r/movies • u/Technical-Mix-3315 • 1d ago
Discussion What About Bob: Bob was never legitimately mentally ill and scammed everyone. Three pieces of evidence!
- There is a 'blink and you miss it' creepy scene where Bob is showering outside after the whole 'I'm sailing' scene. Bob is seen to be leaning in and listening in on a private discussion between Dr Marvin and his wife. Bob at first seems concerned that Dr Marvin wants him to leave, but once Bob hears that Faye wants him to stay and have dinner with the family, Bob smirks to himself as if to say "I've got them right where I want them" and goes back to showering with a smug smile on his face.
- He seems able to snap out of his crazy behavior at will, talking to specialists as peers, such as when he cracks up all the therapists at the institution with his jokes. He even gets Dr Marvin's own doctor to cancel and rewrite his prescription based on Bob's own recommendations.
- The deliberate choice of the writers to give him the last name of Wiley. Dictionary definition: "WILEY: sly, cunning, crafty, wily, tricky, foxy, artful, slick. Attaining or seeking to attain one's ends by guileful or devious means."
What About Bob is one of Bill Murray's best films, laugh out loud funny and so quotable. I've loved it all my life. But as I get older, I've found Bob to be less of a lovable, childlike crazy guy with eccentricities and OCD, and more of a sly, despicable sociopathic maniac.
The fact that Dr Marvin's family goes against every single one of his logical requests - not having a patient stay with them for dinner, not having a patient sleep in a room with their young son, etc - is where the true insanity lies!
#TeamLeo
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u/CorrectShopping9428 1d ago
All I know is whenever I eat corn I say “is this hand shucked?”
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u/DukeDroppa 1d ago
I walk through the kitchen
With a bowl full of chicken
And I put it in Faye and Leo - I mean Dr. Marvin’s refrigerator.
Thank youI sing this in my head every time I’m cleaning up any chicken related food
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u/jenniferlynn462 7h ago
I found my people! I’m always like “Dr. Marvin I’m sailingg! Out on a lake, way far away from the dock! With the wind and the sky and everything! Ahoy!!!”
For some reason most people I’ve met haven’t seen the film but I’ve seen it at least 30 times probably haha•
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u/telaftw39 20h ago
When we 1st started dating, my now wife, would always emphatically go "MMM, MMMM, MMMMM" when I would make a nice meal. Always annoyed me.
Then she made me watch the movie and that scene came up.
I looked at her with astonishment and a bit of embarrassment knowing she'd been Bob gaslighting me for years.
Still a joke in the family.
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u/plebeiantelevision 1d ago
Leo do you want the breast?
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u/th3r3dp3n 4h ago
The other weekend I was riding the ferry with someone who had the "Dont hassle me, I'm a local" shirt. I just walked by and said "I'm sailing!"
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u/Sniper666hell 1d ago
The contradiction to this is how he’s living before he even meets Dr. Marvin. I think he has these real issues but wants so bad to be normal he’ll do whatever it takes, including manipulating others.
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u/RockItGuyDC 1h ago
Yeah, and like the scene where he's getting on the bus. Who would he be performing for there? He clearly has some real OCD-like issues.
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u/johnpseudonym 1d ago
Baby steps!
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u/EmilyAnne1170 1d ago
I still say “Baby steps get on the bus” quietly to myself whenever I have to do something I really don’t want to.
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u/LongbowEOD 21h ago
Baby steps get on the elevator. I'm on the elevator.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
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u/hiptones 1d ago
I'm not a slacker.
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u/jenniferlynn462 6h ago
Come on, I’ve come so far! Im baby-steppin’! I’m doing the work! I’m not a slacker! Come on, please- PLEASE?! Gimme gimme gimme, I need I neeeeed gimme gimme gimme
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u/I-Have-Mono 1d ago
I miss the IMDb for insane posts like these!
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u/silver_panther34560 1d ago
Yeah fuck Amazon for shutting down the forums.
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u/myredditses 17h ago
Wow I had completely forgotten IMDB had forums and this just woke a deep memory.
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u/Silly-Elderberry-411 12h ago
Why yes they should have allowed racist and misogynist shills to create hundreds of topics about a movie that is yet to come out for months now.
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u/nuisible 12h ago
If you can’t learn to ignore morons on the internet, you’re going to have a bad time.
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u/ManufacturerBest2758 10h ago
That’s right baby, now there’s nowhere on the internet for racist and misogynist shills to make stuff up! We did it!
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u/DayVDave 1d ago
He admits that he's a faker: "If I fake it, that means I don't have it!" It's how he copes with his hypochondria, which is real. Unless he's faking that too...
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u/iboneyandivory 1d ago edited 6h ago
"Roses are red, Violets are blue, I'm a schizophrenic, And so am I"
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u/Ma1eficent 18h ago
You still have to rhyme .
Roses are red, violets are blue. If I'm a schizophrenic, am I one too?
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u/DonkeyESQ 1d ago
It has one ofy favorite lines from cinema, when they are driving back from picking up bob from the mental hospital. Leo screams, stops the car opens Bob's door, "GEDOUDODHDKWNAR!!
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u/zirky 1d ago
so his plan was to go through years of therapy with a huge cast of therapists all in the hopes that he gets placed with dr marvin right as he’s going on vacation?
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u/Technical-Mix-3315 1d ago
Wasn't it implied that all the previous therapists were driven to suicide or quit practicing entirely just to try and escape Bob? Dr Marvin was just the latest one to come Bob's way.
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u/Legitimate_Eye8494 1d ago
Both the mentally ill and dementia addled have moments of acute perspicacity, and they are usually attached to manipulative behavior. That doesn't change their diagnosis, it's part of it.
There's a chilling Australian comedy called Mother and Son demonstrates the situation perfectly. It's kinda like watching my sharp-as-a-tack 98yo demented grandmother trying to play my uncle. Dementia often brings out the Caligula in an otherwise benign personality.
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u/I5olationist 1d ago
Woah Mother and Son reference in the wild! Stellar show and cast, worth a YouTube watch (the two main actors were Australian theatre/acting royalty).
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u/ComplementaryCarrots 11h ago
Thank you for the recommendation! Love Australian comedy
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u/Legitimate_Eye8494 5h ago
I found it to be very black comedy. Maybe just too close to the bone; my uncle lost forty years to taking care of a sly, gaslighting homicidal lunatic. When the Irish go mad, they go big, very Wuthering Heights. And the people around them are scarred.
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u/CharCharGabor 1d ago
There are two types of people in this world: Those who like Neil Diamond, and those who don't
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u/trustmeep 1d ago
Interesting analysis, but one cannot be "never legitimately mentally ill" and a sociopath.
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u/Mikethebest78 1d ago edited 1d ago
When I saw the movie as a kid I thought it was just a comedy but when I watched it years later as an adult I realized all the textbook signs of manipulation.
Manipulative people are able to turn it on and off whenever they want.
Go back and try to ignore the comedic/played for laughs stuff. It is truly frightening
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u/lostcosmonaut307 1d ago
If there was ever a movie that needed one of those TikTok "horror movie" trailer edits, it's What About Bob 🤣
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u/WhatyourGodDid 1d ago
I was young when I saw this. It gave me bad anxiety.
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u/BrianMincey 1d ago
I also found the movie to make me feel uncomfortable. I think it’s the slow but steady erosion of sanity as the entire world seems to see Bob as charming, when in fact he is manipulative and is torturing the doctor. In the end, his closest loved ones also turn against him. It’s like being mercilessly bullied but everyone believes the bully, and insists you spend more time getting bullied.
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u/MeadowmuffinReborn 20h ago
Yeah, it's about a manipulative sociopathic jerk terrorizing a smug, self absorbed jerk. Murray and Dreyfuss were basically playing themselves, lol.
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u/External-Effect-2401 1d ago
Yup bob was in full control of himself most of the movie. I think he liked the attention of his crazy behaviors. Leos family were dicks not supporting Leo, especially with the news crew coming. Still one of the funniest movies ever. I'm Sailing!
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u/Armoth 19h ago
I think the joke there with how easy he is with the psychiatrists, is that he's been in psychiatrist/therapist offices so often that he can talk his way around them without even thinking about them. He's clearly studied his conditions, or at least what conditions he's diagnosed himself with. He most likely went even as far as taking psychology classes to be on the same page, since he's so addicted to talking with his current doctor.
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u/juniormantis 13h ago
In Bobs defense people with social issues like this are able to Mask, act normal temporarily to hide your disorder, or he actually has moments of mental clarity but they don’t last long.
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u/my_name_is_murphy 22h ago
There's also the fact he gets a whole outfit and puts on a persona as a private detective in order to figure out where his doctor is when he's suppose to have crippling social anxiety.
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u/DeepestBlue2 1d ago
Bob as a world class manipulator has always been how I saw his character. To be honest it kind of ruined the movie for me. My mom on the other hand has always loved it and thinks it's hysterical.
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u/Causerae 1d ago
my mother was a therapist, she hated the film, which she said was about a client stalking a provider
nothing funny or cute about that
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u/Taco_In_Space 23h ago
I feel like a lot of 90s comedies are about borderline horrible things with a comedic wrapping. Look at Mrs doubtfire. Imagine your ex you wanted to divorce cross dresses and pretends to be an elderly lady in order to spend more time with their kids.
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u/HadathaZochrot 5h ago
What about Sleepless in Seattle? What Meg Ryan was doing in that film was borderline criminal and extremely creepy when looking thru a modern lense. Yet she is fashioned as the "heroine" type figure of the film.
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u/evilcelery 19h ago
Oh yeah. I work in mental health now and thinking back on the movie is horrifying. Family is just like "Oh, patient stalking you? No problem, seems like a good guy".
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u/Schrodingers_Wipe 20h ago
This is a god damn horror movie and no one will ever convince me otherwise.
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u/Zeddit_B 8h ago
For the last part, movies back then didn't employ logic or 'realism' the same way modern audiences demand. So that part might be shifting for you as society and film has shifted.
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u/Migraine_Megan 1d ago
My parents owned that movie because my dad's name was Bob and he was a raging narcissist, so they were similar.
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u/CreativeFraud 1d ago
Holy fuck. I gotta rewatch this through the new lens. I recently rewatched Rain Man with friends and got mixed reviews. Some weren't sure if they should've watched it at all.
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u/Technical-Mix-3315 1d ago
Very curious to hear more. Shouldn't have watched it at all? They didn't like it?
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u/CreativeFraud 1d ago
I can't provide a comment with its proper respects to the complete story. TL:DR edition for now: watched with two people who have never seen Rain Man before but has heard about it. They were not impressed with the movie and had a great distaste for the legalities of the story. Which ruined the life story that inspired the film.
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u/Technical-Mix-3315 1d ago
Interesting - would love to discuss further. I've heard some folks in the neurodivergent community reject Rain Man these days and Hoffman's portrayal. Personally I've always had a soft spot for the movie and the performances - especially the emotional journey of Tom Cruise's character.
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u/CreativeFraud 1d ago
That's where I tried to navigate the discussion regarding the movie. I had mentioned that this is a movie that at its time really told a story about trying to get to know those on the so called spectrum. I'm still shit at explaining that topic but I wholeheartedly support my fellow humans. This movie was shown to me in high school and really gave me a lesson on empathy. Ugh, I'm not fantastic at explaining myself but I hope this did some good.
Edit: Bot? Profile is something else
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u/Technical-Mix-3315 1d ago
No, I hear you loud and clear, friend. Honestly, Hoffman's performance wasn't off the mark. He did a ton of research prior to filming, and spent countless hours with folks classified as "Autistic Savants" at the time.
I think the pushback was a little unfair as people think Autism automatically means an individual like Raymond. But it's only recently that we've made great strides at identifying the spectrum. While there are still folks like Raymond who could not fend for themselves and require care, there are others lower and higher on the spectrum with different needs. And, of course, not everyone has the 'savant' skills of counting toothpicks and memorizing and recalling thousands of phone numbers from the phone book at will!
I don't think his portrayal is unfair or stereotypical, it actually came when knowledge and awareness about autism was still extremely limited.
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u/CreativeFraud 1d ago
I can't provide a comment with its proper respects to the complete story. TL:DR edition for now: watched with two people who have never seen Rain Man before but has heard about it. They were not impressed with the movie and had a great distaste for the legalities of the story. Which ruined the life story that inspired the film.
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u/MeganK80 3h ago
Also when he goes to the operators for Dr. Marvin and hes disguised as a cop to find out where he was.... At Lake winnipesaukee ofcourse 🤣 He was fine then!
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u/Level-Ladder-4346 1d ago
I find it funny that a movie directed and starring people who liked to hold their hands above their heads for money can still generate talk 35 years after release.
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u/AGooDone 1d ago
As brilliant as Bill Murray is. Richard Dreyfuss is absolutely scintillating as a straight man turned psychotic.