Once again ASU shows up as the butt of a joke, this time in “Dumb and Dumber To.” I mentioned this in my review, but I didn’t give the joke away because I wanted Sun Devils to, um, experience it themselves, first hand. But now that the movie is out and winning the box office with a haul of more than $38 million we’re probably past the point of spoiler alerts for a throwaway joke.
So here goes: Lloyd (Jim Carrey) and Harry (Jeff Daniels) are reunited after a two decade practical joke (don’t ask). Harry hasn’t checked his mail in 20 years, so as he’s flipping through the stack he looks at a letter, says, “Oh, I got into Arizona State University,” shrugs and tosses it aside.
The joke being, obviously, that ASU is so easy to get into one of these guys managed to. I didn’t say it was a good joke (few are in this movie). Just that it was there.
This is not the first time pop culture has poked fun at ASU. Probably the best known occurrence was the episode of “The Simpsons” in which a flood hits Springfield. Flanders, Homer’s self righteous neighbor, says to his wife, “Maude, it’s a miracle! canada goose jacket The Lord has drowned the wicked and spared the righteous.” She replies, “Isn’t that Homer Simpson?” To which Flanders says, “Looks like Heaven’s easier to get into than Arizona State.”
In “30 Rock” (see below) Alec Baldwin’s smarmy executive offered the following assessment of parenthood: “A parent is the one person who is supposed to make their kid think they can do anything says they’re beautiful, even when they’re ugly, thinks they’re smart, event when they go to Arizona State.”Why does this happen? Probably a combination of massive enrollment and the school’s frequent appearance on the list of top party schools. Is it an unfair knock? Sure. That’s why it’s funny.
