The greatest sports joke in any movie is a hockey joke. In Wayne's World, the cop who hangs out at the fictitious Stan Mikita's Donuts — a damned fine reference all on its own — is named Officer Koharski. When I first saw the movie, I nearly fell out of my chair laughing, because I happened to be in the arena in New Jersey when, angered by the officiating in a Stanley Cup playoff game, Devils coach Jim Schoenfeld unleashed the worst invective he could immediately summon at referee Don Koharski, who stumbled as he left the ice:I'd never heard that before. New day, new lesson.
"You fell, you fat pig. Have another doughnut. Have another doughnut."
Nobody else in the movie theater laughed.
And what do hockey fans get for all this devotion? A professional league perpetually run by the Marx Brothers. In the aftermath of the Schoenfeld-Koharski contretemps, the NHL office couldn't find president John Ziegler. Angered by the pastry-themed abuse directed at one of their number, the officiating crew staged a wildcat job action at the next game, so the NHL wound up handing a playoff matchup to three amateur guys. Finally, when Ziegler at last emerged from wherever he'd been — and the rumors about his whereabouts were both absolutely unrepeatable and utterly great — to hold a press conference, he refused to state how many actual hockey games he'd seen in the previous year. I don't believe any commissioner in the history of any sport has done that.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
A Joke I Missed
Charles Pierce highlights a movie joke that sailed right by me:
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Charles Pierce is a hockey fan, huh? I do not find that surprising. Gotta be extra sharp to watch a game where you can easily miss the best play of the evening by blinking.
ReplyDeleteHe's also right about the lounge lizards that run the game. What a bunch of cement-heads! And you watch, the Canadians, who are most crippled by the lounge lizards, will not even make the medal round in the 2014 Olympics. And the KHL will retain the best NHL players who are currently playing for Moscow Dynamo or Magnitogorsk. Count on it!