#he’s basically the butters of the group yet it’s perfectly normalized to include butters with the main 4 but including tweek with Craig’s

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I’ll never quite understand the discourse around whether or not Tweek is a part of Craig’s group

He may not appear as frequently as the other members but he still is pretty consistently associated with them, and has been even before he and Craig started dating

Even South Park studios lists him as a part of the group

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I watched Charlie Chaplin‘s century-old short, The Immigrant (1917) days before I saw the announcement for the Food in Film Blogathon and took it as a sign. The movie, which according to several sources was Chaplin’s favorite of the Mutual shorts, features a memorable scene during which the Little Tramp has a meal, a simple enough endeavor for most people, but which becomes art in the hands of Charlie Chaplin. That scene in The Immigrant is reminiscent of others I enjoy immensely in later Chaplin movies and so the idea to dedicate this entry to Chaplin’s art of the meal was born.

Meals in Chaplin movies allow for the full range of his talent to emerge. Through his Tramp we enjoy his signature slapstick coupled with pathos illustrating his genius time and time again. During an interview I listened to some time ago Mary Pickford discussed the Little Tramp at length. She said she wished the actor/director would have continued to play the character for the entirety of his career. She felt that the Little Tramp “is as important a character as film has ever seen, representing those who don’t normally have a voice. Through the images of this wonderfully relatable character, Chaplin was able to make us laugh, break our hearts and make valuable social commentary.” Perhaps the most consistent manner through which Chaplin exemplified all of that was by way of meals, which play an important role in many of his films. The Tramp, as the down-on-his-luck fella he invariably is, is able to convey a wide range of emotions in artistic fashion by simply trying to ensure sustenance in order to make it through another day.

The Tramp in EASY STREET (1917)

Let me begin my discussion of Chaplin’s art of the meal with The Immigrant since that’s the movie that came to mind when considering food in film. This movie stars Chaplin as the title character and was written and directed by him as were all of the other movies mentioned here. The Tramp is the title character alongside frequent co-star, Edna Purviance, both of whom take a boat to the U.S. in search of freedom and a better life. Neither of those come easily for the Tramp in this as you might expect, but the journey is often touching and always entertaining. The Little Tramp meets and falls in love with the girl and gets into a bit of trouble along the way.

There are two meals in The Immigrant worthy of mention. The first is simple and just for laughs where we see the group of immigrants trying to eat on the rocky boat. One particular funny sequence shows the Tramp and another passenger eating from the same bowl of food that moves back and forth between them. The second and more important meal takes up the entire second part of the movie. The Tramp has arrived in New York penniless and hungry when he happens upon a nickel on the street, which allows him a meal out of a huge plate of beans, bread and a cup of coffee in a nearby restaurant. Much of the time the Tramp tries to be a class act as in this instance when we see him eating the bowl of beans with style, one at a time, savoring each morsel. Soon, however, hunger gets the best of him as he starts scooping up beans by the mouthful. It’s during this entertaining bit that the Tramp sees the girl sitting across the restaurant from him. He invites her to a meal at his table. The slapstick turns to sweet, coquettish fun before it makes a dramatic turn toward nervous tension when the Tramp realizes the nickel has fallen out of his pocket.

The meal is prominent in the movie poster

The Tramp sees the girl across the restaurant as he scoops up beans

That scene in The Immigrant exemplifies many of the themes Chaplin was able to convey in his meal scenes as well as all of the Tramp’s attributes to include, “A tramp, a gentleman, a poet, a dreamer, a lonely fellow, always hopeful of romance and adventure.” (Chaplin) We’d see and recognize these in many of his later, more popular movies, but are prevalent in his shorts as well.

Charlie Chaplin’s meticulously executed choreography is as important a part of his intimate, often introspective meal scenes as it is in all-out physical scenes. The entire package of Chaplin’s art is evident in his art of the meal, which in some ways represents the perfect setting for what makes the Tramp the important character Gish mentioned. In fact, some of Chaplin’s meal or food-related routines are not only among the most memorable in his movies, but in all of cinema. Every conceivable scenario involving food and the Little Tramp comes to fruition in Chaplin’s cinema, including the character becoming embroiled with an eating machine in the iconic sequence in Modern Times (1936), his last silent picture.

The victim of industrialization

“Don’t stop for lunch. Be ahead of the competitor!”

The Little Tramp becomes the poster boy for the dehumanization of the worker as we see him struggle to survive the modern, industrialized world. That is, according to Chaplin who takes the point to the extreme when the powers that be in a factory choose the Tramp as the guinea pig for a new feeding machine that will save them time and money. The contraption is robotic with the different courses of the meal laid out to be fed to the worker who is strapped in. At first everything works smoothly. The tray lifts, food is delivered into the Tramp’s mouth and an automatic mouth wiper follows. The action repeats and even includes the buttering of a corn cob, but before long sparks start flying and the poor Tramp is assaulted by hot soup, iron bolts and flying corn. Chaplin makes his point, albeit in an ever entertaining way, and in the process manages to disrupt the perfectly timed mechanism of an entire factory to parody the assembly line created by Ford in 1913, which also happened to be used regularly by movie studios. It is by way of a meal that Chaplin shows that there is little sense in total automation, that the individual worker has value that cannot be replaced.

Modern Times has many other meaningful meal scenes. At one point the Tramp is once again lost in a the big city without means. The only respite he can come up with is being arrested, which would offer him three basics a day. The goal becomes landing in jail at any cost, which is solved by his ordering an opulent meal at a restaurant for which he cannot pay. After this meal the Tramp meets “A Gamine” (Paulette Goddard) his female equivalent in society who ensures her own survival and that of her younger siblings by stealing food. The two end up going to jail together and share several meals during the rest of the story. Of course the romantic sharing of a meal happens, which is a necessity, but there is also the overnight break-in at a department store during which the two indulge in an embarrassment of riches – cakes and sandwiches and sodas. The sequence in the store delivers a not-so-subtle message: while the reality for so many during The Depression was grim and dark, there were some who could enter department stores and enjoy the riches offered on a regular basis. Having food are riches to poor people, not glamorous outfits or expensive cars.

The girl in the department store gorging herself on cake

Another artistic display involving food in Modern Times that I enjoy immensely is the scene where the Little Tramp is working as a waiter. He got the job thanks to the girl and tries his best to fulfill his duties. Unfortunately, the meal involved is never consumed because the Tramp’s attempt to deliver goes awry. The sequence begins as the Tramp leaves the restaurant kitchen with tray in hand and as soon as he steps out into the dining hall the floor is mobbed by dancers. With the tray held high above his head the Tramp tries to deliver a chicken meal to an increasingly angry customer. The poor chap gets an A for effort, but the attempts prove futile as the dancers pull him around the dance floor. When the Tramp finally reaches the customer’s table he is sans chicken because it got caught in the chandelier. This is a hilarious, beautifully choreographed sequence.

The Tramp finally delivers the tray, but hasn’t noticed the chicken is missing

If I had to choose a favorite Charlie Chaplin movie it would be City Lights (1931), the most romantic of his features, which is also good for many belly laughs. This movie offers several funny food-related scenes including one where the Tramp is at a party in a millionaire’s house and mistakenly tried to scoop dip from what turns out to be a guy’s bald head. Then there’s the scene when the Tramp is drunk at a nightclub eating spaghetti. As he twirls the pasta onto his fork he also catches pieces of streamers hanging from the ceiling. Instead of stopping when he realizes he’s eating a streamer, the Tramp stands up and continues to chew it up toward the ceiling. In yet another scene the Tramp mistakenly replaces the cheese in a co-worker’s sandwich with soap. This is an old gag, but it makes me laugh. Perhaps the most important food instance in City Lights, however, is when the Tramp brings the blind girl groceries, which is not only a sign of the times, but one of the film’s deeply romantic gestures. He doesn’t come by the food easily – a gentleman…always hopeful of romance and adventure.

I should mention that Chaplin’s art of the meal is often coupled with innovation. I can think of a few instances when the Tramp is extremely resourceful and imaginative on his quest to obtain sustenance for himself or someone he loves. His wonderful The Kid (1921) comes to mind as does A Dog’s Life (1918). Even his eating the baby’s hot dog in The Circus (1928) takes a fair amount of imagination.

Preparing to eat the child’s hot dog

Eating the child’s hot dog

As far as the art of the meal Chaplin style goes I’ve left the best for last. You simply can’t beat The Gold Rush (1925) for Chaplin’s signature one-two punch combination of pathos and laughter in food-related instances than in this movie. The Tramp reaches depths of desperation that are as artistically fulfilled as anything I can imagine. To start there’s the famous table ballet scene, which is the most overtly artistic food-related meal I mention here. This is perhaps an example of the importance Chaplin placed on a gathering at the table. The sequence takes place during a daydream, the realization of a desire to belong that doesn’t materialize and breaks your heart. During the gathering he enchants with the beautiful table ballet during which he uses little to do a lot. Another Chaplin trait. Such charm is illustrated in this sequence, such artistry using only two dinner rolls and two forks – and one incredible talent. The Tramp is, after all, a simple man, and the fact that he is in difficult situations in all of these movies only serves to draw us to him. When asked to make a speech in his daydream he can’t, choosing the simple ballet instead and as a result lasting movie images are created.  

The Table Ballet

The Gold Rush offers the best opportunity for elaborate food-related sequences due to the extent of the hunger present in the arctic cabin in which the Tramp resides for much of the movie. Chaplin makes the best of the Tramp’s suffering in this illustrated by the movie’s most memorable meal, thanksgiving dinner, which consists of his boiled shoe. It’s quite something to see this character so committed to ingesting the shoe, which he does with the same gusto as he does the beans in The Immigrant or the spaghetti in City Lights. The way he twirls shoe laces onto to a fork and sucks on nails as if they were bones with obvious circles under his eyes just breaks my heart. It’s done so truthfully that it hurts despite the absurdity of it. When I watched The Gold Rush with my mother she laughed heartily throughout, but when it came to the shoe scene she simply said, “poor thing, that’s how hunger is.” 

Eating a shoe with as much heart as one can muster

  The meal has stood out as being a social experience of paramount importance since the beginning of time. As such cinema has allowed food its vital place by offering many instances where it fosters romance and illustrates how families bond around a table as Chaplin does in The Kid for instance. Or, movies show the opposite perhaps by highlighting how far apart people have become. Many of these examples are offered in the Food in Film Blogathon hosted by Speakeasy and Silver Screenings so be sure to visit. As far as Chaplin goes I hope I’ve been able to show how food made the Tramp an artist and how the Tramp made food an emotionally varied experience. Doing justice to Charlie Chaplin’s art of the meal is no easy task because there are so many great examples to choose from. I’m confident, however, that anyone who’s seen a Chaplin film will concur: the wide range of emotions he elicits from the most average of rituals have the power to leave us speechless – by laugher or tears. The art of the Chaplin meal satisfies as much in its watching as it does for the Little Tramp time and time again. 

Charlie Chaplin: The Art of the Meal I watched Charlie Chaplin's century-old short, The Immigrant (1917) days before I saw the announcement for the…

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So last night was Long Island Night, my long-anticipated (not really) cocktail event which was basically just a get-together of some of my med friends. We made cocktails and then mainly just drank a lot of the remaining alcohol and mixers in strange combinations and chilled and chatted. It was nice to see everyone getting along and just like having fun. Most of the party guests decided to crash at my house and so I struggled to find appropriate sleeping places for everyone. Eventually I got Wilson and Stuart on the couches, Kevin on Josh’s blow-up mattress on the floor, Will on the dining room couch and Fenton and Lin took my bed, so I slept on the floor of my room with my bedding and the sofa cushions (Wilson slept on a bare sofa). Everybody used the various cushions around my house and I gave them my bedsheets and empty quilt covers, bunny onesie and blankies to share around and use.

Everybody crashed quick, and Fenton, Lin and I got to have a bit of a gossip in my room with the lights out, like a sleepover. They finally explained how they stopped becoming friends with Alicia and how Quinlan and Angelica broke up and Alicia and Quinlan ended up together, and the whole story sort of made everything that I have seen in that group dynamic make sense. Personally, I was excluded from all that drama because last year dating Hamish kind of made me check out of my med friends, so it was good to feel connected to Fenton and Lin and be in the loop again, even if Quinlan and Alicia’s boring romance is irrelevant to me. It was also nice to hang out with them because I feel they are very normal people, and very nice, we are more natural friends than Kuheli and I for instance, and I think that in terms of people having my back, the people who came to Long Island Night really are my friends in that they will support me if ever I need it in life.

Anyway, the floor was dirty because (shh, don’t tell) it’s yet to be vacuumed ever since like Suzie (the girl who stayed here last) last vacuumed and I’m pretty sure she didn’t, but my room really keeps the heat in and the floor was cold in the morning, so there was that. I also kind of like sleeping in places that is not my bed, a weird side of me finds it sort of exciting so I didn’t really mind, and I couldn’t see an alternative bedding situation anyway. It was the first time all my curtains were closed, and I discovered they don’t keep the light out at all. I was up by 8, because alcohol tends to do that to me, and Will woke up and peeped in, so I went to join him and Kate and Veronica in the dining room.

Kate and Veronica had made pancakes, and so we sat with them while they had breakfast and just chilled and chatted. Lola and Charlie (Veronica’s dogs) are staying over for the week, so they wandered around, like miniature atmosphere boosters. Stuart was the next up, and we all just killed time waiting for everyone to rouse and be ready for brekky. Wilson had left early because he has tutoring in Killara in the morning, and Kevin left soon after for tutoring as well. Fenton was hung over, so Lin was getting him water, so Stuart, Will and I cleaned the living room. The living room wasn’t too trashed, someone had spilled a whole bottle of honey though, so the floor had to be mopped. Lola had left a little widdle on the floor by the dining room, and I don’t know why, but I purposely didn’t clean it up and left it to Veronica to do that because they’re her dogs – I could’ve just mopped it while I was mopping the floor, but I just didn’t – it’s probably just the leftover annoyance about chores from ages ago.

Then we all headed off to brekky (not including my housemates). We went down to Coog, because I thought it would be a beautiful idea to have breakfast by the sea and then head down to the beach. It was a beautiful day, and a beautiful idea, but I did sense a slight uncomfortableness because it was a Sunday morning and Coogee was packed with white people and my med friends were uncomfortable with the beachy vibes and just the white people dominance because the areas they live and places they hang out are generally Asian-dominated. I had forgotten about that, and it reminded me of my conversation with Kevin last night about not really fitting in in the “white” or Asian worlds, so to speak.

Because Coogee was so packed, we stopped at the Courtyard and waited for a table. There was an amazing husky on the chair next to us which was cute. Everyone ordered, and I said I’d shout everyone coffees because I felt bad that the breakfast place was expensive and that I hadn’t had a lot of bedding, so people slept on the floor and stuff. In the end I paid for brekky and said that people could transfer me, but I feel like that won’t be followed up, so I’ve ended up shouting a steep breakfast, but oh well. I added a hazelnut shot to my latte because I was feeling like splurging and had the corn fritters. It was nice to chill and have breakfast, everyone made good conversation and we really got on. Will was a bit quiet, but I accidentally gave him my blue blanky which went to Claudia’s country birthday and picked up a lot of dust for him to sleep in and he was having a pollen allergic reaction (not very bad, but clearly it was making him uncomfortable). I was also reminded of how sheltered he is as a person, because he asked me what a poached egg was, and earlier with Veronica and Kate, he said he’d never licked anything off a butter knife before. Crazy stuff.

Anyway, then we went down to the beach and people/dog-watched for a bit. There was more idle chatter, and there was a man down there being filmed making a chalk artwork promoting recycling your plastic. The actual drawing was a whale with a fish coming out of its spout, so I have no idea how that is relevant, to be perfectly honest. Stuart and I had a little daydream about travelling to Algeria and Spain at the end of the year, but honestly I don’t think it will happen, and I don’t even know if I trust him enough to travel with him, even though from all his adventures in Chile and China I know he’s the sort of person who is able to look after himself travelling. Then Will and Stuart headed home, and Fenton and Lin came back to the house to get their stuff and have a glass of water before also heading. I made them promise we’d catch up again by the end of the next course, because I think that seeing them more often would be good for me, and honestly last night really reminded me how grateful I am that I found them as friends.

Afterwards, I did my usual and had a quick debrief with Kate and then started on some lectures, trying to catch up. I caught up all of Week 1 Oncology, which I think was only one or two lectures anyway, and then caught up some of the last week of Adult Health 1, which I didn’t do because I was doing my assignment. I think it was good to revise themes from Adult Health 1 anyway, because it was a bit of a refresher, I’m forgetting the stuff we did already! After a bit my concentration started to wander, and then Raj messaged me (I don’t want to seem cocky or anything, but I really feel as if he keeps trying to catch up with me) to say he just so happened to have done the Bondi to Coogee walk and was in my area. I really didn’t even want to see him again, but last night Kevin (who met him) was trashing him to Will saying he was cocky and challenging me on why I like him, and Will was loving it and I felt uncomfortable and it made me wonder if I misjudged who Raj is. So, against my better judgment I decided I would meet him at the beach to hang for a little bit to sort of see if he was arrogant and because I felt bad for blowing him off. Also, I stressed how busy I was catching up on lectures (even though that was a bit of a lie, because I don’t really need them done) so I had to get back home, and because it was a daytime thing I didn’t see how he could try stay over or put any moves on or anything.

We had quite a nice walk, though I felt like there was some awkwardness, just because I didn’t really know what his purpose was with wanting to hang out because I had made it clear there was no hooking up on the cards. Anyway, we walked up to the rocks and looked at the baths, and from there down towards Maroubra. It was good to know he’s not arrogant, he just likes showing off a bit, but I feel lots of boys are like that, and we managed to keep good rapport/conversation, it was just a bit more guarded than before. I wonder if he felt that from his side. On the way to Maroubra we saw Kate and Veronica walking Lola. It was a bit stressful running into them with Raj because I didn’t want to give them the wrong impression, but it was all good really, and I reiterated I’d be home soon. We walked on a bit, and talked a bit about OSCEs and med, and he had some interesting stories. I realised that it’s not cockiness, but in terms of how we think we just are not quite on the same wavelength career-wise – Raj said if he didn’t do med he’d do law because it’s so lucrative despite it being shit and I could just tell while listening to him talk about his future that for him it’s more about financial stuff than like passion or clinical stuff, which is more what I’m about (too young and idealistic, I guess). Anyway, he walked with me all the way back to my house and then hovered around, but I don’t know why he’d expect to be let in, because I had explicitly repeatedly said that I had lectures to get back to, but he kept mentioning he had no plans – poor boy. We had an awkward goodbye hug and then he headed off home – all the way to Canterbury. I doubt I’ll see him again, because I’m headed off to Canberra next weekend (I have booked the Greyhound already, I’m so excited to see Bec and Sweta and Lauren and Nirish) and then he’s back off to the UK. Honestly, I’m kind of relieved but I do hope he wants to stay in contact as like a med contact friend. I get the sense we won’t keep in contact though, but I’m not that cut up about it.

Anyway, then Kate and I had a chat about Raj and Will and Kevin and just a general debrief in the kitchen while she defrosted chicken for curry (my fourth curry this week – Kuheli cooked it for curry night, Veronica cooked it the next day, I had curry last night with Stuart and Kuheli and now Kate’s cooking it again) – tikka masala and butter chicken. Lola kept crying which was really irritating, until we realised that it was Veronica and Nicky G standing outside, because Veronica left her phone and key at home and Kate didn’t pick up Nicky G’s call. Nicky G brought cupcakes and came to say hello. He was very friendly as usual, but just came to see Kate – we all lingered around and then the smoke alarm went off, so I went to take it outside and when I came back he was intently talking to Kate just about general things, so I excused myself to the living room. I did hear him invite Kate to dinner on Thursday which made me feel a bit left out, but in the end, he really isn’t my friend and I do feel that he’s not interested in pursuing a closer friendship with me, so I don’t know why being left out bothered me. I think in general I am just upset that I haven’t retained any college friends really, apart from Kate and Veronica. It kind of worries me, makes me think that I must be a weirdo because my friends are all a bit socially awkward and “normal” people like the Baxter kids just don’t want to be my friend. But it’s a stupid little insecurity and honestly, I must get over it. It’s just that I wasn’t in anyone’s face and I wasn’t part of Floor 7 last year.

Kate’s chicken curries were yummy and there was brown rice and broccolini. We have been having yet more chore dramas, because Josh didn’t vacuum last week and so he was supposed to do it this week instead of me, but he lied and said he did it before Long Island Night (when he only did the kitchen) and he had to do the kitchen as well this week because that was his actual chore this week, but he hasn’t done that either, and so I don’t know what’s happening chore-wise, and honestly he has to step up his game. There’s a pile of shit in the corridor to be vacuumed, and I have just no idea who’s going to do it, because technically it’s Veronica’s turn, but Josh didn’t do it, so he should do it, but I also didn’t do it just by being after him and him not doing it. I honestly don’t mind just doing it, same with the dishes that Josh said he’d do after he finished Brooklyn Nine-Nine and then didn’t do, but it’s that principle thing, and the fact that we can’t pick up after each other all the time, we need to set a good routine, so these issues don’t build up. Anyway, Kate and I had our usual complain about it, and then she messaged the group to remind Josh to do the dishes, so he did, and we took out the bin and I washed it. I have no idea how to get him to do/sort out the vacuuming/kitchen issue though, ugh.

Prior to this we watched Bachelor in Paradise live, it’s coming towards the end of the season and there was no Rose Ceremony this episode (there wasn’t going to be one anyway) and all the people who had drama were people didn’t like anyway, so there’s not a lot to be said about it.

We watched a bit of Border Security on the TV and a guy getting a nail pulled out of his finger, because he’d nailed it into his own finger by accident, and then we relocated to Kate’s room to try out the 7Plus website (because Kate’s exhausted all the potential watchable material on both MTV and TenPlay). 7Plus has a lot of shows, but most of them are poor, poor quality. On the flipside, the ads load and are very quick, being pretty much only for Channel 7 anyway. We watched an episode of the UK First Dates and it was funny, I can’t believe some of the characters that were there, they were so incredibly rude. None of the couples ended up together which is sort of a shame. Then it was bedtime, after a long day.

In other news, I am getting fat from eating too much, having too many snacks and drinking alcohol. My face in the mirror today was so round and bloated I felt a bit disgusted at myself, but I’ll get over it, I just must stop snacking so much. It will be easier this week, because this week is less busy at hospital, so I won’t have to stock up on so much food, and I just must be conscious. Anyway, it’s bedtime, I got hardly any sleep last night and I must be at uni by 9 tomorrow, so I don’t know how waking up and all of that is going to go but it’s a fairly easy day, just 2 CMTs.

This was a long recap, but till next time 😊.