That One Time When Austin Powers Made No Sense
The one time. You remember, that one time?
Remember that scene near the beginning of Austin Powers where he punches out the chick and, while she’s unconscious, he says, “It’s a man, baby,” or something like that, and rips the wig off revealing an obvious dude with stubble?
That all made sense, fine, but then a few minutes later in the movie after Austin is recovered from stasis in order to fight Doctor Evil again, (or is it Dr. Evil?) he punches out his boss’s mother, claims she’s a man, and tries to pull her wig off. Only, the wig being actual hair rooted to her head, it failed to come off and Austin was revealed to be a confused, deranged lunatic. He keeps his job anyway. The show must go on.
Why the eff did this happen? The woman wasn’t a fighter. She was old. She was obviously a woman. There was no scheme. The situation was not a dangerous one. There was no explanation given as to why he thought she was a dude. Yeah, it’s a reference to the previous scene, but apropos of what? Nothing!
I’ve been bothered by this scene for months. If I can’t know the in-universe explanation for it—because there likely isn’t one—then I would at least like to know what justification the writer/director/whoever had for it in his own mind. I have a special edition box set of the trilogy, so maybe I should just see if there’s a director’s commentary on it, but I guess I’d rather stew in my own unresolved curiosity.
I’m not without a theory. If in fact there is an explanation for what occurred, then my guess is this:
Much of the movie is spent demonstrating how Austin Powers is a product of his time, and showing him attempting to (or not attempting at all, as the case may be) adapt to the modern world, if the late 1990s can indeed still be regarded as “modern.” One way of showing how the world is no longer like he remembered is by showing him use one of his standard “moves,” but it fails to work because society is different.
If that’s indeed the explanation, then it’s blasted retarded, because it doesn’t demonstrate anything of the sort. It’s just a meaningless, strange and unsatisfying callback. If it’s funny, it’s only because of its wackiness and not because of any logic or deconstruction or wit. It’s just stupid!
There’s no moral to this opinion piece. I’m just ranting.
