July 23, 2006

Open Letter to the Great Comic Actor, Luke Wilson The primary members of Steely Dan notice striking similarities between Owen Wilson's latest film and a song they released a few years ago and have written a letter appealing to brother Luke.

"But, hey, Luke man--there is this one petite solid you could do for us..."

  • funny letter... but just having read the song you pointed to, and not having seen the movie, but watched the trailer for it, I see nothing connecting the two except the name Dupree and the use of a couch as a bed. But the letter was golden.
  • yea, i even went to this movie, and the name is the only similarity.
  • I've always wondered how Luke and owen could look so much alike, yet Luke be so much more handsome.
  • They write all kinds of letters.
  • The second link you just posted (to the woman at MSNBC) is golden.
  • Great post, by the way!
  • Are you kidding The Underpants Monster????!!?? Owen is waaaaay cuter. Does that mean we could double date? (~_^)
  • Some Down and Out in Beverley Hills ripoff? Down and Out in Beverly Hills is a total rip off this.
  • "Not one of Renoir's best movies"!
  • Really? You guys enjoyed this "letter?" I found it to be one of the ego-strokingest, pretentious, painful to read, and generally unfunniest discoveries on the internet. In the same letter, they refer to their Grammies and hint at their countercultural background (way to blow your own credibility there), and refer to themselves as heavy artists. High art, I'm sure.
  • How old are you, paintsniffer?
  • > Down and Out in Beverly Hills is a total rip off this (boudu sauve des eaux). remade (or a "new version" made) recently with depardieu as boudu.
  • Steely Dan named their band after a metal dildo prominently featured in William Burroughs' 'Naked Lunch'. That is their sole claim to coolness. On another level, DumberThanPaint's analogy is crude, but accurate.
  • Oh the layers! The layers!
  • In the same letter, they refer to their Grammies and hint at their countercultural background (way to blow your own credibility there), and refer to themselves as heavy artists. Dude, they wrote the letter on hotel letterhead. How serious do you think they were being?!?
  • Yeah, I have to agree with Paint and Chyren. If the band had a bone to pick, they should have had their lawyers talk to the lawyers representing the filmmakers. What the hell would either Wilson brother have to do with the supposed creative rights to the movie? They're actors, not directors and producers. This letter sounds like desperate attention-whore has-beens clinging to what little fame they still have left. And their music is crap.
  • Does nobody have a sense of humour on Mondays? Am I the only one not taking this letter seriously, and seeing it as the joke (whether you find it funny or not) it was meant to be?
  • Steely Dan are notorious for their misuse of intellectual property law - trying to stifle creative activity in America by threatening litigation. It's blatant rent seeking behaviour, and I'm glad you brought this to our attention, mandyman. Does no-one here remember their idiotic lawsuit against the director of I, Robot? The fact that the film-makers had to change the lead android's name from "Daniel" and make his CGI-rendered body less "steely" was a FUCKING OUTRAGE.
  • I just thought it was funny. Is that OK?
  • You are not the only one to see it as a joke, rocket88.
  • I thought humour still had to be funny?
  • Funny humour? I suppose you want to hop in your Model T and go dance the Charleston with Mary Todd Lincoln at the Siamese Embassy.
  • Put me in the "painful to read" camp. People seriously still talk like that?
  • I think part of the "joke" is that they have "written" the "letter" in "dude".
  • Ja.
  • Oh the layers! The layers! Fixing a hole in the ocean, Trying to make a dove-tail joint-yeah.
  • Man, Monkeyfilter has alot of angry Owen Wilson fans.
  • Humor
  • If by funny, you mean tickling your vagus nerve until you vomit, then by all means, this letter is "funny". However, if by funny, you mean inducing mirth, then I'm guessing you could, with a straight face, refer to Pauly Shore and Carrot Top as comedic geniuses. I think the true humor in the situation is that I managed to read the ENTIRE letter somehow managing not to download their entire discography directly to my recycle bin.
  • You sure expend a lot of effort on the things you hate.
  • What I want to know is, who cares? It would be funny if Steely Dan were relevant, or if the movie they're on about was even good, which by all accounts it is not, or if the song had recently been in the charts... This reads as something which might mean something to someone in on the joke. Yeah, they're playing on the stoner image, it's on the hotel letterhead.. /shrug If I was their sound engineer, of course I would be laughing & saying how great it was, but then I would be getting paid. Also, Owen Wilson's nose looks like it has a glans penis on the end of it. He should do a movie with Gerard Depardieu so it could hook up with Gerard's bum-nose.
  • However, if by funny, you mean inducing mirth, then I'm guessing you could, with a straight face, refer to Pauly Shore and Carrot Top as comedic geniuses. That statement, however, is by far the cleverest thing I've read all day!
  • I don't say anything bad about Carrot Top anymore, cos last time he came over and beat the living shit out of me.
  • The only thing I learned from all of this is that Owen Wilson has two brothers, which I honestly didn't know until now. Well, a few days ago.
  • Up until a couple of weeks ago, I thought Luke and Owen were the same person. I am not lieing.
  • You two aren't the only ones--right, flongj?
  • Boy, y'all just don't do snark well here, do ya? Anyway, hilarious link. It felt like a sequel to The Big Lebowski.
  • I thought it was funny, in an Open Letters to People or Entities Who are Unlikely to Respond sort of way. Steely Dan's music makes me want to get violently ill... or just violent. But that doesn't mean everything they touch must equally suck... does it?
  • yourfavouritebandsucksfilter
  • Wow, I just had a seventies flashback. /Dons baby blue polyester lesisure suit //Yes, I really had one ///Made by my Mommy ////worn to my prom /////dateless
  • Boy, y'all just don't do snark well here, do ya? The irony would choke a horse, no?