Bubble Trouble
If, like most of us here, your age begins with a 3, you probably count as one of the formative events of your childhood the November 12, 1976 viewing (or subsequent reruns) of The Boy in the Plastic Bubble. We laughed... we cried... we even wished that we, too, could be suffer from a rare disorder so that we could play pranks on the teacher and make chicks feel sorry for us. Well, guess what? It was all a fraud.
Like so much else in this world, The Boy in the Plastic Bubble is a massive fraud that has been unreported (or perhaps even covered up) by our MSM. As this footage from the movie shows, baby John Travolta was briefly exposed to the environment as his incubator rounded a corner in the hospital. It may seem like only a brief exposure, but we were all led to believe that even the slightest contact with the environment could kill poor bubble boy. Tragic... or so it seemed.
That he was exposed to the environment almost immediately after birth cannot be disputed. The question is why all the coverup? Did his doctor know? Did his father know? And, even more important, did his mother know that his father was Mr. Brady?
So, was Bubble Boy, starring a pre-Brokeback Jack a lighthearted sequel? And why did I think someone else was the star of that movie?
Yeah, I specifically remember Boy in the Plastic Bubble and also When a Stranger Calls. I am pretty sure I remember it on TV, so it must have been a "Movie of the Week" shortly after it's theatrical release. For my money, it has one of the best lines ever in movies:
Jill, we've traced the calls... They're coming from inside the house!
Of course, no line that good can occur without a remake.
El D, your first comment gives me a great idea for a movie mashup: Brokeback Bubble Boy.
"I can't quit you, Bubble Boy."
Posted by:
samuelad on June 17, 2006 11:49 AM
Just got around to checking out the Wikipedia entry for David Vetter, the real bubble boy. Amazing that this little factoid did not make it into the movie:
Psychological aspects
Although the press created an image of a healthy young boy trapped in a bubble, David was psychologically unstable, primarily due to the lack of any human contact. Normally presenting a painstakingly polite facade, he was increasingly angry and depressed about his condition and would act out. On one occasion, when one of his doctors had a heart attack, he spread his own excrement all over the bubble.
Clearly, this anger is the genesis of one of my favorite Seinfeld episodes: Bubble Boy, in which Donald the bubble boy asks Susan to take her top off and then gets in a fight with George. George's classic response to Donald's question "WHAT ARE YOU LOOKIN' AT? NEVER SEEN A KID IN A BUBBLE BEFORE?" is "'Course I have. Come on. My cousin's in a bubble. My friend Jeffrey's uh, sister, also ... you know ...bubble. I got a lot of bubble experience. Come on."
I feel sorry for the real bubble boy, but I gotta say that his parents, knowing they had a 50/50 chance of having another boy with SCID, are extremely selfish people.
Posted by:
samuelad on June 17, 2006 01:34 PM
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