Chapter 22 of 22 · 2'52"
Outside a club, a group works out the five-dollar cover and finds a way in for free with a stamp. One of them lends out a PixelVision camera, asking everyone to pass it around. Then someone launches into a rant about the Freemasons controlling history.
Pass the Camera Around
❝ Monologue · 10 lines The Freemason Rant
It snowballs from a name list into a full conspiracy, funny because it is played so straight.
At a club, friends figure out the cover charge and use a stamp to get in free. Someone hands over a PixelVision camera and asks them to pass it around and shoot whatever they like. Meanwhile, another man argues that the Freemasons control history and that American history should be wiped clean.
The scene is a party in miniature, and the camera is its centre. Someone lends a PixelVision camera to be passed around with one instruction — "Shoot whatever you want" — which is also the film's method: a loose chain of small moments. Around it, the group argues about covers and stamps, and one man delivers a conspiracy monologue about the Freemasons, the Warren Commission and the faces on the dollar bill. The joke is that the rant and the invitation sit side by side with no contradiction: "The slate of American history needs to be wiped clean." Then the group splits. One says he is going to catch the show; another answers, "you're either with us or against us," and he replies, "I guess I'm against you." Nobody minds, and they all say good night.
A1–C2 is the CEFR scale. Cards above the level you pick fade, and playback will not auto-pause on them.
“Exactly. The slate of American history needs to be wiped clean.”
It turns rewriting history into wiping a slate clean, a vivid and mocking line that lands.
Neutral
“Well, I guess I'm against you.”
Faced with a with-us-or-against-us threat, he calmly picks the other side and deflates it.
Informal
“Pass it around and we'll see what we come up with later on, okay?”
One offhand instruction hands the camera to strangers and quietly explains how the whole film works.
Informal
“And look at the Warren Commission, a Shriner convention without go-carts.”
The conspiracy rant peaks on one image too specific and too funny to forget.
Informal
The reason these guys are being forgotten is they're not Freemasons. The Masons are the ones that control history. Look, every president but one, a Mason. Every man that's walked on the moon, 33rd-degree Mason. And look at the Warren Commission, a Shriner convention without go-carts. Exactly. The slate of American history needs to be wiped clean. We need to start all over again. Let's put Larry Feynman in the history books. Let's put Squeaky Fromme on the one-dollar bill. At least we ought to get that Masonic pyramid bullshit off the back.
The cover is the entry fee at the club. One of them has a stamp on his hand, which lets the group get in free instead of each paying five dollars.
He gives the PixelVision camera to the group and asks them to pass it around and film whatever they like, as long as he gets it back.
The speaker claims the Freemasons control history and that figures who are not members are deliberately forgotten. He says American history should be rewritten from scratch.
It means you have to pick a side. It is said as a joke when someone chooses to leave, and the answer is a deadpan, 'I guess I'm against you.'
The group splits up. Some go to get more beer and others go to see a show, and they part with friendly good nights.
