dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

Vanity License Plate: Bunny's says LAPIN.

Verbal Tic: Fuckin' everybody.

Some editions of the BluRay include the "Mark It Dude" feature, which notes every instance of "Lebowski", "Dude", "Man", and "Fuck". The Dude says "Man" 147 times, that's like a lot, man.

Walter's "Shut the fuck up, Donny!":

Donny: They posted the next round for the tournament.

Walter: Shut the fu— when're we playing?

Viewers Are Geniuses: Many examples. One prominent one is the joke about Saddam Hussein handing out bowling shoes in the dream sequence. Understanding the joke requires some knowledge of the first Gulf War, Arabic, and President Bush's well-known tendency for mispronouncing words.

Vitriolic Best Buds: The Dude and Walter are, to an outside observer, completely incompatible people who, true to form, spend most of their time loudly arguing with each other. However, they're practically inseparable. Same with Walter and Donny; Walter spends a lot of time browbeating and yelling at Donny yet is clearly cut up when Donny dies from a heart attack.

The Walrus Was Paul: Some suspect the film was intentionally designed to make a fool of anyone who attempts to analyze it, particularly after the Coens' previous movie Fargo had become a darling among highbrow critics.

In the first scene with the Jesus, the Dude and Walter are talking about Lenin. Donny, getting the wrong end of the stick, keeps saying "I am the Walrus."

The Watson: Subverted with Donny, who is Locked Out of the Loop. "You have no frame of reference. You're like a child who wanders into the middle of a movie, and wants to know…"

Where Do You Think You Are?: Walter's obnoxious habit of loudly getting on his high horse leads to people saying this. "This is a family restaurant." "This is a mortuary. Not a rental house."

"Smokey, this is not 'Nam. This is bowling. There are rules."

Wimp Fight:

The nihilists talk a good game but are ultimately revealed to be this since Walter ends up handing them their asses more or less single-handedly over the course of about a minute.

When the Dude confronts Da Fino, the actual Private Detective, things look they're going to get physical for a moment. And by 'physical', this means they don't actually make contact with each other but sort of flinch.

What Happened to the Mouse?:

Bunny still owes Jackie Treehorn a pile of cash, but that's now a problem for her and the Big Lebowski to deal with.

Unless The Dude told Maude about what really happened to the money, those kids at the charity never got it back.

After Larry gets introduced, his family's maid just vanishes from the movie. She does not appear again even when Walter starts yelling and cussing at Larry, and then goes to wreck the car.

Larry himself disappears from the movie after that scene, though the Dude mentions him later to Jackie.

With Friends Like These…: The Dude and Walter have a deep friendship, but it's sometimes hard to tell with all that bickering. Even dropped by The Dude at one point.

The Dude: With friends like these, huh, Gary?

Word Salad Title: Par for the course for a Coen Brothers film. The title only makes sense if you know that there are two characters in the movie named "Lebowski", and that one of them is an enormously wealthy businessman with a huge ego.

Worthy Opponent: Walter calls the Viet Cong this while talking about Vietnam, as opposed to his rather racist dismissal of Saddam Hussein's forces in Iraq. He also doesn't extend the same respect to the nihilists in the scene immediately after.

Writing Indentation Clue: The Dude uses this trick to see what Treehorn wrote while taking a phone call, but it turns out to be just a doodle of a man with… implausible anatomy.

Wrong Genre Savvy:

The Dude thinks all the various threads he uncovers must figure into the big mystery at the centre of the plot. They don't.

The narrator thinks the film is a Western. It isn't.

Wrongfully Attributed: Lenin and Lennon quotes are out of your element, Donny.

Yes-Man: Brandt, who laughs and compliments everything that comes out of The Big Lebowski's mouth, even if it's not a joke.

You Can Keep Her!: How Lebowski really feels about his wife getting kidnapped, and the reason why he feels no qualms pocketing the ransom money and setting the Dude up to take the fall.