Everything I Need to Know, I Learned From Funny Girl

Well, hello, gorgeouses! If you didn’t grow up with Funny Girl like I did, since it is my mother’s favorite movie, I suggest you bookmark this page, go watch the movie, and then come back for me.

Don’t worry, I’ll wait for you. Send me your thanks in the mail, okay? xoxoxoxo

EINTKILF Funny Girl

1. Leopard print is beautiful.
So are bangs. So are all of Fanny Brice’s hairstyles. It is funny that Fanny is supposed to be like “unattractive,” but IMO, Barbra Streisand is just gorgeous, darling. Though I am, admittedly, a fan of interesting people. I am not so into the conventional beauty thing, though I am also a bagel on a plate full of onion rolls, so.

2. “Beautiful girls are not gonna stay in style forever.”
“I should say not! Any minute now they’re gonna be out!” In the song, “I’m the Greatest Star”, Fanny sells herself quite well by showing her vocal ranges, her inner comedienne, even that she is a natural cougher–which is something we all wish we were, obviously.

Kurt Hummel is also “The Greatest Star”, just FYI.

3. Don’t change, even for a cute man.
Nick Arnstein: I’d be happy to wait while you change.
Fanny: I’d have to change too much, nobody could wait that long.

I know I probably shouldn’t think Nick Arnstein is sweet, but I do, you guys! I just think he is so charming and adorable.

I mean, look at how cute they are! I am the worst. 

4.. It is always okay to think outside of the box.
Fanny just was not super excited about the dance number she had to be in, mostly because she was playing the “prettiest bride in the city,” and as I mentioned previously, Fanny is supposed to be unconventionally beautiful, so…she just didn’t think the song was right for her. What she did instead was strap on some pillows under her dress, immediately making the song about a knocked up bride in white, which is hilarious. Previously, it was not a comedic moment, but Fanny is just a riot.

Which is exactly why you should use your own ideas. They could be hilarious, even if they might get you in trouble! Who cares? YOLO, you know? I think we retired YOLO, but whatever, I do what I want, like Fanny Brice.

5. “To me, when a person’s a stranger, they should act a little strange.”
Other great quips from that scene:

Fanny: He’s a gentleman. A gentleman fits in any place.
Rose: A sponge fits in any place.

I should probably try to remember both bits of advice the next time I am quickly charmed by a stranger who also happens to seem like a gentleman–because that is exactly the kind of trap I often fall into.

6. Pick a mate who likes that you talk too much.
Right before Fanny and Nick kiss for the very first time, in that dark, romantic alley, right after she sings the beautiful song “People”, Nick and his sweet talking lines have Fanny all in a comedic frenzy. Humor as a defense mechanism, like Chandler Bing. The best of us do it.

Fanny: Jeez, I talk a lot, don’t I?
Nick: Yes you do, but it is one of the things I like most about you.

But seriously, if (and when, cause it has happened like…once) a man likes that I babble too much, verbally or through the written word, he is a damn keeper.

7. “People who need people are the luckiest people in the world.”
Okay so everyone knows the song “People”, or you haven’t been paying attention to anything ever in your life, but way before I saw Funny Girl for the first time, this song plays at the end of an episode of The Simpsons where Moe Szyslak becomes Homer’s boxing coach when he realizes that Homer cannot be knocked out. Long story short, Homer is being defeated by another boxer at the end of the episode and Moe flees the scene, though he comes back to save him, and the song “People” plays over the credits as Moe continues to rescue a bunch of other people from bad situations. So basically, “People” makes me think of The Simpsons, but really, so does everything.

Because to be real, “we are children, needing other children, and yet letting our grown-up pride hide all the need inside, acting more like children than children.” Even Moe Szyslak, and especially Homer Simpson.

8. Try to see the whole picture, especially in love.
We have all been there, ladies: you know when you are totally in love with someone and you feel like you know them better than you even know yourself, and then years later, long after they broke your heart, you realize that you only ever saw what you wanted to see in them? Yeah, I have done it, and Fanny did it with Nick, and though it is understandable–romantic even–you should always listen to your mother. She knows best. 

Mama Brice: When you look at him, you only see what you want to see.
Fanny: I see him as he is. I love him as he is!
Mama Brice: Fanny. Love him a little less. Help him a little more.

Sigh.

9. Um, gambling is the worst.
Just don’t do it, or you could end up locked up, and your wife will end up sad and alone.

10. Life is juicy.
In the greatest song of all-time, probs, Fanny paints us a picture of a wonderful world, where life is candy, and the sun’s a ball of butter!

• But seriously, guys. This song is actually the best song ever. It has all of the things songs should have:
• Vibrant lyrics: “Don’t tell me not to fly, I’ve simply got to.”
• Huge voice potential: especially when sung by Babs, or Rachel Berry, and not by me.
• Fierceness: “Get ready for me, love ’cause I’m a comer! I simply gotta march, my heart’s a drummer!”
• Dance potential: tell me you don’t want to put on heels and tap them along while flipping a hat in the air when this song plays.

I am obsessed with this song. Hey, Mr. Arrrrrrrrnsteeeeeeeein, here I am!

I hope everyone is in the best mood ever now. I know I am.

Featured image via lyricalromance.blogspot.com, Kurt Hummel image via fanpop.com, Nick and Fannie image via thebabblingbraingirl.blogspot.com, pregnant Fannie image via lecinemadreams.blogspot.com, Homer and Moe image via simpsons.wikia.com.