What do Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015), Trading Places (1983) and Auntie Mame (1958) have in common? Each has had a character say, “…and she stepped on the ball…” I know that doesn’t sound like a big deal. It’s a pretty unmemorable line. But, this line is a homage and now has become a running joke. But what does it mean? Why is this obscure line so funny?
The best place to start is with Trading Places since the scene may be more familiar to fans.
In Trading Places, Louis (Dan Aykroyd) is arrested for theft and drug possession as a result of being a pawn in a sociological experiment. He loses his posh job and is kicked out of his home only to be replaced by Bill Ray (Eddie Murphy). Running around Philadelphia dressed in horribly mismatch borrowed clothes, Louis goes to his tennis club hoping that his stuck-up rich friends could help. At the tennis club, we see his friends serenading a cappella their girlfriends (as you do at tennis club). As Louis arrives, a stereotypical rich socialite says, “and she stepped on the ball.”
Now, cut to 32 years later. In Season one Episode six of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Kimmy Goes to School – or, as most fans would know, the episode that gave us Titus’ opus “Peeno Noir”). Xanthippe’s friends trashed her house and stole a family heirloom. Titus and Xan rush to get it back. Right before they arrive, we cut to a group of snobby upper-east side high school students in Central Park and we see this…
Was this a homage to Trading Places? Yes. But this line goes back to further than 1983. To understand its origin, we have to look at Auntie Mame, which was released in 1958.
For those who don’t know Auntie Mame, it’s a wonderful Technicolor film starring Rosalind Russell in the title role. The movie begins in the late 1920s, Mame is a single wealthy eccentric woman with Diane Vreeland-esque style. She has unconventional friends who are teachers, artists, actors, writers, who are all considered to be controversial to wealthy New Yorkers back in the 20s. After the death of her brother, Mame’s young nephew, Patrick, comes to live with her since she is his only living relative. Mame quickly embraces motherhood in a unique way and tries to shape Patrick to be a well-rounded boy who appreciates all that life has to offer. Mame’s famous line is, “Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death!” The movie shows their adventures as Mame raises Patrick but their time is cut short when, out of Mame’s control, Patrick is sent to boarding school to finish his education.
The movie jumps a head to the late 1930s and Patrick is a handsome young man, who still adores his aunt. But, he’s now engaged to Gloria Upson (Joanna Barnes), who represents everything that Mame has tried to prevent Patrick from becoming. Gloria and her family, who hail from Connecticut, are wealthy, boring, conventional, and snobby. Even though Patrick hasn’t become exactly like them (yet), he asks his Aunt to tone down her behavior because he is afraid that her eccentricities would be frowned upon by the Upsons. For the love of her nephew, Auntie Mame agrees to make a good first impression. However, worried that Patrick will become one of them, Mame host a zany dinner party as a last-ditch effort to scare the Upsons away. She exposes them to her “wild” and interesting friends. You will have to watch to see what happens.
The line “…and she stepped on the ball…” is derived from this party scene in Auntie Mame. Trying to show Auntie Mame the other dinner guests how exciting and interesting her life is, Gloria Upson, with complete earnestness, shares a “riveting” story about a ping-pong tournament she played in with her friend Bunny Bixler. You will have to watch the entire story to get the full effect but I bet you can guess what happens at the end of this ping-pong tournament.
http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kj7i88LQ9DE
And there we have it… “…and she stepped on the ball”, a line that is quite unremarkable and easily missed while watching these movies/show is actually quite funny and is fascinating because it spanned 57 years of comedy.
Fun Fact: Joanna Barnes played women who did not have luck holding their men. She was also Brian Keith’s girlfriend in the original Parent Trap (1961). Want to read more about this movie see my post
https://reelmemorable.com/2012/04/20/parent-trap-no-not-the-one-with-lindsay/
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I also picked up on the connection between “Mame” and “Trading Places” a long time ago, but haven’t seen the “Kimmy Schmidt”movie.
Just another observation about the quote from “Mame” is that Gloria Upson actually said, “… and *I* stepped on the ping pong ball!”, meaning she herself did it, not Bunny Bixler. In “Trading Places”, it was changed to *she*.
I totally made the connection from Auntie Mame and Trading Places, but I’m not familiar with the third movie. It’s just always made me curious. My has this carried on in only 3 movies over so many years? Is there actually a joke that ends with this punchline?
In Billions, S2E8, they cut to a scene where Chuck’s father is finishing up a story with “…and she stepped on the billiard ball.”
Trading places was set in Philadelphia. Not Chicago
Thanks corrected it!
It was also in High School Musical 2!!