The Room is the 223rd episode of Screen Junkies comedy series Honest Trailers. It was written by Spencer Gilbert, Joe Starr and Dan Murrell. It was narrated by Jon Bailey as Epic Voice Guy. It parodies the 2003 cult film The Room. It was published on November 28, 2017 to coincide with the theatrical release of The Disaster Artist, a movie about the making of The Room. The video is 6 minutes 37 seconds long. It has been viewed over 4.1 million times.
Watch Honest Trailers - The Room on YouTube
"Enjoy this real-life version of Springtime for Hitler, that's the pinnacle of 'so bad, it's good' filmmaking." ~ Honest Trailers - The Room
Script[]
In a world where most movies are just okay, one film will be so bizarre, so upsetting, and so aggressively bad, the sheer amount of suck will collapse in on itself like a dying star, and explode in a supernova of unintentional genius. (shows Johnny yelling as the screen turns white)
The Room
Tommy Wiseau stars in, writes, produces, and directs a film that puts the "passion" in "passion project", financed by a rumored $6 million of his own mysterious fortune (a GQ article with the title "The Room: Tommy Wiseau and the world's greatest bad movie" pops up, highlighting how the film cost $6 million to make), and featuring three long minutes of his own mysterious butt cheeks. (shows clips of Johnny leaving his buttocks exposed while having sex) He's a man with a singular vision, a unique personal style (shows Johnny wearing a black t-shirt, a sports coat, and baggy cargo pants), and a powerful message to share with the world: maybe it's okay to give up on your dreams.
Johnny: How can they say this about me? I don't believe it. I'll show them.
Journey to B-roll of San Francisco, and meet Johnny, your everyday all-American Dracula.
Johnny: You know, people don't have to say it. They can feel it.
Sometimes, his emotions run hot.
Johnny: You are TEARING me APART, Lisa!
Sometimes, he's so cold, it's like he forgets he's on camera. (shows Johnny staring blankly) But he always finds time to laugh at the little things...
Johnny: Anything for my princess. (laughs)
(montage of Johnny laughing)
...or laugh for no particular reason (another montage of Johnny laughing), or laugh at things you really shouldn't be laughing at.
Mark: One of 'em found out about it, beat her up so bad, she ended up in a hospital on Guerrero Street.
Johnny: (laughs)
Dude... What part of that is funny?
Experience a story that, at its core, is a really simple love triangle, where Johnny is engaged to Lisa, his wife of the future...
Johnny: You're my future wife.
Denny: Lisa's your future wife.
Johnny: After all, she's my future wife.
...but she doesn't love him...
Lisa: --I don't love Johnny anymore. / I don't love him anymore. / --I don't love him anymore. / But I don't love him.
...so she sleeps with Mark, his best friend.
Mark: Johnny's my best friend. / Johnny's my best friend. / Johnny's my best friend.
Lisa: I know. He's your best friend.
But set that aside, because The Room has enough dangling plot threads to weave a blanket, like... this endless unexplained game of tuxedo football, Johnny's promotion at... whatever his job is, these two friends (Mike and Michelle) who randomly appear and disappear throughout the movie, this drug deal that's never mentioned again...
Chris-R: (jamming a gun into Denny's head) Where's my f*cking money, Denny?!
...and the most casual "I have cancer" of all time.
Claudette: I got the results of the test back. I definitely have breast cancer.
You, uh... You going to react to that? No? Okay, cool, cool...
Most movies cut straight to the interesting parts, but The Room is not most movies, where, if a man makes a tape, you get to see him set up the equipment (shows Johnny installing a recording device on his landline phone); if two friends have lunch, you see what everyone in front of them ordered...
Male Customer: And I'll take some, uh, cheesecake and a coffee.
Waiter: Okay. Why don't you guys have a seat? We'll have that right out for you.
Male Customer: Thanks. (sits at a table as another customer walks up)
Susan: Hi. How you doing? What would you like?
Other Male Customer: Can I get a... bagel and an Americana?
Susan: Great. Sure.
Female Customer: I'm gonna get a slice of cheesecake and a bottle of water.
Waiter: Yeah, sounds good. Why don't you guys have a seat? We'll have that right out for you.
Female Customer: Thank you. (sits at a table as Johnny walks up)
Johnny: Oh hi, Susan.
Susan: Well, hi, Johnny.
...and if a man gives his fiancée flowers, you'll see exactly how that financial transaction went down. Spoiler alert: it was weird.
Johnny: How much is it?
Cashier: It'll be $18.
Johnny: Here you go. Keep the change. Hi, doggy. (pets a dog sitting on the counter)
Cashier: You're my favorite customer.
Johnny: Thanks a lot. Bye.
Do you like sex? Well, not for long, because you're about to watch an alien's approximation of human lovemaking, where a little man playing a little boy tries to join a threesome...
Johnny: --three is a crowd. / (laughs)
...these two randoms act like toddlers while they do it...
Michelle: Arms up. (removes Mike's shirt)
...and Johnny does his best to penetrate the area around Lisa's belly button. (shows Johnny making thrusting motions around where Lisa's navel would be) Just close your eyes when the R&B comes on; trust us. (shows Lisa sighing as Johnny falls asleep after sex)
So enjoy this real-life version of Springtime for Hitler, that's the pinnacle of "so bad, it's good" filmmaking, spawning midnight movie screenings, Oscar-caliber films about its creation (shows the poster for The Disaster Artist), and the enduring mystery of who Tommy Wiseau is, where he's from, where his money comes from, and how old he is. But some mysteries are probably better left unsolved. We've seen the guy's taint; I don't need to know any more.
Starring: Football (shows clips of characters throwing a football); Spoon Art (shows framed pictures of spoons as set decorations); Entrances and Exits (montage of characters greeting another character as they enter a room, intercut with characters saying they have to go); Don't Worrys (montage of characters saying "don't worry")...
Lisa: Don't worry about Johnny. He's just being a big baby.
...Generalizing About Women...
Lisa: Women change their minds all the time.
Mark: You think girls like to cheat like guys do?
Johnny: They never say what they mean. And they always play games.
Mark: Sometimes they're just too smart. Sometimes they're just flat-out stupid. Other times they're just evil.
...Falling for No Reason (montage of characters falling down); Lisa Doesn't Want to Talk About It (montage of Lisa saying "I don't wanna talk about it."); FOCUS! FOCUS! FOCUS! (montage of out-of-focus shots); and Chicken?
Johnny: You're just a little chicken!
(montage of characters making chicken noises)
The Room. Not Room. THE Room. Veeery Different.
Honest title for The Room - The Room. Not Room. THE Room. Veeery Different. Titles designed by Robert Holtby.
I like to think Lisa's mom isn't playing a character; she's just a lady who wandered in and started commenting on what she saw.
Claudette: What are these characters doing here? / How many people come in and out of this apartment every day? This is worse than Grand Central Station.
Viewer's Comments[]
The viewer's comments heavily referencing the quotes from the same movie.
Say: you're my favorite customer! - Emmy Yanez
"Leave your stupid comments in your pocket." - ellesha wilson
Say "I got a test results back. I definitely have a breast cancer." - 109reaper
Say "You're tearing me apart, lisa!" - Shiba Jessie-kun
Please say "I did not hit her, it's not true! It's bullsh*t! I did not hit her! I did not! Oh hai Mark!" - Daniel Perez
Trivia[]
Honest Trailer Commentaries - The Room
- The writers had considered doing an Honest Trailer for The Room for several years, but put it off because they didn't know what the say about it that hadn't already been said. They decided to let the movie speak for itself and just be really upfront in the Honest Trailer.
- Screen Junkies have also produced Honest Trailers for several other terrible films including The Last Airbender, After Earth, The Happening, Captain America (1990), Catwoman, The Star Wars Holiday Special, Gotti, Howard the Duck and many others. See list of Honest Trailers for more.
Watch the full Honest Trailer Commentary on YouTube
Reception[]
Honest Trailers - The Room has a 98.2% approval rating from YouTube viewers. Hello Giggles described the Honest Trailer for The Room as an example Screen Junkies "signature takedown treatment." The site wrote, "The parody trailer captures what made The Room so universally loved and loathed with hilarious attention to detail." ScreenRant praised the Honest Trailer's opening line ("the sheer amount of suck will collapse in on itself like a dying star, and explode in a supernova of unintentional genius") for being "strangely poetic - and arguably accurate." In the same article, ScreenRant commended the Honest Trailer for letting awkward moments from the movie stand on their own: "Perhaps the best visually represented moments in the Honest Trailer are the very long sequences, which show genuinely unedited moments of unnecessary details." ScreenRant also noted the Honest Trailer is likely to encourage viewers to seek out The Room: "Like most of the Honest Trailers, there's plenty of affection in the presentation rather than just cruel humor. It really brings home the weird and unique qualities of Wiseau's movie, and it'll be surprising if some people don't actually seek it out after watching this." EW noted that The Room is easy to make fun of, and thus Screen Junkies criticisms "do occasionally resemble shooting fish in a barrel (and, in this case, we mean the barrel of the gun)."
Production credits[]
Video thumbnail for Honest Trailers - The Room
Voiceover Narration by Jon Bailey
Title design by Robert Holtby
Producers - Dan Murrell, Spencer Gilbert, Joe Starr, Max Dionne
Written by Spencer Gilbert, Joe Starr and Dan Murrell
Edited by Kevin Williamsen and TJ Nordaker
External links []
- "The Room" got a savage Honest Trailer that reminds us why it's the best-worst movie - Hello Giggles article
- The Room Honest Trailer: Tommy Wiseau is an Unintentional Genius - ScreenRant article
- The Room, Called the Worst Movie Ever Made, Gets the Honest Trailer It Deserves - The Mary Sue article
- Oh Hai, Honest Trailer for The Room - Slate article
- Watch Honest Trailers tear apart The Room in new video - EW article