No Respect

I was skimming through this Discogs article on comedy records the other day and came across the 1980 Rodney Dangerfield album No Respect. The a-side is a monologue called “No Respect” and the b-side is a monologue called “Son of No Respect.”

A colleague of mine, who grew up in Mumbai, India, went to see Back To School, starring Dangerfield, on the first date with her now husband. Their marriage, like many in India still, was arranged. Going to a movie with him at that point was kind of scandalous. She stopped at a bodega on the way to the theater to let her mother know of this indiscretion.

The broad humor of Back To School still holds up, even if we might be a bit more sensitive to the gender stereotypes now. Like any good mainstream 80s comedy involving youngsters, there is a sports competition. Only in this fantastic world, the middle aged, out-of-shape Rodney Dangerfield has a high dive—called the triple lindy—that can’t be matched (not even by his son Jason or his nemesis played by the perfect teen villain actor, Billy Zabka). It’s always interesting to see the search for glory and ultimate redemption that came with the final sporting event in movies from that decade. It’s like a call back to Ancient Greece and the concept of kleos (glory, and also a source for the word loud, which certainly fits Dangerfield). Picture a teenage Odysseus in a Members Only jacket.