Chapter 8 of 22 · 3'52"
One man tells a freeway story with real delight: a driver waving a gun, firing randomly, then shooting himself when the police close in. "Oh, it's beautiful," he says. Later, someone tries to sell a supposed Madonna pap smear, one of a kind and cheap at the price.
❝ Monologue · 28 lines He Had Had Enough
❝ Monologue · 26 lines One of a Kind
A group on the street trades stories. One man describes a freeway chase in which a driver waves a gun, fires from his car and finally shoots himself, which he calls beautiful. Then another pitches a supposed Madonna pap smear as a one-of-a-kind item, and leaves to try his luck with a buyer on the east side.
The scene shows Slacker's taste for the casually outrageous. The freeway story is told with almost no judgment; the teller enjoys the chaos, calls it "beautiful," and stops at the man's death as if it were a punchline. What follows is even stranger: a man tries to sell a supposed pap smear as a collectible because it can bring you "closer to the rock god herself." The two halves share the same tone, a flat, amused distance from real events, and the same interest in objects and stories that mean nothing and everything. When the sale fails, he does not argue; he just offers his last line, "It's a material world and I'm a material girl," and heads off to find another buyer. The film treats all of it as worthy of the same calm, curious attention.
A1–C2 is the CEFR scale. Cards above the level you pick fade, and playback will not auto-pause on them.
“Man, I am freaking out so severely. Did you hear what happened on the freeway?”
It opens at full tilt, then hooks the listener with a question, setting the story's manic pace.
Informal
“he had had enough, enough.”
The doubled enough turns a whole rampage into one tired verdict.
Informal
“It's a material world and I'm a material girl.”
A Madonna lyric doubles as a joke about the physical sample he is literally holding.
Informal
“Offed himself, man. Blew himself away right there.”
Two blunt slang verbs close a wild story and land the death like a punchline.
Informal
Man, I am freaking out so severely. Did you hear what happened on the freeway? You didn't see the local news today? Oh, it's beautiful. Man, this old man driving to town from San Antonio... like this old man about 40 or 50 years old... goin' about a hundred miles an hour down the freeway... waving a gun at people, laughing. Like, doin' fuckin' chicken squawks at people out the window... and showing them his gun and going like - Things like that. People were freaked. They didn't know if he was just a lunatic, you know... with, like a squirt gun or what. And then, check it out, the guy started firing on the freeway... randomly through his windows. He shot one bullet up at the roof of his car... and it just ricocheted around inside with him for a while. He was, like, out of his mind. Everybody tried to get off the freeway. Some chick who had a bullet lodged in her ponytail... called the pigs in San Marcos. And they had six or seven pig cars chasing him into the south side of town. He was still swingin' the gun around, man, and laughing. He fuckin' laughed all the way. Finally his car spun out and slammed into the grassy knoll... you know, the median. As soon as his car came to a halt, man... he just put the gun to his head and blammo. Offed himself, man. Blew himself away right there. It's like, I don't know... he had had enough, enough.
Oh, yeah. I know what I gotta show you guys. This -This will blow your gourd. I have this friend, all right, she's a gynecologist in Hollywood. And she scored this for me from the lab where she works. It's a Madonna pap smear. I know it's kind of cloudy, but it's a Madonna pap smear. It's got "Ciccone" on the top. That's like a medical label. "Ciccone." Check it out. I know it's kind of disgusting... but it's like, it's sort of... like getting down to the real Madonna. I don't know if you can see it now. I freaked out when it came in the mail. It had two pubic hairs in it, and I showed it to this asshole... and he stole one of them. But if you look real close, you can see it's still in there. It's about as black as they come. Do you think maybe, uh... you'd be interested in buying something like this? It's like a high-dollar item. It's, you know, one of a kind. It's like chance of a lifetime. Yeah, I'm sure. I'm pretty broke, though. What about you? Do you think you know anyone who might be - I mean, it's a little bit getting closer to the rock god herself... than just a poster. No? All right. You guys' loss. I thought I could, you know, maybe swing a bargain.
Up next · 09the fact of the matter isThe scene: A Street Rant About BombsA man tells how a driver waved a gun and fired on the freeway, was chased by police, crashed, and then shot himself, which the teller recounts as if it were entertainment.
He is thrilled by the chaos rather than moved by it. His reaction is the joke: a real death is treated like a scene in a film.
He claims to have a Madonna pap smear and offers it as a one-of-a-kind collectible that would bring a fan closer to the singer.
The people he shows it to are not interested, and one says he is broke. He takes it lightly and goes to try a buyer called Chico instead.
It means unique, the only one of its kind. He uses it to argue the pap smear is a rare and valuable item.
