World of Blue - Archived Forum 2007-2022

FWWM Shooting Script/Deleted scene

INT. BORDER TRUCK STOP - NIGHT

The front room is a bar and restaurant with about THREE PATRONS.
Above the bar is a sign that reads:

CAN - A - DO and U.S. OF FUCKIN' "A"

Can anyone give me the meaning of the sign? Not so simple for people outside US

Also, the meaning of Donna's joke to Laura "If I had a nickel for every cigarette your mom smoked, I'd be dead"

Thanks

Hey Sam, definitely nothing to apologize for! I will help as best as I can. CAN - A - DO and U.S. OF FUCKIN' "A" are both plays on words:

CAN - A - DO (is a play obviously on Canada, but also on expression "can-do", which is an informal idiomatic phrase meaning marked by a willingness to tackle a job and get it done)
U.S. OF FUCKIN' "A" is a common slang for USA, where "fuckin'" is used as an emphatic. Its meaning depends on the use - it can be used to proclaim the greatness of USA or as a sardonic statement, which I think is probably the case here.

As far as Donna's joke, I always interpreted it as, "If I had a nickel for every cigarette your mom smoked, I'd be so rich that someone would kill me for my money." There may be different interpretations, but that one makes most sense to me. And it's also one of my favorite lines from the film.

Hope this helps, Sam!

underthefan wrote:As far as Donna's joke, I always interpreted it as, "If I had a nickel for every cigarette your mom smoked, I'd be so rich that someone would kill me for my money." There may be different interpretations, but that one makes most sense to me. And it's also one of my favorite lines from the film.

I always thought it meant that Donna would be crushed by the amount of nickles that would be. Mrs. Palmer smokes a TON of cigarettes.

jmichael wrote:

underthefan wrote:As far as Donna's joke, I always interpreted it as, "If I had a nickel for every cigarette your mom smoked, I'd be so rich that someone would kill me for my money." There may be different interpretations, but that one makes most sense to me. And it's also one of my favorite lines from the film.

I always thought it meant that Donna would be crushed by the amount of nickles that would be. Mrs. Palmer smokes a TON of cigarettes.

That could be it, too. That's the beauty of that line that it can be interpreted different ways and still be hilarious in every interpretation.

underthefan wrote:Hey Sam, definitely nothing to apologize for! I will help as best as I can. CAN - A - DO and U.S. OF FUCKIN' "A" are both plays on words:

CAN - A - DO (is a play obviously on Canada, but also on expression "can-do", which is an informal idiomatic phrase meaning marked by a willingness to tackle a job and get it done)
U.S. OF FUCKIN' "A" is a common slang for USA, where "fuckin'" is used as an emphatic. Its meaning depends on the use - it can be used to proclaim the greatness of USA or as a sardonic statement, which I think is probably the case here.

I see, my english is fine, but I'm not familiar with these expressions (can-do and fuckin' a) so the sentence had no meaning to me.
Thank you for finally clearing it up

As far as Donna's joke, I always interpreted it as, "If I had a nickel for every cigarette your mom smoked, I'd be so rich that someone would kill me for my money." There may be different interpretations, but that one makes most sense to me. And it's also one of my favorite lines from the film. !

I always thought it meant that Donna would be crushed by the amount of nickles that would be. Mrs. Palmer smokes a TON of cigarettes.

That could be it, too. That's the beauty of that line that it can be interpreted different ways and still be hilarious in every interpretation.

LOL, my first impression was that Donna meant she was going to be crushed by all the nickels as well, but I wasn't sure.
But the other way of thinking is even better. It made me laugh here.
I wish there were more scripts like that. So many years later and I'm still debating and asking stuff

Thanks for the help guys

I think the Donna joke is meant to be more of a mixed metaphor and playing with the punchline of "a rich man" and smoking too many cigarettes kills. It's very dry, very Dorothy Parker, and very funny.

No problem, Sam! Happy to help!

Audrey Horne wrote:I think the Donna joke is meant to be more of a mixed metaphor and playing with the punchline of "a rich man" and smoking too many cigarettes kills. It's very dry, very Dorothy Parker, and very funny.

Agreed. I think it's funny because it doesn't make sense. Kind of like Danny DeVito's line in "Heist": "Everybody needs money. That's why they call it money."