“Buzz, your girlfriend, woof!”
Ah, the ’80s. A far more carefree time when children/teenagers could be locked in a car trunk with a dead body (The Goonies) or befriend a strange alien without their parents knowing (E.T.) or hang out with a man that has connections with Libyan terrorists (Back to the Future).
During this vintage period of mentally torturing children, jerks like Johnny (Karate Kid) and Biff (Back to the Future) roamed free.
Well, one character that joined them in cinematic infamy was Kevin McCallister’s older brother, Buzz.
When he wasn’t calling Kevin a phlegm wad, devouring his pizza or getting his younger brother in trouble, Buzz sought refuge in his bedroom that contained his pet tarantula, air rifle, and the photo of his beloved girlfriend.
Now, we’re not saying that it’s fair to judge people on their appearances, but Kevin’s response to seeing Buzz’s girlfriend has become one of the most quoted lines in the film and that’s saying something.
Well, it turns out that the producers of the film were very aware of the potential harm that they could do by using an image of a real girl.
According to Devin Ratray, the actor who played Buzz: “[They] decided it would be unkind to put a girl in that role of just being funny-looking. The art director had a son who was more than willing to volunteer for the part. I think if he had known it would become the highest-grossing family comedy of all time, he might have had second thoughts about it.”
There it is, Buzz’s girlfriend was actually a young lad who was happy to make fun of himself.
Woof!
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
