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Funny / West Side Story (2021)

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  • As the Jets roll out in the prologue, Numbers is in a lightwell with his girl as he lights her cigarette. Then he sees the Jets above him and climbs out, leaving her without a light.
  • Riff's comeback when Lt. Schrank berates the Jets at the beginning for allowing their territory to disappear.
    Riff: First you said it was the slum committee, now you're saying it's the PRs. You gotta get your stories straight, Lt. Schrank. We're very impressionable.
  • The way Riff convinces the rest of the Jets to come to the dance that night.
    Mouthpiece: Maybe we had enough trouble with the Puerto Ricans for one day?
    Riff: Relax! It's a social mixer, so we'll mix until the time's right to fix the rumble for tomorrow night!
  • This conversation between Valentina and Tony after Riff leaves Doc's:
    Valentina: Tony, I don't tell you who to hang out with, but-
    Tony (in an exaggerated Puerto Rican accent): -Bu' dose boysss are yuvenile delinquen'! Dey'rrrrrre no goo' for jou and jou better wash ou'!
    Valentina (in an exaggerated New York accent): Hey, you make funna da way I tawk one more time, blondie!
  • María initiates the first kiss with Tony, leading to him awkwardly saying he's a "by the book" kind of guy.
    María: You're tall.
    Tony: Yeah, and...you're not.
    María: You're not Puerto Rican.
    Tony (amused): You're just figuring that out?
    María: From down here I wasn't sure.
  • As Tony begins singing the deep romantic swell portion of "Maria," a number of floodlights turn on behind him, like spotlights in a stage production. Then it's shown to be a street sweeper turning on the lights so he can clean the basketball court.
  • The morning after the dance, María wakes up to realize she slept in her white dress on top of her covers all night. She then quickly puts on her nightwear, rolls around in her blanket, and runs her fingers through her hair to make it look like morning hair. According to Rachel Zegler, the scene took seven takes to complete.
    • And then when she starts frying eggs while Bernardo and Anita are making out not ten feet away from her.
      María: Good morning.
      (They don't notice her.)
      María: I'm right here.
  • Anita sings her part of "Tonight (Quintet)", in which she says she's going to have sex with Bernardo after the rumble, while in church. Rosalía and Luz tell her to shush.
  • Ice's greeting to the Sharks when both groups arrive at the salt shed for the rumble and are surrounded by large mounds of road salt that resemble snow.
    Ice: Welcome to the North Pole.
  • While telling Chino how to dance with María, Bernardo pours him a glass of water, and then takes it away right before Chino can take a sip because the girls are ready to go.
  • Chino's moves at the dance come across as goofy, but somewhat endearing.
  • Bernardo's comment about whether they're setting up a rumble or a date.
    • When Riff and Bernardo have a tense negotiation over the rumble location and Riff suggests the salt shed, Bernardo has to briefly stop and ask Quique where that actually is.
  • When Tony is singing "Maria," a little girl opens her window and smiles at him, as she is also named Maria. The next Maria to open her window is much older and clearly annoyed by Tony singing in the middle of the night.
    • This also recalls an old joke about how unlikely it is that Maria would be the only Maria in a Puerto Rican neighborhood.
  • After finding María, Tony begins to climb up the fire escape, only to be stopped because the gate on her landing is locked.
    Tony: Locked?
    María: , but there's no key.
    Tony: Well, that's against the law. You oughta report that.
  • After Anita tells off Bernardo thinking she'll go back to Puerto Rico with six kids she'll put to bed hungry every night, the only thing he takes away from the conversation is "In Puerto Rico, our kids won't get fat like the kids in New York."
  • Tony tries to learn Spanish from Valentina for María, specifically phrases such as "I want to be with you forever". Valentina obliges him, but dryly asks if he was sure he didn't want to go with "Can I take you out for a coffee? I want to take you to Chock Full O Nuts for a cream cheese sandwich on raisin bread?".
    • Before that, Tony asks her to translate "You look beautiful." She replies "¿De veras?", which means "Really?", as she's playfully flattered. And Tony writes that down because he thinks it's the translation.
  • Mouthpiece gives a non-answer when one of the cops tries to get the location of the rumble from him.
    Mouthpiece: Nah, they don't tell me nothin'. They know I can't keep secrets.
    Detective: They tell you when to show up, right?
    Mouthpiece: No, they don't, I just hang around until somebody says let's go.
    Detective: And then?
    Mouthpiece: I go.
    • And Balkan trying to say he doesn't know where the rumble is, or even what a rumble is. This causes the detective to slam some papers on his desk in frustration.
  • "Gee, Officer Krupke" is, as always, a comedic highlight of the film.
    • Initially during the number, Balkan is uninterested in participating and keeps reading his newspaper. It's not until A-Rab sticks a pair of glasses on him and takes the paper away so he can be the judge that he joins in.
    • During the line "We're disturbed, we're disturbed, we're the most disturbed!", the Jets stand in a line and hold Baby John, then toss him aside once the stanza is over.
    • When "Judge" Balkan proceeds to give Diesel his sentence, Baby John tries to stand up but Snowboy forces him back into the chair.
    • "Doctor" A-Rab diagnoses Diesel as having a social disease.
      A-Rab: In my professional opinion, what we got here is a run-of-the-mill juvenile delinquent. And juvenile delinquency is a social disease!
      Balkan: Ew, Diesel, you got a social disease?
      Diesel: [nods and gives the "a-okay" sign]
      A-Rab: Bring him to a social worker.
      Mouthpiece: [worriedly] Wait, can I catch it by touchin' him?
    • In the middle of the Jets dancing and tossing things around, the shot peels back to the streetwalker watching them from her jail cell, completely dumbstruck by what it is they're doing.
    • The final stanza as the Jets shove Baby John all over the room.
      Mouthpiece: The trouble is he's crazy!
      Balkan: The trouble is he drinks!
      A-Rab: The trouble is he's lazy!
      Snowboy: The trouble is he stinks!
      Big Deal: The trouble is he's growin'!
      Baby John: The trouble is he's grown!
      All: Krupke, we got troubles of our own!
    • The song ends with Krupke walking in just as the Jets finish with the line "Gee, Officer Krupke, KRUP YOU!" and standing aghast at how they've trashed the precinct. The Jets flee then upon seeing him, except for Mouthpiece, who takes the time to return Krupke's hat, pat him on the back, then hurry after his friends.
    • Throughout the song, all of the Jets seem completely in sync and on the same page except for Baby John, who for most of the song appears confused and slightly scared.
  • Glad-Hand is annoyed when the gangs start to dance with their own partners rather than giving the other side a chance, at which point he gets pushed off to the side.
    • He also says that the dance is a social experiment and the kids are the guinea pigs. Everyone begins oinking at him, to which he says, exasperated, "Right on cue."
  • Tony and Riff's exchange after the latter buys a gun.
    Tony: [holding up his hands] Gee willikers, Batman. Since when you carry a rod?
    Riff: Well, I don't got magic powers like you, Superman, so I got this.
  • In "America," the way the Sharks crowd around Anita during the line "Twelve in a room in America!"
  • At the dance, Officer Krupke takes a girl's cup of punch and sniffs it for illicit substances. He offers it back, but the girl walks away, leading to him drinking it.
  • "I Feel Pretty":
    • María's boss tries to get the girls to stop singing, but soon gets swept up in the song. Once it's done, she laughs then bluntly tells them all to get back to work.
    • On a meta-level, it's funny that her boss is played by Andréa Burns, who played María in the 1992-1993 European tour of the musical.
    • When María sings the line "See that pretty girl in the mirror there?" from the first half of the song, one of her coworkers sprays the mirror over María's reflection in time with the music.
    • María starts the song by taking one of the scarves from a mannequin, and then sits in one of the displays. In fact, the entire number showcases Rachel Zegler's talents as a natural comedienne.
      María: [in a posh gringa accent] Oh, I am terribly sorry, Señora Fausta, but I do not clean floors. No, no, I wear my... [checks the price tag] $17.98 silk shawl. Lo único que voy a decir es que I'm happy in my fancy rich lady apartment!
      • Incidentally, that scarf would cost $168 today.
  • This exchange in María and Anita's first scene.
    María: The boys think I'm a kid.
    Anita: You are a kid, kiddo.
    • Also, María trying on the white dress, then exasperatingly throwing it over her head like a wedding veil.
  • The final lyric of "America."
    Bernardo: I think I'll go back to San Juan!
    Anita: I know a boat you can get on!
    Girls: Bye-bye!
    Bernardo: Everyone there will give big cheer!
    Sharks: HEY!
    Anita: Everyone there will have moved here.
  • A darkly humorous moment occurs when Riff buys the gun from a black market dealer. He explains to the Jets that they need a gun because the Sharks think they're bringing a gun and thus have to bring one in case the Puerto Ricans do. The dealer then namedrops Mutually Assured Destruction, and Riff says he doesn't know what that is...even though he just explained the concept himself.
    • When the bar owner asks Riff what the gun shoots, as in what type of ammunition, Action helpfully leans in and confidently responds with "Bullets."
  • Anita's comeback when Bernardo refers to Tony as a "Polack," where she calls him out for using racial slurs just as the Jets use them on him.
    Anita: "Polack," says the "spic." Now you sound like a real American.
  • In the middle of the heartwarming scene at the Cloisters when Tony and María take their vows, Tony says the "for richer or poorer" part and she assures him, "I'm poor." Tony then tells her he's poorer.
  • Even in the scene in which Lieutenant Schrank interrogates María and Anita, there's a darkly humorous line when they convince him that María is having her period and needs medicine from Doc's. When Schrank condescendingly explains to Anita what she wants her to do, she rips up a piece of fabric in silent rage, and he dryly remarks that his wife simply handles her monthly with hot tea.
  • When greeting him at the dance, Riff just straight-up slams into Tony— while Tony is still hugging Anybodys, no less.
    Tony: Whoa!
    Riff: I knew you'd come, buddy boy, I knew you'd come!

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