Popular Culture
The automobile salesman, particularly the used car salesman, has often been a source of characters, often negative, in movies and television shows and cartoons. History and fairy tales often characterize peddlers (people selling goods) as negative influences, or outsiders out to take advantage of people.
- In the Muppet Movie, Milton Berle plays Mad Man Mooney.
- In Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Leonard Stone plays Mr. Beauregarde, Violet Beauregarde's father.
- In Fargo, William H. Macy plays Jerry Lundegaard, a salesman at an Oldsmobile dealership in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
- In Used Cars, Kurt Russell plays a slick used car salesman and wannabe politician named Rudy Russo.
- In Suckers, a movie humorising automotive dealerships and salesmen.
- In True Lies, Bill Paxton portrays a used car salesman who pretends to be a spy to seduce bored housewives.
- In Matilda, Danny DeVito portrays an unscrupulous used car salesman named Harry Wormwood.
- In Cadillac Man, Robin Williams portrays a used car salesman.
- In Three's Company (TV series), Larry Dallas is a used car salesman.
- In EastEnders, Roy and Barry Evans, Kevin and David Wicks, Bradley and Max Branning, Frank Butcher, Darren Miller and Arthur "Fatboy" Chubb, Have all at some stage portrayed car salespeople.
- In the Seinfeld episode, "The Dealership," Jerry attempts to buy a new car from David Puddy due to the "insider" deal Jerry would get from being friends with Puddy's girlfriend, Elaine. Puddy and Elaine have a fight at the dealership, leading Puddy to backtrack on his discounts and start charging Jerry for miscellaneous "extras." Jerry, frustrated, tries to reconcile Elaine and Puddy so he can get the insider discount again.
Read more about this topic: Automobile Salesperson
Famous quotes containing the words popular culture, popular and/or culture:
“Popular culture entered my life as Shirley Temple, who was exactly my age and wrote a letter in the newspapers telling how her mother fixed spinach for her, with lots of butter.... I was impressed by Shirley Temple as a little girl my age who had power: she could write a piece for the newspapers and have it printed in her own handwriting.”
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“If mass communications blend together harmoniously, and often unnoticeably, art, politics, religion, and philosophy with commercials, they bring these realms of culture to their common denominator—the commodity form. The music of the soul is also the music of salesmanship. Exchange value, not truth value, counts.”
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