The Big Lebowski/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Actor Allusion: Detective Davino, the PI that the Knutsons hire to find Bunny Lebowski is played by Jon Polito and expresses his admiration of The Dude's apparent playing one side against the other throughout the movie. Jon Polito was in another Coen Brothers film, Miller's Crossing, where he plays a mob boss who is victim to and absolutely hates a double-cross.
  • Non Sequitur Scene: "Gutterballs", and the introduction to Maude's film editing friend. Even the Dude is confused himself.
    • The Nihilists dropping the ferret into the Dude's bath. Them coming into the Dude's house was relevant, but the ferret wasn't.
      • The ferret was a creative form of torture/interrogation.
  • Crosses the Line Twice: Jesus. No, not that Jesus.
    • The scattering of Donny's ashes.
    • Julianne Moore says this is her idea of Maude, only replace "horror" with "pretentiousness." She is so pretentious, she stops coming off as annoying and starts being funny.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: The Gipsy Kings cover of "Hotel California," among other gems.
  • Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming: Not many in this film, but there's a small one just before the final fight with the nihilists, when Donnie is frightened and Walter, for once in his life, takes a break from berating him to say that he's not going to let anybody hurt him.
  • Cult Classic: The movie's reception upon release was mixed, with a solid budget return for the film's relatively small budget (only two million!). However, we can thank...
    • "The Little Lebowski Urban Achievers. And proud we are of all of them."
  • Drinking Game: The Lebowski Challenge: Every time the Dude drinks a White Russian, you drink a White Russian. Every time the Dude does a J, you do a J.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Jesus "The Jesus" Quintana.
    • Joo said eet, mang. Nobody fucks wit da Jesus.
  • Funny Aneurysm Moment: In the intro, the date on the Dude's check reads "Sept. 11." The film was released three years before the tragedy, while it takes place exactly ten years before.
  • Fountain of Memes
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: On the rich Lebowski's wall is a mirror mocked up to look like a TIME Magazine "Person of the Year" cover with the caption "Are you a Little Lebowski Urban Achiever?" In 2006, TIME Magazine's POTY was "You" and the cover was a mirror.
  • I Am Not Shazam: For those who only know the film for its "Find a stranger in the alps" scene, some may confuse the Dude as Larry, and Big Al as "Big Al" Lebowski.
  • Memetic Molester: "No, he's a sex offender. With a record."
  • Memetic Mutation: The whole thing. The line "The Dude abides" in particular.
    • Do you see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps?
    • "Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man."
    • Walter's scene with his Colt 1911 is rather popular.
    • "I don't roll on Shabbos!" is particularly popular among Jewish fans of the film.
    • "Shut the fuck up, Donny."
  • Unpopular Popular Character: "Forget it, Donny! You're out of your element!"
  • Vindicated by History: The film garnered mixed critical reception and meager box office sales in theaters; on home video, it became a comedy classic.

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