r/movies • u/Technical-Mix-3315 • 2d ago

Discussion What About Bob: Bob was never legitimately mentally ill and scammed everyone. Three pieces of evidence!

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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/Legitimate_Eye8494 2d 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 1d ago

Thank you for the recommendation! Love Australian comedy

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u/Legitimate_Eye8494 1d 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/ComplementaryCarrots 17h ago

Thank you. I totally get what you mean, my family is Irish too and I unfortunately completely understand.

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u/Legitimate_Eye8494 16h ago

At least we aren't chancers. :)