Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Who is Johnny Bench?


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Why: Last night, we re-started Season 1 of "Archer," which you should totes watch if you're not already. When he walks in on his mom ... erm, J-ing O, Archer says, "Johnny Bench called..." and he leaves the room.

Then, in a complete coincidence, I'm sure:
Answer: He was the catcher for the Cincinnati Reds from 1967-83! And oops, I've totally read about this before - and even blogged about this post, "The Ten Most Obscure 'Archer' Jokes." But anyway:
In the pilot episode, Archer drops the phrase “Johnny Bench called” in order to let his mother know he caught her doing some fuzzy flounder fishing. But where exactly was he going with that?



Johnny Bench is a Hall of Fame catcher who played for the Cincinnati Reds. According to Adam Reed the joke was to imply the next line: “He wants his mitt back,” thus comparing Malory’s vajayjay to a well worn in catcher’s mitt. Funny. Decent. But the story continues.

After the initial episode aired Adam Reed was informed that Johnny Bench was also known for having giant fingers and was famous for a parlor trick he did where he held seven baseballs in one hand.

This made for a reemergence of the Bench reference aimed at Lana Kane’s monster hands (Truckasaurus!) and her “Johnny Benchian fingers” (S01E04). I feel like the second Johnny Bench joke revises the first, like a humor time loop.

We will keep our ears peeled for this second reference tonight!

Source
: Warming Glow, Urban Dictionary

The More You Know: Verified!

1 comment:

  1. You're close, but not quite on the mark with the Johnny Bench comment. It has nothing to do with the size of his hands. Bench was a catcher, and catchers make finger motions to the pitcher to indicate where they want a pitch to be thrown. They do this by pointing their finger(s) down, over their crotch, where they'll move them from side to side or up and down to say "high and inside" or "down and low" or whatever. He caught his mom doing the same thing with her fingers.

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