Proof That Even Really Bad Comedies Usually Have At Least One Good Laugh: Coup De Ville Edition

The "Louie, Louie" scene.

Coup de Ville is a road comedy about three brothers -- a military man (Daniel Stern), a nebbish square (Arye Gross), and a cocky delinquent (Patrick Dempsey) -- forced to drive from Detroit to Miami to deliver their mom's Cadillac. There's very little that's memorable about this film... except this one scene. In it, the three brothers enter a RAGING debate regarding the true lyrics of the famous 1963 Kingsmen hit, "Louie, Louie". The argument centers on the largely unintelligible lyrics and whether the tune is a "dance song", a "hump song", or a "sea chanty".

As a whole, Coup de Ville is largely unfunny. But everything about this one scene is perfect -- particularly the dialog, the pacing, and the acting. Dempsey's crude analysis and explanation of the lyrics is nicely juxtaposed with that of Gross, and Stern is awesome as the oldest brother, who initially ignores his siblings, but then eventually gets sucked into the debate. You gotta especially love the part where he says, "Oh Bobby, shut up, you don't know what you're talking about." He's just so bullying and dismissive -- just the way older brothers are in real life. Also comically realistic is how everything escalates and these guys get so worked up over something so trivial -- very Seinfeld-esque.

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