Harold Ramis Dies At 69 136
samzenpus writes "Writer and comedian Harold Ramis has passed away at 69. Ramis had a hand in many classic comedies but is especially loved for playing the ghost-hunting Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters. 'His creativity, compassion, intelligence, humor and spirit will be missed by all who knew and loved him,' said his family in a statement."
See you on the other side, Egon (Score:5, Insightful)
:(
Egon the scientist left an impression on me as an 11 year old kid.
While his character was supposed to be a little dorky I suppose, he was just pure awesome to me. He was the only Ghostbuster to be totally on top of things, and knew what he was doing. He inspired me to be the techie I am today.
RIP Harold Ramis.
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Re:See you on the other side, Egon (Score:5, Interesting)
I concur. An inspirational nerd.
I sympathise, but as an old Canadian geezer, I always felt that by the time the US audience finally heard about them, the SCTV alumni had already done their best work. That troupe - and their cheezy, low-budget show [wikipedia.org] - formed my sense of humour more than anything else. Dave Thomas, Harold Ramis, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Catherine O'Hara... all of them went on to make memorable comedy in the US. I think Joe Flaherty was the only one who didn't make a big splash. (Which is America's loss, not his.)
But there was a time when all of them were callow, reckless youths with nothing to lose by making asses of themselves week after week on a second-rate Toronto-based network that was so small (it had only 13 stations at the start) it too had nothing to lose.
Back in junior high school, my week was centred around that blessed moment when the Indian-head test pattern would appear and the announcer would say, 'Don't touch that dial. Don't touch that one either. And stop touching yourself.' I still remember the intonation....
(... I never did stop touching myself, but that's another story.)
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Same here. When I was a kid, I wanted to be like Egon.
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"I've always been kind of a pacifist. When I was a kid, my father told me, "Never hit anyone in anger, unless you're absolutely sure you can get away with it."
I don't know what kind of soldier I'm gonna make, but I want you guys to know that if we ever get into real heavy combat... I'll be right behind you guys. Every step of the way."
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Re:See you on the other side, Egon (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:See you on the other side, Egon (Score:5, Funny)
"Print is dead."
- Egon, 1984
"Egon is dead."
- Print, 2014
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I always heard it as:
"God is dead."
- Friedrich Nietzsche, 1882
"Nietzsche is dead."
- God, 1900
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Egon's sexuality (Score:4, Interesting)
While his character was supposed to be a little dorky I suppose, he was just pure awesome to me.
One of the things I enjoyed about his character in the movies as I got to be older was his relationship to Jeanine was a bit complicated. She clearly puts the moves on him...but unlike nearly every male movie character I can think of (who isn't implied to be gay) - he's ambivalent, tolerates, or rebuffs her. The stereotypical reaction from male movie characters is "Yeah, let's get it on!", especially in action movies.
However, there's a scene - I can't remember which - where he says something, she responds with "OH EGON, I just blah blah blah" and he responds with a look that's half "Yeah, baby. You know you like it" and half "siiiigh, ok, I'll console you, fine..."
Now...if only Winston's character hadn't been so racist. That's the part I hate the most about Ghostbusters; Winston Zedmore is pretty much just there to bounce jokes off of or be the 'dumb black clown' character. I feel like the cartoon actually gave him character development and whatnot more on par with the others (although did they ever show any of his family, for example?) The series definitely played up the "the most normal and people-skills-equipped of the group" elements.
Re:Egon's sexuality (Score:5, Insightful)
C'mon, Winston got one of the funniest lines in the movie...
There's no reason to pull out the racist card any time a black man isn't portrayed as the ultimate hero and intellect in a movie. All the characters in this COMEDY were slightly strange and comedic characters...
As was said in another movie Ramis did.."Lighten up Francis".
look at his lines (Score:2)
There's no reason to pull out the racist card any time a black man isn't portrayed as the ultimate hero and intellect in a movie. All the characters in this COMEDY were slightly strange and comedic characters...
Yes, except virtually the only lines his character gets are to crack jokes.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmw... [tvtropes.org]
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I dunno, he had a number of moments of lucidity, like when he and Ray were talking in the car about the increase in spiritual activity, and he's the one who points out that maybe what they've been seeing is what was written of the last days in the Book of Revelations. It's a pretty sobering moment, one of the few moments that the movie doesn't try to play for laughs.
He was supposed to be the straight man amongst the zaniness; he was more of an urban everyman rather than the university staff steeped in acade
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Re:look at his lines (Score:4, Interesting)
That's largely because he and Bill Murray were the only strictly sane people in the entire movie. He was just an average joe looking for a job, and Murray was a con artist. Everyone else was, to be blunt, to one degree or another out of their minds.
This is the first time I've ever be introduced to the notion that Winston was merely the obligatory black character.
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Except when he was the only sane person in the room, and had to convince the mayor to let the guys go be heroes
Or when he and Ray had a candid conversation about Revelations and the end times.
He certainly wasn't as ... odd ... as the rest of the crew, but I hardly consider that a BAD thing, or in any way racist.
Re:Egon's sexuality (Score:4, Insightful)
If there's a steady paycheck in it, I'll believe anything you say.
Ray, when someone asks if you are a god, you say YES!
I fucking loved Winston when I was a kid.
Re:Egon's sexuality (Score:5, Insightful)
Winston was pretty essential to the film, because he was the everyman. Without Winston, you had two crazy ass scientists (Egon and Ray) and a conman (Venkman). As with any movie filled with nutsos and and miscreants as protagonists, you need a straight man who can sort of stand a bit outside the action and act as a sort of proxy for the audience. The character of Winston reminds me a lot of Murray Slaughter off of the Mary Tyler Moore show; both weren't necessarily part of any given action, but rather served to underline the absurdity of what was going on.
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
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If there's a steady paycheck in it, I'll believe anything you say.
The person who wrote that line was either a certifiable genius or an authentic wacko. ;)
More seriously, this line/scene pretty much summarized the recession years of the 80's and is a pretty good summary of society in general.
Re:Egon's sexuality (Score:4, Insightful)
Ugh.. One of the great things about ghostbusters was that it came out at a time when accepted humor wasn't limited by this kind of PC garbage. The social(ist) reconstructionists didn't get to video entertainment en-masse in this country until the end of the 80s. If that's not what you want, go watch one of those effeminate vampire movies.
You know, it's ok to tell a story without bolting PC narratives onto the side, or worse, squeezing all of them within those limitations ("I've seen shit that'll turn you white!"). Frankly, movies and tv are inundated with it now, to the point of absurdity. It's almost like the script writers and directors are screaming "I CARE MORE ABOUT NONWHITES, WOMEN, AND GAYS THAN YOU!" at each other and their audience with their stories. By the early 90s, it was already cliche (the "empowered 90s woman"), and by the end of the decade, it was boring and predictable. Today, it's cranked up to 11 and downright condescending. Enough already.
And PC too (Score:2, Interesting)
Personally, I thought Winston was the most real character in the whole zoo; a necessary character to ground all the others. And I loved his "I've seen shit that'll turn you white!" line--and I'm black.
Re:claims of "political correctness" (Score:5, Insightful)
That's because he was the outsider, not because he was black. The Ghostbusters needed another guy with a proton pack, Winston signed up because it was a job. He wasn't a conman like Venkman, and not a semi-insane scientist like Egon or Ray.
You might as well complain about how Weaver's character spent most of the time in both movies being the vulnerable incapable female.
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The problem is that is how this was the standard way virtually any black character was constructed by Hollywood
At least he wasn't wearing a red shirt as part of the away team. While not claiming it was intended, the movie The Edge seemed to go down that path. Anthony Hopkins, Alec Baldwin and a black guy (Harold Perrineau) are stranded by a plane crash in the northern wilderness. Then there was a bear. Then there was no black guy.
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Political correctness is real, and it is routinely used by feminists and other radical left-wingers to dismiss any speech that disagrees with them. How is it "accusing" leftists of being politically correct, when in fact they are?
Funny how you prove his point by all but demanding a story be told by bolting PC narratives on the side and derailing the entire flow by screaming "I CARE MORE ABOUT NONWHITES, WOMEN, AND GAYS THAN YOU!" at each other and their audience.
hello, "angry feminist mob" fallacy (Score:2)
Funny how you prove his point by all but demanding a story be told by bolting PC narratives on the side and derailing the entire flow by screaming "I CARE MORE ABOUT NONWHITES, WOMEN, AND GAYS THAN YOU!" at each other and their audience. http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/... [wikia.com] Start reading, asshole. I never did anything you claim I did.
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leftists
I hope one day slashdotists will rise above the level of Youtubists in their discourse.
It will start with abandonment of noun-ism.
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The thing is, the film needed a character like Winston to be a straight man. He's the stand in for the audience to whom things are explained since he doesn't have the knowledge of the other characters who were the scientists. Watson served that function in Sherlock Holmes.
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Winston Zeddemore: Ray. When someone asks you if you're a god, you say, "YES!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Who's the dumb clown in that clip... The one who got them zapped with his spiel? Or the one that provided the punchline?
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"This reminds me of the time you tried to drill a hole through your head, remember that?"
"That would've worked if you hadn't stopped me."
Awesome, but scary.
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Bill Murray is a big famous actor now, since he got his (admittedly deserved) Oscar nomination for Lost in Translation.
It's a damned pity, but I don't see how a third movie could go ahead without Egon.
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A third movie could easily go ahead, as it would begin with Egon's funeral, clips of their reminiscences of Egon at a gathering of the remaining Ghostbusters when some plot device causes them to go back into action with Egon's replacement, his lab assistant, his son, Younger brother, etc. or some other reason to hold the plot together. Pepper the dialogue with references to Egon, keep the special effects within reason and you have a modestly priced film, give the original Ghostbusters a piece of the action
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:(
Egon the scientist left an impression on me as an 11 year old kid.
While his character was supposed to be a little dorky I suppose, he was just pure awesome to me. He was the only Ghostbuster to be totally on top of things, and knew what he was doing. He inspired me to be the techie I am today.
RIP Harold Ramis.
He left an impression on me, too. Nerds could be cool.
Thanks for the memories, Harold/Egon.
Egon Gone (Score:4, Funny)
He crossed the beams!
Re:Egon Gone (Score:5, Informative)
STREAMS! He crossed the STREAMS!
Re:Egon Gone (Score:5, Funny)
I blame today's educational system for failing us.
SMH
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Thanks Obama!
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Ghostbusters? Pshaw! How about the National Lampoon radio Hour, [wikipedia.org] which was SNL without pictures? Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, Dan Ankroyd, John Belushi, Gilda Radner... and, er, wasn't Ramis with them on SNL, too? I taped a couple of thise NLRO shows, have them digitized now. Some hilarious stuff!
Of course, most of you folks weren't even born then. Hey, would one of you kids mow my lawn?
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I blame the mistranslation of the Russian subtitles on that Italian-dubbed rip I got in an alley in Seoul! (hee hee, with a little bit of disinformation my plan to NOT look like a complete asshat fool on /. is working perfectly!)
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wait ... are you saying that it ISN'T?
my whole life is a lie
Ziskey rates death (Score:2)
It's a pussy.
My favorite was "Stripes" (Score:2)
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My favorite too.
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Anyone who has ever paraded in uniform for tinpot martinets and sadistic drill instructors completely splits a gut over that hilarious parade square scene! Boom shukka lukka lukka boom shukka lukka lukka!
Thank you (Score:5, Insightful)
For making us laugh, making us think, and making the world a little happier. You did good.
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Helping us understand, even from beyond the grave: Moe Green: So you're dead; now what? [youtube.com]
The guy had so much class, he could even use a semicolon and still be funny.
RIP Harold Ramis (Score:2)
From SCTV to Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day and so many guilty pleasures from the 80s
You will be missed
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Animal House....
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It was consistently funny in the first incarnation and was still decent the 2nd time around, although the 'guest band' part of the format trapped them more into the TV Variety show format -but it was about a fictional TV network, so....
Kids in the Hall, Strangers with Candy and many other American sketch comedy shows definitely owe something to SCT
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I've even heard that Matt Groening modeled Springfield on Mellonville. He wanted to create a similar town with recurring characters that he could use as a sort of ironic and satirical skewer of various aspects of American society.
Not all the later SCTV episodes were all that bad. Some were incredibly ambitious, now that they had a larger budget. The problem in later years was that Bob and Doug Mackenzie and Ed Grimley began to tower over the rest of the characters, and gave Dave Thomas, Rick Moranis and Mar
Man, that sucks (Score:1)
I grew up on his 80's flicks.
Way too young in this day and age.
Sample (Score:5, Funny)
Signs you may be dead: (Score:2)
Sad (Score:2)
I really liked him in the Ghostbusters movies
So...do you have any hobbies? (Score:5, Funny)
"Now I really collect spores, molds, and fungi."
Oh come on, he would laugh!
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"He would laugh" is a counterfactual conditional with the antecedent omitted. The assertion is that he would laugh if he were able (but he can't because he's dead). The word "would" should have been a clue.
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Hilarious, and yes, yes he would laugh.
One word: (Score:1)
Caddyshack. RIP
R.I.P. Will not be forgotten. (Score:3)
This news makes me really sad. Ghostbusters shaped an incalculably large portion of my childhood. :(
Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day are two of my all-time favorite comedies (My top-top probably being Grosse Pointe Blank) in fact I just watched Ghostbusters the other night on my new bigass TV, and was considering watching Groundhog Day... (And now, definitely will tonight.)
One of my favorite moments in Ghostbusters is when Egonâ" in a complete deviation from his usual demeanor, and out of all the people present â"ends up being the one who jumps Peck shouting "YOUR MOTHER!" when he accuses them of being responsible for the explosion at the firehouse. It's something that always stuck out in my mind as being particularly funny.
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Oh OF COURSE you don't render the goddamn emdashes correctly, the ONE TIME I don't click 'preview'.
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Use ——and you'll be golden.
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Egon pulls out a calculator and is about to type on it when Venkman slaps it out of his hands.
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Was it Blu-Ray and how did it look? The Blu Ray version I have seems to be a pretty shitty mastering. much to my disappointment.
And yet (Score:1)
Dan Akroyd lives on. TANJ
Re:And yet (Score:4, Insightful)
Dan Akroyd is the all-time winner of the Landing a Woman Way Out of your Class geek Olympics. I in good faith cannot criticize him or anything he has ever done.
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Yes, far more notable is his brilliant but all too brief career as part of the Belushi-Akroyd team. I even love them in their semi-flop Neighbors.
Akroyd's talent largely went to waste after Ghostbusters, or maybe he just stopped having interesting ideas any more. I think John Belushi was his muse, and when Belushi died, Akroyd lost it a bit. But still, even he is a bit of a nut, he's a funny guy.
Earl Camenbert (Score:2)
I still remember sitting in my living room when I was a kid watching Second City TV and hearing Floyd Robertson (Joe Flaherty) and Earl Camenbert (Harold Ramis) muddle their way through the "local" news. That was my first exposure to Harold Ramis, and every time I have seen him since has brought back that memory.
I'm sad that he won't be making new ones for me.
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And I'm an idiot. That was Eugene Levy.
Crap.
Now I'll go feel sad. And stupid.
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The "New Delhi" news report by Earl Camembert is a classic.
Another brilliant Eugene Levy character was his take on Alex Trebeck's turn as host of the Canadian gameshow Reach For The Top.
Quick! Get a trap! (Score:2)
I was MASSIVELY bummed out when I read it this morning.
Gonna miss his deadpan affect. It just made all the insane things going on around him (or happening to him) even funnier.
Caddyshack documentary (Score:4, Interesting)
Not acting per se, but he was excellent in the Caddyshack documentary. Some of the insights into how that movie got made were awesome. Especially his observations about the direction a movie can take when you decide to make an animatronic gopher one the lead characters.
Best Quote (Score:1)
"I collect spores, mold and fungus." - Egon "Ghostbusters"
Here's an interview with Reitman on CBC Radio (Score:3)
http://www.cbc.ca/asithappens/... [www.cbc.ca]
Another Sample (Score:2)
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Good by Mr. Ramis (Score:1)
"Doe.... Ray.... Egon!" *smirk*
The developmental years of my life would have been very different if not for his specific influence on them. Fare well Mr. Ramis, and thank you.
Goddamnit... (Score:2)
The world is worse off for having lost Harold Ramis [wikipedia.org]. May Dan Akroyd [wikipedia.org] make up for his loss.
Obligatory SCTV Clip (Score:2)
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Hate to say it, but it's probably for the best. The second one was pretty bad. And Ackroyd was the only one who even wanted to make a third.
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Bill Murray did say he'd be willing to do a third, as long as it didn't suck. He had a pretty high bar for not sucking though, which is why it never happened.
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He must have forgotten about Garfield 2...
To be fair, we all try to forget about Garfield 2.
Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
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Harold Ramis wrote and directed Caddyshack.
And that movie is from Caddyshack.
So now you look a bit stupid.
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HE-MAN!!!!
Sincerely,
The Ungrateful Yuppie Larva of the world.
Re:Beyond Ghostbusters (Score:4, Insightful)
He would deserve the highest praise for Groundhog Day alone, a film that has only grown in popularity and appreciation since its release. The fact that he was involved in one capacity or another in a number of highly esteemed projects over the years shows just how good he really was.
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Am I the only one who's been waiting for years to nail someone who "corrects" me for saying "pdf file"?