I Finally Watched Spinal Tap, And Now These 6 Jokes Actually Make Sense

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Here’s something I’ve been afraid to admit: until recently, I had never seen This Is Spinal Tap. I know, people have told me for years that it’s one of the funniest movies ever made and one of the best music movies. So, with the upcoming Spinal Tap II: The End Continues hitting the 2025 movie schedule, I decided to sit down and watch Rob Reiner’s absurd mockumentary about a metal band struggling with relevancy.

To the surprise of no one, myself included, Spinal Tap is legitimately one of the most enjoyable movie, music, and comedy experiences I’ve had in a very long time. Not only did I have a laugh fest watching Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, and Reiner’s characters on screen, but I was also finally able to have the proper context for so many of the movie’s jokes. Here are six that I loved the most…

‘These Go To 11’

For a movie that’s less than 90 minutes long, This Is Spinal Tap sure does have a ton of jokes. Though I’ve seen the iconic “These go to 11” scene where lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) explains his guitar and amp’s longer-than-usual dial to documentarian Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner) countless times, I had never seen it in the proper context of the movie. Plus, what’s the point of leaving it off?

This legendary music movie moment is great as a one-off bit, but after spending around an hour watching Nigel and other members of the band struggle to hold onto fame, fortune, and relevance in a changing world, it hits even harder and louder. It’s truly one of the most ridiculous yet ingenious comedy bits of all time, as it finds and rides that fine line between absurdity and sincerity.

‘He Died. He Died In A Bizarre Gardening Accident’

I’ve heard folks joke about dying in a bizarre gardening accident more than you’d expect, and after watching This Is Spinal Tap, I finally see what all the fuss is about. The scene where the band is talking about trouble they’ve had with drummers over the years is great, especially when it comes to the fate of John “Stumpy” Pepys (Ed Begley Jr.).

Again, the way the surviving members tell the story of Pepys dying in a bizarre gardening accident, one that police said was better left unsolved, without laughing, is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in a movie. How the cast didn’t break character and fall on the floor laughing is a mystery; maybe I should leave it unsolved. Also, Mick Shrimpton (R.J. Parnell) exploding at the end of the movie to continue the “dead drummer” bit gets all the comedy points.

‘This Miniature Bread’

Whenever Nigel Tufnel would appear on screen, I knew something great was going to happen. Little did I know going in, but the joke about the “miniature bread,” when the guitarist doesn’t understand how to make a small sandwich without crumbling the bread, would be one of the highlights of my experience. The scene starts by poking fun at rock stars and their preposterous dressing room demands, and then just gets wilder and wilder over the next few minutes.

Manager Ian Faith (Tony Hendra) walking Nigel through making a miniature sandwich by folding the meat instead of the bread is one of the most outrageous things I’ve seen in a long time. It felt more like a parent trying to teach a petulant child how to eat rather than two adults talking minutes before a big rock show. Oh my god, Nigel destroying each piece of bread in his hand had me laughing so hard my kids came into the room.

‘I Feel My Role In The Band Is To Be In The Middle Of That, Kind Of Like Lukewarm Water’

Though Nigel Tufnel and David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) get a lot of the memorable moments, there’s one character who cracked me up more than the “Shelley and Byron” of the band. Of course, I’m talking about Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer), Spinal Tap’s bassist, who is at the center of a few of the movie’s craziest moments.

While I could go on and on about the “Rock n Roll Creation” scene where Derek gets trapped in that pod for most of the performance, instead, I want to go back to a quieter, slightly more subtle moment where he discusses his place in the band. Describing himself as “lukewarm water” compared to Nigel and David’s “Fire and Ice” dynamic, Shearer’s character delivers his lines in a way that is both poignant and utterly insane, and I’m all about it.

‘What’s Wrong With Being Sexy?’

The whole Smell the Glove drama in This Is Spinal Tap may or may not have inspired Metallica to give their self-titled 1991 album an all-black cover, but one thing that is for sure is that it led to some of the funniest interactions in the entire movie. When the band finds out that their label isn’t going to release the album with its original art due to it being considered sexist, Nigel responds in the best possible way by asking, “What’s wrong with being sexy?” in the most sincere of ways.

Either mistaking “sexist” for “sexy” or not knowing there’s a difference between the two, Nigel’s confusion takes an already wonderful scene and props it up to the stuff of legend. I’ve heard that a lot of this movie was improvised, and that little factoid makes Guest’s reaction all the more outrageous and hilarious.

‘Mime is Money’

Finally, there’s the whole “mime is money” scene, which features one of Billy Crystal’s funniest quotes. I was familiar with this little moment before watching This Is Spinal Tap, but watching the brief interaction between Crystal and Dana Carvey properly was just too funny and made an already great party scene into something better.

I think the only thing that could have made this scene even better would be if Reiner, who did a great job in his directorial debut, had kept in all the deleted mime scenes. There’s a hilarious interaction between Crystal’s mime and Bruno Kirby’s limo driver, Tommy Pischedda, that would have been great on the big screen a few years before the pair shared scenes in When Harry Met Sally.

I’m glad I finally watched This Is Spinal Tap, and I don’t plan on waiting so long to see the sequel after it opens in theaters on September 12.