You wanna hear what they call a cockroach in Botswana?
"In 1994, an irreverent young filmmaker shocked audiences at the Cannes film festival with a violent, out-of-sequence new movie that changed the style of motion picture storytelling forever. That film won the coveted Palme D’or, resurrected the career of a former Sweathog, made it’s director a star, and a handful of people made a lot of money. The success of the movie spawned a new wave of bloody cinema that is currently sweeping the globe. We feel this type of cinema is barbaric and irresponsible. We fear these films will trigger more violence in an already brutal society. Now is the time for Hollywood to supply mankind with a more wholesome, nonviolent- (GUNSHOT) Augh... life affirming... motion picture... (dies)"
— Don LaFontaine at the beginning of the movie.
Plump Fiction is a 1997 parody film that parodies violent films of the 90s, mostly parodying Pulp Fiction.
The film has four intersecting plot lines, each parodying a different film: In a parody of the first segment of Pulp Fiction, exterminator Jimmy Nova is tasked with spending some time with his boss’ wife. In a parody of Reservoir Dogs, a group of strippers who work for Jimmy’s boss make plans to rob him while disguised as nuns. In a parody of Natural Born Killers, a pair of tag team wrestlers who are lovers steal the exact same boss’ briefcase. All the while, someone tries to deliver the only copy of a violent film script to a Captain Ersatz of Quentin Tarantino.
This film provides examples of:
- Anachronic Order: The film is shown out of order, just like Pulp Fiction. Priscilla: Queen of the Desserts lampshades this at the end of the film.
- In universe, when Bumpkin finally arrives to deliver the script to Crispin, it’s all out of order. Luckily, Crispin is a Captain Ersatz of Quentin Tarantino, and the script is eligible to be used.
- Bait-and-Switch: At one point in the film, we see what appears to be a recreation of the opening to Reservoir Dogs, but then it turns into a parody of The Monkees intro
- Big Eater: If there’s anything Mimi likes, it’s food.
- Big "NO!": Jimmy makes one when he sees Mimi eating his eclair.
- Brainless Beauty: Mimi, much to Jimmy’s chagrin.
- Captain Ersatz: Almost everyone in the film is meant to parody someone.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Some of the characters, but the biggest is Mimi.
- Exact Words: When it’s revealed that Montello’s briefcase contains a possibly valuable Welcome Back, Kotter lunchbox, the Natural Blonde Killers tell Julius that they’re taking the box. Julius agrees to let them have the box... and then helps himself to the stack of money that’s inside of it. If the wrestlers told Julius to let them have the box AND what was inside of it, this wouldn’t have happened.
- The Fool: Mimi, Nicky, Nell the Gimp, and Bumpkin.
- I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: In a parody of the famous scene from Pulp Fiction, Mimi accidentally shoots the stuffed penguin that the nuns planned on hiding the stolen money in, scaring the nuns that are also in the backseat out of the car, completely unharmed.
- Insane Troll Logic: When Mimi shoots one of the nuns, and Jimmy calls her out on this, completely forgetting that she wasn’t actually a nun, Mimi tries to correct him by saying that she said she had a boyfriend.
- MacGuffin: Just like Pulp Fiction, it’s Montello’s briefcase, the contents of which are unknown until the end of the film, where it’s contents are revealed to be a Welcome Back, Kotter lunchbox, and some orange glow sticks. Also, the lunchbox contains a stack of money.
- My Nayme Is: The name of the female half of the Natural Blonde Killers is pronounced like Valerie, but spelled like Mallory, but with a V instead of an M.
- Near-Death Experience: Played for Laughs in a parody of the scene from Pulp Fiction where Mia overdoses and nearly dies. Here, the stress of being unable to unwrap some chocolate somehow causes Mimi to pass out, forcing Viv, Les, and Jimmy to save her.
- Also, Sister Ruth is shot, and nearly bleeds to death, but Kandi/Sister Mary doesn’t have any intent in getting her to a hospital since it’s not part of the plan.
- Noodle Incident: It is explained at the beginning of the film that something happened to someone who was with Mimi after she ate Mexican food, which makes it important that she not eat it. Although, we eventually learn what happens: her hair somehow grows and she speaks with a Spanish accent, as well as act seductive.
- Parody Names: Many of the Captain Ersatzes have names that parody the names of the characters they’re parodying.
- Random Events Plot: There are several plotlines, and no overarching story, and in 3 of the plotlines, at least one main character dies.
- Running Gag: A literal one throughout the film has Bumpkin racing to deliver the only copy of a violent film script to Crispin Maraschimo. Sometimes, he’ll bump into one of the other characters, and drop the script pages, and then whoever he bumped into will coldly tell him to watch where he’s going. There are no page numbers on the script pages, and Bumpkin has a hard time getting everything in the right order, and when he finally arrives at the end of the film, the script has become a convoluted mess. Luckily, Crispin loves it, and the script is used the way it is.
- Early on in the film, it is shown that Jimmy Nova seems to know what things are called in different areas of the world, which is Justified as he’s been in Europe for a while. Sadly, it’s never brought up again after Jimmy asks Montello if he knows what cockroaches are called in Botswana.
- Sassy Black Woman: Sister Sledge is black.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After Jimmy and Julius are almost shot dead by Nicky and Vallory, the latter decides to quit working for Montello and storms off. Not that it stops him from exterminating anyway, as he does a job at the end of the film.
- Take That!: A Captain Ersatz of Spike Lee complains about who would want to watch films from a director like him.
- The Mole: When the cops are called on the nuns, they all suspect that one of them is trying to betray them. Then it turns out that none of them have seen Sister Betrille strip at all in their lives.
- What the Hell Is That Accent?: Much like the title character of the film Nell, this version of the character speaks in an incomprehensible language. Mimi is able to understand her due to her being the only one who could understand her alcoholic mother from the South.
- Whole-Plot Reference:
- One of the plotlines parodies the segment of Pulp Fiction where Vincent Vega spends time with his boss’ wife while he’s away.
- Another plotline has a bunch of strippers trying to rob their boss, which looks reminiscent of Reservoir Dogs, with nuns involved.
- There’s also a plotline involving tag team wrestlers with a name similar to the film Natural Born Killers, mixed with “The Gold Watch”, the second segment of Pulp Fiction.
- The opening parodies the diner opening scene of Pulp Fiction, which develops a plotline where the male tries to deliver a film script, and near the end, the diner epilogue is parodied, also bringing closure to the Natural Born Killers plotline.
"This has been one long, mixed-up, crazy, out-of-sequence kind of day!"
— Priscilla, Queen of the Desserts
