Real estate tycoon turned presidential aspirant Donald Trump has been running his mouth a lot lately about topics like immigration, menstruation, and John McCain’s war record. Clearly, someone needs to tell this man to give his vocal cords a rest, and there is no better candidate for the job than Walter Sobchak, the volatile Vietnam veteran portrayed by John Goodman in the Coen brothers’ 1998 bowling-noir classic, The Big Lebowski. And, as luck would have it, one of Goodman’s catchphrases from that indelible cult film is “Shut the fuck up, Donny!” A Sobchak/Trump showdown was thus inevitable, and now Salon has provided it. As writer Asha Parker points out, Goodman’s trademark expression “is seemingly the perfect response to every ridiculous Donald Trump quote,” of which there are distressingly many.
For over a minute, Goodman handily shuts down Trump at every turn, repeatedly telling the candidate to “shut the fuck up” about the supposed criminality of immigrants and firmly reminding him, “Donny, you’re out of your element!” When Donald seems to zone out during a conversation about the Bible, Goodman is there to keep him focused: “Were you listening to the Dude’s story, Donny?” Naturally, Walter Sobchak is most impassioned when it comes to the topic of his fellow Vietnam vet, John McCain, who was famously belittled in a speech by Trump. Here, the bowler truly explodes: “I did not watch my buddies die face down in the muck so that this fucking strumpet, this fucking whore, could waltz around town!” Weirdly, when it comes to the topic of Rosie O’Donnell, the fictional kegling enthusiast may be in agreement with the real-life office seeker. After one of Trump’s many attacks on the comedian, Walter replies, “That fucking bitch!” Whether he means Trump or O’Donnell is unclear.
The entire video, though sadly not embeddable, is here.