First tell the story of a friend: he is my former colleague, although not the second generation of the rich, but the family is absolutely solid, the father and mother are doctors, one is engaged in academics, one is engaged in clinical, buying a house is one hundred and fifty or sixty square meters so buy, he is a returnee from studying abroad, and now he is the deputy editor-in-chief. His wife is in the financial industry, with a higher salary and a family similar to his. Two people have a house in Beijing, and the monthly mortgage can be done with the provident fund. It is this absolute sense of the middle class, he drives to the company every day to go out at least half an hour in advance, to the company downstairs crouching waiting for which car to drive away, hurry to occupy a parking space. cause? The company building parking lot is 8 blocks per hour, and the squat parking space outside is free.
Why tell this story? A few days ago, Mr. Jackie sent me a manuscript of the car in "Friends" written by a friendly media, asking if I could think of a similar topic. Of course, no problem, the car has always had too many scenes in comedy, "Friends" is a small one, do not believe to see "Seinfeld", do not believe to see "Happy Family".
The story of "Friends" is in New York; "Seinfeld" was filmed in Los Angeles, but the story is also in New York; the story of "Happy Family" is in Seattle , Microsoft headquarters - set in the 90s when Microsoft was victorious, and all three were the first-tier big cities at that time. Living in such a big city, settling in a car is a lot of wonderful things that can happen.
In "Friends", Rose bought himself a civilian sports car on his 30th birthday, and as a result, the two cars that were tightly parked in front of and behind him did not move for many years, and his birthday gift could only be parked there for many years as a thought.
▲ The scene of moving a car in the episode "Friends" is funny, but about moving things, what is even funnier is the scene of moving the sofa in season 5 and 16 | Image courtesy of Season 7, Episode 14 of Friends
Parking in New York has always been a big problem, there are more cars itself, plus there are more old buildings and more old streets, resulting in fewer parking spaces, and parking is naturally more difficult. On this point, "Seinfeld", where the protagonist has a car almost everyone, has more stories. One of the protagonists, George, contributes the most jokes, this guy is short, chubby, bald, stingy, sensitive, but also very bragy.
For example, he always said that he was very good at parking, and he always came across the perfect parking space. In a certain episode of the fourth season, he took the heroine Elaine to find Seinfeld, went downstairs to Seinfeld's house, just a car drove away, leaving a perfect parking space, he drove the car to the front of the side and told Elaine: "Get ready to see the most slippery reverse car into the warehouse", the result is a bull kung fu, the tail of the car just fell in, and the rear car came directly into the parking space on the top of the car. The two cars could not stand each other, both said that the parking space was their own, and if they did not understand it, they found the people next to them to reason, and as a result, the onlookers were also divided into two factions, one group of people said that they should return to the car into the warehouse, and the other group said that they should return to the front of the car. Finally, the police arrived, and the two policemen quarreled again, police officer A said that the parking space belonged to George, police officer B said that it should belong to the other, police officer A said: "Parking should be reversed into the garage", police officer B said: "I often put the front of the car into the garage", until the end of the parking space no one disputed a result.
Still want to hear it? Go on. Once when they went to a friend's engagement party, Seinfeld said that a group of four people would pool their money to buy a TV and drive In George's Dad's car because it was big enough to fit. George said, "No way, my dad got a great parking space and wouldn't let anyone touch that car for weeks." Seinfeld took advantage of the opportunity to drive his car to occupy George's parking space, and then drove George's car to buy things and go to parties. A group of people drove to the mall in a big car, and encountered a parking space problem - full - so they stopped in the parking space for the disabled, bought something and came out to find that the car was surrounded by a crowd of menacing people, it turned out that a disabled person was occupied because the disabled parking space was occupied, it was inconvenient to walk the disabled passage, the wheelchair broke down again, and he fell hard and was sent to the emergency department. Several people looked at the angry crowd, did not dare to say that the car was their own, had to avoid the wind first, simply drink some drinks and come back to see, George's father's car has been smashed into a mess.
Here we go. A few people went to the mall to buy air conditioning, this time there is an underground parking lot, but forgot the location of the parking, looking for a whole episode, Seinfeld because he couldn't help but urinate on the ground was caught by the security guard, George was also caught by the security guard because he couldn't help but urinate on the ground, and then a group of 4 people were separated to find, 3 people found the car, but enough to wait for the 4th person to get dark, George missed the wedding anniversary of his mother and father, the goldfish bought by Elaine in the bag died because of lack of oxygen...
▲ Image from Seinfeld Season 3 Episode 6
There are many more stories about parking in "Seinfeld", going to the hospital has a patient jumping off the building just hit George's car, buying red wine encountered side-by-side parking for several hours before driving away, causing missing the party ah... But, of course, not only that, the car story of Seinfeld covers almost every scene that people have experienced.
For example, car repair: Elaine's boyfriend is an auto mechanic, Seinfeld accidentally found that the other party stole his invention of hey hey skill, under questioning the two broke up, Seinfeld had to go elsewhere to repair the car, but there are too few auto mechanics with conscience, Jerry had to turn back to Elaine's boyfriend, "A skill is not worth so much money."
For example, buying a car: Elaine's boyfriend was promoted to do sales, unfortunately, when Seinfeld went to buy a car, Elaine was breaking up with her boyfriend, and the other party naturally did not reason with Seinfeld, what out of the library fee, financial service fee, ah, all up to greet, Seinfeld saw the situation and quickly persuaded the two to reunite, only to avoid those messy fees.
"Father and Mother Romance" also has a classic collection about cars, if I remember correctly, the protagonist Ted lined up all night before buying concert tickets, and a whole team of people were ready to sleep in the open and place tickets the next day. However, the car alarm system parked on the side of the road failed, and the huge alarm sounded all night...
The funny stories about cars in "Happy Family" are also generally related to parking. For example, the protagonist Frese enters the underground parking lot after the itinerary changes, immediately leaves, the administrator still has to collect a full hour of parking fees, Freser who is not short of money is more than competitive, and finally decides to compromise, the administrator said: "More than an hour, please pay two hours parking fee"...
However, although "Happy Family" is a comedy, the most impressive car story is very serious and profound. Frese met a perfect girlfriend in middle age, but then inexplicably broke up to pursue an old classmate, and finally ended up empty. Bored in the heart to drive to the suburban wooden house to sort out the emotions, on the way to think of 3 important ex-wives and ex-girlfriends and late mothers, the image in the brain into a real person, analyze why he always deals with the emotional life, and finally concludes: you do not really like the old classmates, just because the important women in your life have finally left you, so you are afraid that the perfect girlfriend will also leave you, so you first leave her, to pursue the old classmates who know that there will be no results.
Stunned, Frese desperately utters one of the most classic lines of the entire series: "So that's it? Because I'm afraid of rejection? So I'm so lonely now because I'm afraid of being lonely?"
▲ Screenshot from "Happy Family" Season 9 Episode 02
The episode of "Happy Family" is therefore in my heart, even comparable to the movie of "King of the Roads" Wim Wenders. (Wim Wenders excelled at road movies, hence the name "King of Roads.") ）
That's the charm of the car. The main consumer of cars is people living in cities, and owning a car in a city is bound to be accompanied by countless troubles. But people still want to own a car that doesn't require people to catch up with the pace of public transportation. More importantly, it gives people a free respite, giving people at least a chance to leave everything behind at any time to escape the chaos.
As long as there is a free and romantic heart, the car will always be the perfect partner.
Finally, let's tell a story about the colleague at the beginning. In 2018, I left Beijing to work as a freelance writer, because I had just picked up a stray dog that had just been born downstairs from home for more than two months — she named her Nia, and now she and my grandmother and grandfather are closer than me — it was inconvenient to take a train or plane, so I asked my colleagues to drive us back to Shenyang. Before getting on the highway, the car was driving on the East Fifth Ring Road for a while, and I picked up Nia and looked to the west and said to her, "Nia, take a good look before you leave, although you were born here, maybe this is the only chance to see Beijing in the Fifth Ring Road."
Cover image from the movie "Hello on the Road"
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