Last night, Paul and I were watching Sharknado for the first time. Partway through, I came up with an idea that became a running joke thoughtful analysis. I said, look, clearly the film is an allegory for FDR’s presidency and World War II. The sharks are the Axis Powers, right? It’s a commentary on post-Depression America.
The one guy’s legs getting attacked? Well, FDR was in a wheelchair. The huge flood? Americans felt they were “drowning” in the Depression. The flight at the end to drop a bomb that they hoped would solve everything? I don’t have to spell that one out.
Of course, you can make anything an allegory for anything if you’re creative enough. It’s kind of fun. We were getting a lot of mileage out of our ridiculous metaphor.
And then this happened:
Paul and I were laughing so hard we couldn’t even take a breath to tell his wife why we were laughing.
Brian D. Buckley 