39-11-07 Smelly Makes a Speech

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON 

Rush tells the story of Smelly Clark getting up in front of the neighborhood boys and giving a superfluous about himself, much to the dismay of the gang.

Rush's story possesses the entire episode as he interrupted time and again. The gist is, Smelly gets his comeuppance.

MIS' CROWE SAYS:
Smelly makes a brave speech to his friends. It doesn’t end well.

I really like how, based on what I can infer, Rush and his friends are not what you’d call “popular.” Of course, what we think of as school popularity would have looked different back then, I’m sure. But I’m guessing that schools have always had cliques. There have always been groups of higher social status and those of lower social status. There have always been those who know how to fit in and those who do not (or do not feel the need to). Based on what we know about Rush and his friends, they seem like a pretty weird, goofy bunch of teenagers (my kinda kids). Rush himself is rather dramatic, interrupts, goes on and on, and frequently drops $50 vocabulary words into his everyday speech (which was not a habit that got ME into the “in crowd” at that age…). Nicer constantly tells outrageous lies that do not endear him to anyone (but since he always seems to be around when Rush and his friends get together, it seems like they accept him anyway). Bluetooth is sensitive and cries easily. And, as we find out here, Smelly Clark compulsively lets his tongue hang out, to the revulsion of many around him. Not only does this make Rush and his friends more relatable, but it shows that Vic and Sade raised him right — he’s not afraid to be himself, and he accepts his friends for who they are, too.

Which, of course, is not to say that he doesn’t draw the line SOMEWHERE…

SEE THE SCRIPT (transcribed by Lydia Crowe)

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There are several Paul Rhymer episodes in which Rush tries to tell a story that will take the entire episode to tell. Generally, those stories are pretty good.

Here's Rush relaying the Smelly speech (edited): {{{HEAR}}}

You kind of know what will happen in this one but it's still a lot of fun.

Trivia:

+ Smelly Clark has a habit of letting his tongue hang out.

+ Ollie Sorgut is mentioned for the first time. He lived in Dixon.  He died because he tipped his hat to his Aunt Lucille and took sick immediately, according to Sade.

+ Ralph Sorgut.  Brother of Ollie.  Married Edna Gilbert (Dixon.)

+ The Butler House Hotel is mentioned for the first time in the surviving audio.

+ Mr. Buller is mentioned for the first time in the surviving audio. According to Sade, he will make a big, enormous speech when people are least expecting it.

+ The Brick Mush man is mentioned for the first time in the surviving audio.

Sade imitates Mr. Buller: {{{HEAR}}}

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