Chapter 7 of 16 · 3'27"
At the wedding reception, the bartender Sammy serves Annelle a cherry Coke — 'the best cherry Coke in the history of the world.' Around the room, the women trade gossip and insults, with Ouiser calling for a truce only long enough to get a piece of cake.
Sammy Mixes Annelle a Cherry Coke
Ouiser Insults Everyone at the Wedding
At the reception, Sammy the bartender serves Annelle a cherry Coke, calling it the best in the world. Elsewhere the women gossip: Truvy complains about Louie, M'Lynn refuses to share her cases, and Ouiser insults Janice Van Meter's dress before calling a truce to go get cake.
The reception lets the whole cast do what they do best, which is talk about everyone who is not in the room. The tone is set early by Sammy's joke that his cherry Coke is 'the best cherry Coke in the history of the world,' a bit of small-town bragging so sure of itself that it becomes charming. From there the women take over: Truvy's complaints about Louie, M'Lynn's refusal to share her counselling cases, and Ouiser's running commentary on everyone's clothes. Nobody is spared, and nobody seems to mind much, which is the film's real subject — a community that survives partly because it refuses to be polite. Even Ouiser's truce is only for cake; the feuds are the friendship. And under all the insults, the women keep an eye on one another, which is what makes the cruelty read as affection.
A1–C2 is the CEFR scale. Cards above the level you pick fade, and playback will not auto-pause on them.
“And this here's the best cherry Coke in the history of the world.”
A soda gets promoted to world history, and the straight-faced pride is the joke.
Informal
“Looks like two pigs fighting under a blanket.”
One crude image mocks an outfit so precisely that the insult becomes comedy.
Informal
“Clairee, you know I'd rather walk on my lips than to criticize anybody.”
The overblown vow of kindness sets up the instant hypocrisy that follows.
Informal
“Even his imaginary playmates wouldn't play with him.”
One absurd detail makes the insult land: even invented friends walk away from him.
Informal
Up next · 08the hottest ticket in townThe scene: Reunion at Truvy's SalonA cherry Coke, which he calls the best cherry Coke in the history of the world. Annelle had said she did not know why she was even at the reception.
She is a friend of the family and attends the wedding, where she spends most of her time insulting people's clothes and asking for a truce so she can get cake.
She jokes that even his imaginary playmates would not play with him, though the others insist he turned out fine, just a little scary.
Ouiser says she bets Janice paid five hundred dollars for her dress and wears no girdle, and that she looks like two pigs fighting under a blanket.
It is her mock-humble way of saying she would rather suffer than criticize anyone, right before she criticizes someone anyway.
