Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
If you haven’t seen Season 2 of Fleabag, that’s unfortunate for two reasons. First, you’re depriving yourself of joy, and here in the year 2019, when there are non-Onion headlines like “High Likelihood of Human Civilization Coming to an End” floating around your newsfeed, we really need all the joy we can get. Second, you probably didn’t understand the joke in this headline, and I hate explaining jokes.
But alas, I’ll do it anyway: Carrie, the 1976 horror film based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name, is now streaming on Netflix (and, interestingly, Amazon Prime Video). Carrie, the 1976 horror film based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name, also happens to be the favorite period film of Phoebe Waller Bridge’s character in Fleabag. I know this because she said so in Episode 3, in a truly great and truly terrible joke. Here’s—and may the comedy gods forgive me for explaining not one but two jokes in this post—how that joke goes down.
Fleabag and woman named Belinda—who has just accepted a stolen pornographic statue in lieu of a Woman in Business Award, forcing Fleabag to track her down to right the mix-up—are out for drinks at a bar. Belinda (played by the great Kristin Scott Thomas), a 58-year-old lesbian, sensing some interest from Fleabag, asks the younger woman if she likes old films. Some, Fleabag replies.
“What’s your favorite period film?” asks Belinda.
Fleabag pauses for a moment. “Carrie.”
A period film. Get it? Like periods? Menstruation? Because the plot of Carrie is about Sissy Spacek’s character, a repressed 16-year-old girl, who gets her period and freaks out? And then all the other girls make fun of her, throw tampons at her, and eventually dump a bucket of pig’s blood on her at prom? (The comedy gods really are about to strike me down now, yikes.) Is that not a perfect joke? Will you not be stealing it for future use for years to come? Do you not both love and hate Phoebe Waller-Bridge so, so much?
Anyways, Carrie is now available on Netflix and Prime Video, so if you’d like to inspire a few laughs/groans from your friends and family, try out that classic zinger on them. I’d like to think that Fleabag is at home on her couch right now, queuing up the horror classic, and chuckling to herself at her own brilliance.
