Fielding Mellish: You're busy tonight?
Norma: Some old friends are coming over. We're gonna show some pornographic movies.
Fielding Mellish: You need an usher?
what does he mean an "usher"?
"how about... a royal flush!" *loren avedon kicks a cauldron of boiling water into the bad guys*
Bad_habit will never read this, but he means in the expanded, unfunny version
"Do you need somebody to show each person to their seats as if you were inside a movie theater so that I can watch the pornographic movies at well?"
im suprised bad_habit didn't need it explained to him why all the men in the camp chase the chick after she was bit by a snake...
are you gonna bark all day little doggie, or are you gonna bite?
Up until the early 1960's movie theaters commonly employed ushers to show people to their seats. These jobs were usually held by teenagers. They wore a spiffy uniform and carried a special flashlight with a low intensity beam. This was done both to add to the "special" ambience of the Movie Palaces of the time and also to assist people being seated after the movie had started. The practise died out in the 1960's as labor costs increased and the movie-going experience became less impressive. Woody's using the image of an usher to ask if he can come to the pornographic movie she's showing.
Woah, now that's an answer!
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Another point I should add, is that up until the 1970's it was common for films to be "continuously shown" in the theater. In other words, the film was shown over and over again throughout the day with only coming attractions or concession stand advertisements between showings. It was common for people to go to the theater whenever it was convenient for them even though the film had started. They would just start watching at that point and simply stay until the same point in the next showing. In fact, a common phrase for something you've seen before was "Isn't this where we came in?". Ushers were used because people entering the theater during a performance wouldn't have enough light to find a seat without the usher there to guide them. This went out of fashion in the late 1960's when theaters encouraged their patrons to come for the advertised showing times.
shareThanks to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.
shareStrange; no one replying to this really nails down why it's supposed to be funny.
It's supposed to be funny because it's an analogical joke.
The image is that if you can't afford to buy a ticket, then maybe you can see the movie by being an usher.
The joke here is that that Allen, playing up his classic sexually insecure persona, is saying he can't "afford" to be sexually active, so...maybe he could "usher".