wrote:

Thank you. I noted the same when I saw Taxi Driver - I also noticed the similar "look" to the characters in front of the doorway on the street - added to that the very young Jodi-Foster-look-alike (Canadian, Angela Featherstone ) playing the maid/prostitute. And Kramers fear/loathing of the city.

And Kramers fear/loathing of the city.

where are you ?

I'm at the intersection of first and first.

How can a street intersect with itself ?

I must be at the nexus if the universe.

(might not be 'exact', but close)

That scene always makes me split my sides laughing

kc

Isn't this the same Kramer that went to a firestation to give the fire dept. his knowledge of the streets of NY so they could get to fires in the quickest amount of time? Yet here he is LOST in NYC????? I think the writers SHOULD have paid more attention to details from previous shows.

On 07 Mar 2002 02:29:37 GMT, [email] (DFrank1068) wrote:

This show was one of the many poorly written ones in years 8 and 9 that paid no attention to the detailed and exactingly brilliant character development of the shows in the preceding seven past years. They were nothing more that loosely integrated "wouldn't it be great if..." sketches. I could go on, but this was one of the worst. Kramer's whole existance was his "street-smarts"; his confidence, - only clowns scared him. Jerry knew when to quit.

Does that coincide with Larry David being gone?

On Thu, 07 Mar 2002 09:27:04 -0500, Jp wrote:

Very much so. Larry David understand classical writing style and was able to influence the scripts to be not only funny but also to conform to tried and true writing techniques that impact on people worldwide (see Jung).

I actually used to be very in to Jung, read a lot and investigated a lot. I assume you are talking about archetypes and the collective unconscious? Quite frankly I have never watched Seinfeld that analytically and I enjoy it so because it is a great show to turn off the brain with.

On Thu, 07 Mar 2002 19:15:32 -0500, Jp wrote: <snip>

Right, what I think made the show so universally popular is that it spoke to the collective unconscious. The fact that people from all walks of life, age levels, parts of the world, can identify with these characters is a tribute to Larry David's writing genius. He constructed the perfect framework to present Jerry's brilliant observational humour. He is the Yin to Jerry's Yang. The Jungian influence can be seen in the development of Elaine's "anima" characteristics, Kramer's "joker" archetype, The "old man" through Peterman and Steinbrenner...etc... The serious psychological themes of primeval fears and desires - sex, relationships, death, but all handled in an irreverantly humourous, pedestrian way gave this show its charm and its wide-ranging appeal.

Okay, I'm "Cliffy" and I'm back. :-)

Just remember to confine your slide shows of your trip to Florida to the binary ng's. ;)

Hey nothing wrong with Cliff if he had his facts right, imo. I always thought of Kramer as the Id incarnate. Though as I think about it they are probably all "id" characters: lack of morals and sexual restraint. Kramer being at the far end of the spectrum and then George and Jerry and Elaine. None have a strong ego or super ego. This would account for the final episode where the super ego; the judge (father) sends them to jail; arrested development....

In addition; what I have said is more Freudian. Though I like Jung much better since Freud was a coke head (my child is laughing) he nonetheless came up with some pretty great concepts. And since Freud was the "father" of Jung, the archetypes take all this Freudian shit a step further. "what a load of shit this is eh?"

Long live Cliff!

And unlike Cliff I will tell you I know just enough to get me in trouble and not enough to be a teacher. Or as I always say I know a little bit about a lot of things. but am master of none :(

Jp writes:

So was I, but then my girlfriend left and took all our copies of his books. So now I'm Jung-free and single. *rimshot*

... Thank you. I'm here all week Try the veal, and don't forget to tip your waiter...

DAMN THAT WAS GOOD! Very smart "and" funny.

On Thu, 07 Mar 2002 23:26:22 GMT, [email] (The News Guy(Mike)) wrote:

I'm out!!!

well but what about 3, 5, 10 alarm fires; where 3, 5, 10 stations respond?

C'mon, you're taking it a bit too literally. It's a parody of a long distance relationship where Kramer lives in his provincial Upper Westside neighborhood and his GF has moved "far away" to the "big city" of downtown Manhattan. Even if it's only 10 minutes away by subway. I can actually relate. I grew up 20 minutes by car from downtown San Francisco, and whenever I went down there, I felt completely out of my element, and downtown San Francisco is about 1/10th the size of downtown Manhattan.