MovieChat Forums > The Larry Sanders Show (1992) Discussion > Question about "Hank's Night In The Sun"

Question about "Hank's Night In The Sun"

posted 2 years ago by maixiu (2855)
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Did Artie set up Hank on the second night? Did he arrange to have an audience member yell out, "You suck!"?

When he's on the phone with Larry that afternoon he says, "I think there's only one way out of this. It's risky but I don't have any other choice." Now that could mean that he knows Hank will bomb on his second night, but I'm thinking it sounds like he has a more specific plan in place. And of course, after he and Hank had that conversation the night before about Hank's fear of sucking, it seems a big coincidence that that's exactly what the audience member would shout. They show Artie's shocked reaction when Hank makes the "hopeless retard" crack, but after the man yells "You suck!' at Hank they don't cut to Artie, who would have known it would be kryptonite to Hank, possibly because he would have known it was coming.

[–] Nanook (2051) 2 years ago

Funny, just happened to see that ep. a few days ago, and I took it as Artie’s master-level awareness of and influence over every aspect of the show that he knew Hank was nervous and vulnerable before his first night, so gave him the “you do not suck” pep talk before his curtain call. He also had George Wendt and the audience rooting for him.

But then Artie knew Hank would let it go to his head and let him suffer with no support the second night. Which could be taken as “setting him up.” I could see Artie telling the “Applause” light guy to go easy on it, but there is no evidence of such, nor him telling an audience member to shout a line.

I think Artie’s lecture to Hank after that show perfectly summed it up: “When you’re vulnerable and humble people like you. And when you act like an asshole, people tend to think of you as an asshole.”