Chapter 12 of 27 · 2'06"
Tony brings Alice to a grand club to meet his parents and a room full of aristocrats. His father is absorbed in his ancestry, while Tony mocks the whole idea: "all that family tree stuff went out with the buffalo." Alice answers a question about her own pedigree with a pun.
Kirby Boasts About His Ancestry
Alice's Family Tree Pun
Tony takes Alice to a fashionable club and introduces her to his mother, his father, Lord and Lady Melville, and the governor. His father is tracing the family tree and mentions the cost, while Tony jokes that ancestry is out of date. Alice deflects the question about her lineage with a joke about her name.
The chapter is the class gap made visible. Tony's family measures people by ancestry, and Kirby is literally paying to prove his bloodline, which is the film's neatest joke about inherited status. Alice is out of her depth and handles it well, refusing to be embarrassed. Her answer, that "a sycamore is a tree," turns the question into a pun and quietly declines to compete on their terms. Tony, meanwhile, sides openly with her, calling the whole ritual out of date. The scene matters because it shows Alice and Tony as a united front before the families ever meet.
A1–C2 is the CEFR scale. Cards above the level you pick fade, and playback will not auto-pause on them.
“I thought all that family tree stuff went out with the buffalo.”
It dates the whole fashion to the buffalo, deflating his father's pride with one dry line.
Informal
“My dear sir, don't you know that a sycamore is a tree?”
Instead of arguing, she answers snobbery with a pun on her own name and wins the room.
Formal
“No. It isn't you they are watching. It's Lord Melville.”
It splits the room in two: she thinks all eyes are on her, but only the title draws them.
Neutral
“It cost me $5,000 last year to trace my family tree.”
Exposes pedigree anxiety with one absurd price tag.
Neutral
Up next · 13the wrong impressionThe scene: The Sycamores Prepare for the KirbysHe wants her to meet his parents and the important guests, including a lord and a governor, even though she is nervous about being out of place.
He says America has become more conscious of background, and he has spent five thousand dollars to trace his ancestry.
When asked if she has one, she says that a sycamore is a tree, turning her surname into a joke instead of answering the question directly.
He thinks it is ridiculous. He says the whole family tree business went out with the buffalo and mocks his mother for taking it seriously.
