Posted by Douglas Fir at host5-99-54-54.btinternet.com on November 18, 2000 at 14:19:42:
In Reply to: "...Scueller Bob" (see the summaries!!!) *NT* posted by Douglas Fir on November 18, 2000 at 14:16:26:
: : Last night I was watching Dogma and in the train scene, when Kevin is throwing Ben (whom I met the other night, go me go me) off the train, does he say "I'll get you for this Chaulpa"?
It should have been spelt Schueller Bob. So anyway here's the story...
Kevin : "Long story. Buckle in. Ready? We were working on 'Chasing Amy', and our old office on Broad St. was the production headquarters. Affleck - not being a mega-star in them thar days - would spend time off from the flick around the office, as there is little else to do in Red Bank besides make movies. One day, he noticed the German theatrical release poster for 'Clerks', and immediately insisted that we made it ourselves; that there was no way the flick traveled overseas, as it was a piece of Americana-laced horseshit (that's how an Affleck affectionately teases; at least, I'm pretty sure he was teasing...). Anyhoo, I countered by saying that 'Clerks' did play Das Fatherland, and that it'd gone over pretty well - so well, in fact, that they'd even sent us a poster and some lobby cards. He asked if they'd translated the flick or subtitled it, and I said when Scott and I watched it at the Munich Film Fest, it played in English with no subtitles, and folks laughed in the right places. I boasted (jokingly) that Germans were inundating me following the screening, touching my coat, whispering in awe "Schueller Bob!" He found that very funny, and from time to time, he, himself, would call me "Schueller Bob." He thought - as it was the implication, though I don't know German really - that 'schueller' meant 'silent'.
Years pass, and we're shooting the train scene in 'Dogma'. My hands grab Ben, he's supposed to turn and make a shocked utterance, and I pull him out of the shot. On the second or third take, he said "SCHUELLER BOB?!?" Me, him, and Mosier cracked up hysterically. He begged me to leave it in. I told him "Three people are going to get it." He said "No - it's more than that. It's back story." He then went on to explain that since Bartleby's been walking the earth since the plagues, he's come across many incarnations of Silent Bob - all of which had, in one way or another, thwarted Bartleby's plans (nevermind that Bartleby was always pretty straight-laced; Affleck never much cares for any backstory that he doesn't make up himself). And since the original angelic tongue was Germanic (Affleck's theory, based on nothing other than it suited his present hypothesis), Bartleby utters "Schueller Bob," when Bob grabs him in the fight, because in the heat of battle, Bartleby finally sees clearly the face of his immortal enemy through time.
Since he worked so hard on all that in such a short amount of time (about ten seconds or less), I said we'd do another take where he'd repeat "Schueller Bob," this time with no character break (we'd laughed aloud when he first said it). So to follow through, when I throw him off the train, he yells "I'll get you for this, Schueller Bob!!!"
It was a throwaway gag that only three people were very amused by. Now, you guys are let in on the joke.
Granted, it's not a very funny joke. It's just pretty much classic Affleck rationale in action. It's why I love the guy, and why those two flicks ('Amy' and 'Dogma') are marginally more precious to me than the other two: because for me, they'll always be the ones where Affleck shined the brightest - both on camera and off."