Is this an homage to Trading Places?

Is this an homage to Trading Places? - Black and White Metal Tools

In episode 6 of Unbreakable Kimmy there is a scene where the rich daughter's friends are sat around a fountain (at about 18:30 into the episode) and a girl says

'and she stepped on the ball' enter image description here

and starts laughing, the manner of how she said this very reminiscent of this scene from Trading Places:

Is this a sendup/homage to this scene as it's mocking the rich and vapid society group?



Best Answer

I think it's safe to say by now that this is indeed an intentional homage as it's not only mentioned in several TV sites (like this or this and also TVTropes), but it's also now on IMDb:

In Episode 6, Xanthippe's female friend is finishing a story with the punchline "...and then she stepped on the ball." This line, the context and the pompous "Yuppie-esque" delivery, are borrowed from a similar scene in "Trading Places" (1983). Which in turn borrowed it from Auntie Mame, the Rosilind Russell classic from the 50s.

It's both a thematic allusion (Xanthippe's hipster-looking friends are really no less preppy and snobbish than the ones in Trading Places) and a pop-culture reference that's expected from a Tina Fey series - especially when it's from a classic 80s comedy that featured SNL members so prominently.




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What does Winthrop say in Trading Places?

Sell To The Suckers Standing on the floor of the exchange, Winthorpe (Dan Aykroyd) yells out: Sell 30 April at 142! Here's what that means: He wants to promise to sell orange juice in April for $1.42 per pound. The "30" in his line means he wants to start by selling 30 contracts.

What is Trading Places based on?

While body-swap movies like Freaky Friday and Vise Versa were all the rage in the 1980s, Trading Places took inspiration from the more classic literary and cinematic fare. The story is loosely based on Mark Twain's The Prince and The Pauper, a story in which poor and rich men swap lives.

Is Coming to America related to Trading Places?

Yet one of the best callbacks in the whole film is slightly subtler when we learn of the fates of Randolph and Mortimer Duke, the two capitalist blue bloods who were the bad guys in Murphy's Trading Places. And yes, this means Coming 2 America is also technically a sequel to Trading Places too.

What happened to the Duke Brothers Trading Places?

The price drops, and despite their best efforts to sell the contracts back, the Dukes lose $394 million. Ruined, they are forced out onto the streets, and Randolph suffers a heart attack while Mortimer berates him for getting them into their predicament in the first place.



I Can See! - Trading Places (1/10) Movie CLIP (1983) HD




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