July 22, 2001

12:10 PM

This proves my theory that in reality Fargo is much stranger than the Coen Brothers movie. This is the new way to get people to come to North Dakota: Drive from Florida to knock-over a Super8 motel using, as your threat, an imaginary bomb in a Winnie the Pooh backpack---do all of this to fufill your request to spend the remainder of your life in the country's safest jail.
posted by nathan_teske (13 comments total)

This i will steal to put in my "worlds most ridiculous bombs" "site". thank you sir for making my day. good post. a mimic in salutation.

robber:"give me the cash lady, or this thing fuckin goz"

cashier: "oh my, my grandson has..."
robber: "...the CASH...lady"
cashier "oh my."
posted by clavdivs at 12:19 PM on July 22, 2001

clav: you forgot to put a 'oh ya dontcha know' in there.

:D
posted by jcterminal at 1:27 PM on July 22, 2001

gollygeeyeah
posted by clavdivs at 2:03 PM on July 22, 2001

I dunno -- this only supports my theory that criminals are strange. This doesn't do a whole lot to make Fargo look strange.
posted by jragon at 2:51 PM on July 22, 2001

Fargo is only as strange as the people who choose to live there. This man apparently wants to live there quite badly.
posted by nathan_teske at 6:06 PM on July 22, 2001

this is a travesty! we need obviously need to "get tough" on wacky criminals and make our jails more dangerous.
posted by will at 6:25 PM on July 22, 2001

No, no, we must make our jails more WACKY!
posted by kindall at 7:46 PM on July 22, 2001

"Johnson, breaking and entering. Here's your standard issue clown suit; proceed to your left. Next...."
posted by youhas at 8:19 PM on July 22, 2001

The only scene in Fargo that took place in Fargo was the initial meeting in the bar. The kidnapping and most of Jerry Lundegaard's activities were in Minneapolis, and the roadside murder and lake cabin were near Brainerd. This has been a Coen Brothers minute. We now return to your regularly scheduled Metafilter.
posted by dhartung at 9:18 PM on July 22, 2001

'course dhartung -- I was just in that very bar a few weeks ago. :-) Most of the actual movie is set in Minnesota but all the outdoors Brainerd scenes were actually shot east of Cavalier, ND in mid-April. That includes all of the rural driving scenes, the trooper, etc.
posted by nathan_teske at 9:49 PM on July 22, 2001

And oh, the last scene where the ND State Patrol arrests Lundegaard is set in Bismarck, but is actually filmed in Mandan.

Mmmm... Coen Brothers minutae.
posted by nathan_teske at 9:52 PM on July 22, 2001

As the only state with a defunct but still-standing ABM pyramid (from the first time a republican prez actually got Congress to waste millions on missle 'defense'), not to mention a half-built canal, I can assure you that NoDak is weird. Fargo is only the sleepy, semi-civilized, farmtown gateway to a land of strange that extends to the Teddy Roosevelt badlands. Want to try weird? Go to Beach, get out of the car, walk the streets and talk to the populace.
posted by Twang at 2:51 PM on July 23, 2001

Funny, you don't look like a state...
posted by kindall at 3:08 PM on July 23, 2001