MovieChat Forums > Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1975) Discussion > joke about the gorilla

joke about the gorilla

posted 17 years ago by unclefugly
7 replies | jump to latest

i must say that i do not understand this joke. can someone spell it out for me?

[–] soap1022 17 years ago

Always wondered that myself

[–] markrigz 17 years ago

I think the joke is meaningless and the boy uses it to annoy and wind up his mum and dave. And it works.

[–] unclefugly 17 years ago

That's what I figured. I just wanted to ensure I didn't miss something. Thanks.

[–] kooky2333 17 years ago

I just thought he didn't understand it himself.

[–] whbinder 17 years ago

According to the making of featurette, the actor who played the boy actually spent a long time in a car ride telling the joke to Scorsese. Scorsese decided to have the actor tell the joke in the film.

[–] shiftylee 16 years ago

Tommy screws it up royally but the jest of it is that a hunter is continually chasing gorillas (of ever increasing size) out of trees. When the gorillas fall out of the tree the dog bites it's balls. The final gorilla pulls one over on the hunter and he falls out of the tree instead. He yells "shoot the dog, shoot the dog" because he doesn't want the dog to bite his balls like they did to the other gorillas.

It's not that funny anyway but the way the kid just can't pull it together is pretty funny if you already knew the joke.

[–] WarpedRecord 16 years ago

Guess you had to be there.