[dc]P[/dc]lenty of posts, articles, tweets and so on shared the passing of writer/director/actor Harold Ramis this week. I suppose I can, or rather, should add to the pile.
However, I don’t think I can sum it up better than this tweet.
By Bryan Young, @swankmotron.
It hits the nail on the head, in under 140 characters. For those of my generation, who grew up with Ghostbusters’ mighty stamp on pop culture, Ramis’ passing strikes a blow.
I’ll round this rambling out with a few Harold Ramis memories.
First, as someone who started wearing glasses in preschool, Ramis’ Egon character was a bit of a, I don’t know, spirt animal of sorts (along with his animated alter ego in The Real Ghostbusters). When you’re a little kid who gets picked on for wearing glasses, seeing Egon as an important part of the Ghostbusters team helped take the sting out. Egon was cool and smart. And Egon wore glasses. So my wearing glasses wasn’t so bad because of Egon. Sure, it is a silly kid correlation, but there it is.
Second, I remember the first time I ever saw 1987’s Baby Boom. I was young, perhaps too young to see the film (I sure as hell didn’t understand what was going on), and I remember seeing Ramis’ character, Steven, and wondering, “Why is Egon acting different? What’s going on?” Again, another silly kid correlation, as I didn’t really grasp the whole ‘actor’ thing at the time.
Third, along the same lines, seeing Stripes for the first time blew my mind. Saturated with Ramis as straight-man Egon due to repeat viewings of Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters 2, I was not prepared for his role as Russell Ziskey. At. All. Heh.
Fourth, I’ll end with one of my favorite exchanges from Ghostbusters.
Peter: Egon, this reminds of me of the time you tried to drill a hole through your head.
Egon: That would have worked if you hadn’t stopped me.
OK. Time to watch Ghostbusters again.
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