Big Lebowski Big Night Out

By london_will Last edited 226 months ago
Big Lebowski Big Night Out
bigLebowski.jpg

To the ranks of Singalonga Sound of Music at the Prince Charles and the regular Rocky Horror and Ghostbusters tributes at the Genesis Cinema in Stepney, we can now add ... "The Dude Abides", the annual Big Lebowski tribute night at the Streatham Megabowl.

Although the event has been running since December 2003, it has now reached the attention of the national press - the Guardian, to be precise, which covered last night's shenanigans in Streatham (link - it's the second piece on the page). Bring on the reports of White Russians, wheelchairs and girls in skimpy outfits and bowling-pin headdresses.

But, The Guardian asks, can such fanatical devotion to a film ever be considered "cool"?

"We're much cooler than Trekkies," claims Nick Scott, the organiser of the event. The report comes to a not-dissimilar conclusion:

The large number of attractive women - many dressed as bowling pin-clad figures from The Dude's fantasies - suggested that these Big Lebowski fans did have a life outside of the film, and by the end of the evening the drunken bad behaviour confirmed Scott's claim that this was indeed cooler than the average Star Trek convention.

"London can be a lonely place. The Dude is the kind of guy we'd all like as our friend," he said from his wheelchair (he came as Lebowski).

That sounds like a distinctly unfair thing to say about Trekkies, but as this Londonist has never met one, we'll let it pass for now. It does, however, seem odd that the yardstick of cool is Number of pretty girls in attendance multiplied Alcohol consumed = cool. This would mean that Rocky Horror tributes wallop Lebowski flat, but by far the coolest tribute night in London is Singalonga Sound of Music.

Cool? Perhaps not. But hey, whatever floats your boat. Must run, there's a Shaun of the Dead tribute at the Ritzy and I need to get some red on me.

Last Updated 11 May 2005