Um, Ferris Bueller is a juicebox. If that movie has any edge at all, it's the faint discomfort of identifying with a raging male id (in a PG-13 kind of way) that sails through life taking what it wants without a thought for the consequences.

The whole movie is Cameron's fever dream. How else do you explain the musical dance number?

I got the same thing from "Bueller". But a lot of successful films detail the lives of people you would hate IRL. That assclown fro "Saturday Night Fever"? I think Prettybetsy @1 has it about right - 13 YO id

i subjected myself to ferris bueller when i was near death and home sick with the flu. wanting to turn it off in the first 20 minutes, the fever wouldn't let me get up to turn it off i called a friend ( my now husband ) to come and turn if off but he couldn't he was in northgate doing something. the movie remains as one of the worst cinema experiences of my life. up to this moment i thought i was the only person who hated it. my faith in humanity is restored.

badstone @2, I hope you're right.

Great article. But I'm conflicted. People who send money and gifts to people they don't know, are pretty sorry themselves. And also, those stories about multiple tragedies don't sound real either. So part of the problem is the gullible people who will believe anything.

When resident Slog crazy-person 'Sgt Doom' says "Speaking of crazy people online..." the irony becomes unimaginably high.

@9,

I wouldn't say it's ironic. Obviously, he has firsthand experience.

Just the name of "Ferris Beuller" made me want to step magically into the movie and choke him to death. Just so much wealth and entitlement revealed by that name. If he were real, he would have gone on to running a ponzi scheme or been instrumental in creating the mortgage crisis.

@7: You might be surprised how easy it is to be taken in by someone with Munchausen's or another factitious disorder.

They don't usually start off with the multiple tragedies; the lies start out small, believable, and unverifiable. They gradually build on them, all the while exploiting their target's sympathy. After all, even if the story sounds just a little hinky, who would really say - to someone who just disclosed a cancer diagnosis - "Hmm. Interesting. I'm going to have to see your medical chart before I offer my condolences."

Eventually they get you to a point where you have swallowed so many little lies that you develop a sort of belief-inertia. It becomes more psychologically difficult to call out the next lie - and admit to yourself that you've been duped for months - than to swallow it.

@9: My favorite part about Sgt. Doom is if you challenge him (does not often happen, even newbies and tourists know not to answer to that dreck) he starts flinging insults like a petulant little child.

Kind of like how that Malcolmxy guy would devolve into fits of rage if insulted or challenged. Whatever happened to that guy?

Crimes committed by Ferris Bueller during his day off:

http://ask.metafilter.com/120479/Crimes-…

I know, right! Sgt. Doom is constantly claiming the Earth is round, what a douche..... everyone on the Slog knows it's flat as a pancake.

@11 Any bets on what Ferris Bueller is doing right now? Screaming at CNN? Cycling rapidly through his pet interjections, "Money!" and "It's all good!" and "Good times!"? Telling Mia Sara and the kids on the phone about his business trip while trying to interest a stripper in the VIP package? Whatever it is, he's guaranteed to be the loudest person in the room.

@9- What's kind of crazy is he actually makes a solid point and it's fairly well written. He's C&Ping from someone much saner than usual.

@- The Ferris Buelleur haters- Yes, Ferris is an entitled jerk, much like the protagonists of most comedies. Now just lay back and say "Oooohhh yeahhh, chuck, chuckachucka, bow wow womp.

@12 I think this is where it helps to have zero interest in discussing medical problems, my own or anyone else's. Unless I share money or insurance with you, how can it possibly help to talk about it? If it's somebody I care about and they're in distress, that's one thing, and if it's a weird enough illness to be fascinating that's another. But I no more want to hear about a stranger's cancer than I want to see the contents of her toilet before she flushes. If you do want to hear it, well, maybe you got your money's worth in entertainment. Personal medical crises are not something that can be solved by private charity.

God help us if he ever watches "Weekend At Bernie's".