Word: thornbook
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Written by nine students, North by North Middle parodies Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest with Roger Thornbook (Jerry Lavin) as an innocent pre-law student and the outraged victim of a mistaken identity who is pursued by police and KGB agents. Lavin pulls off an excellent, recognizable impersonation of Cary Grant, complete with a little "ih" sound before every phrase...
Instead of joking for lawyers, the writers joke about lawyers, including their less well-rounded fellow students who wear white socks with loafers. Rob Okun delivers some of the play's best lines as Leroy Fibre, the class dweeb. He gives Thornbook a rubber chicken as part of some arcane Ames competition ritual and lamely jokes about fondling it. Thornbook stares him down, and Okun stammers out, a la Jerry Lewis and Peter Lorre, "I really didn't fondle it; I only said that to impress...
Even the special effects are respectable. In the movie North by Northwest, Cary Grant was chased across a cornfield by a cropduster. In the law school parody, Thornbook plays a video game called "Cropduster" which seizes his leg and starts to spit out real bullets that convincingly explode against a wooden backdrop. There is even a short kickline. And where else can you get three hours with two dozen lawyers for only four bucks...
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