Jack Rebney

John Mulford "Jack" Rebney (born 1930), also known as The Angriest Man In The World, The World's Angriest RV Salesman, or simply Winnebago Man, is the subject of an internet phenomenon, for a collection of outtakes from an industrial film he made for Winnebago Industries in 1988.

The original outtake clip, created by the Midwestern production company hired to edit the final video product, first surfaced around 1990, circulated person-to-person for years and appeared on public access television [cite web|url=http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Calendar/Film?Film=oid:236812 |title=Found Footage Festival with reference |publisher=The Austin Chronicle ] before finally being posted to the Internet. The video shows Mr. Rebney in repeated expletive-laden outbursts over forgotten lines, mistakes by the production crew, hot weather, and, in one montage, over the unwelcome presence of flies.

The video won third place on VH1's "Best of Web Junk 2006," and is a popular recurring feature of the Found Footage Festival comedy tour since its inception in 2004. In 2006, an independent filmmaker named Ben Steinbauer won a Princess Grace Foundation Film Award, to complete a documentary entitled "The Angriest Man in the World: Finding the Winnebago Guy", on the origin on the outtake video, and the effect of its popularity on Mr. Rebney nearly twenty years later [ cite web|url=http://www.pgfusa.com/awards/film/index.html |title=Princess Grace 2006 Film Award Recipients |accessdate=2007-04-15 |publisher=Princess Grace Foundation USA ] .

There are now several versions of the video of varying length; as well as several outtake compilations of lesser-seen material. An early extended cut appeared in 1999 on The Show With No Name, a television show in Austin, TX, compiled from raw footage provided to the show by the original filmmakers. Another began circulating the Internet in 2007 [ cite web|url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkbfnFulEIk |title=Winnebago Man Returns |accessdate=2007-09-07 ] , and yet another was compiled by the Found Footage Festival and distributed on their second DVD [cite web|url=http://www.buzznet.com/tags/jackrebney/video/356051/ |title=Winnebago Man Rides Again |accessdate=2007-09-07 ] . This latter clip shows Mr. Rebney substituting the phrase "the ferns and the docks" for any forgotten line; and eventually abandoning the English language entirely, in favor of gibberish and faux Japanese. He then begins to make strange noises with his lips, making farting and sloshing sounds. He occasionally substitutes obscenities such as "Fuck" or "Shit" in the midst of his gibberish-laden outbursts. He also makes use of the Japanese obscenity "Baka."

History

In 1988, Winnebago hired a production crew to shoot a promotional video for their 1989 product line. However, the project was taken over by Rebney, who brought his own cameraman and a production assistant named Tony (often referred to in the video). Rebney had thought the video would be shot in sequence (and memorized his self-penned script accordingly), but his cameraman thought it made no sense for Rebney to walk in and out of the vehicle repeatedly (as scripted) and that it would be more practical for Rebney to shoot all the outdoor scenes, then go back into the vehicle to shoot those scenes. Because Rebney was not prepared for this sudden change, he repeatedly forgot his lines, leading to profanity-laden outbursts.

Afterwards, the production crew originally hired to shoot the video was sub-contracted by Rebney to edit it; they responded by circulating the outtakes as revenge against Rebney for stealing their gig. [cite web|title=Winnebago Man Fuck Bloopers|url=http://www.milkandcookies.com/link/17209/detail/]

Summary

The video opens with Jack Rebney sitting in the Winnebago, complaining that he has to be able to move. He then gets up and starts talking about the Winnebago's bathroom, but forgets his lines and says, "I don't even know what the fuck I'm reading". It then cuts to a scene where Rebney, rubbing his temples, exclaims "I wonder what the fuck the real dialogue is!". A man is shown walking across the screen as Rebney asks, in reference to a windscreen wiper, "What the fuck is this thing?". The man walks up to assist him as he says, "Call it the windshield, for fuck's sake." The next clip is a Winnebago by itself, and Rebney can be heard saying, "Oh, fuck". Then, Jack is in the middle of a parking lot and says, "What? What the fuck did I say?"

The next two clips are again of Winnebagos. In the first clip, Rebney asks "That didn't sound for shit, did it?". In the second clip, he explains that they are "Building a fucking industrial film", and he's "Trying to give these guys everything they can get. I mean, that's it, fuck it." That clip quickly skips, and Jack appears to be explaining how a frame-mounted handle is going to help one to not fall out of the RV, at which he laughs and concludes, "You big dumb son of a bitch!". Again, he yells "I don't even know what the fuck I'm saying!" as he strolls away from the RV. The next clip shows Rebney holding open a panel on the side of the mobile home, and getting angry when he accidentally lets go of it, to which he says, "Gotta do it again, right now.". A similar instance occurs again, this time with him waving his arms in frustration afterwards.

The next sequence of clips is just Rebney cursing, in this order: "Oh, fuck! Fuck! Fuck! FUCK! Oh, fuck! SHIT!." We then return to the same setting as the first scene, and he asks his assistant Tony to "do him a kindness," to which Tony replies "Leave? I ain't gonna be walking in and out if you're gonna fuck up and I gotta come back in here..."." Rebney replies with "That doesn't make any difference to me at this juncture", and as Tony departs the frame, he says "I appreciate that, Tony... Don't slam the fucking door! No More!". He then explains that he does not want any more bullshit from anyone for the rest of the day, including from himself. He explains that it is going to be very hot and uncomfortable outside for everybody, and that if there is any more yelling, "The shit is gonna hit the fan!"

The next two clips are Rebney getting furious because he can't remember the lines he wrote, saying things like "I fucked up the word rear", "What does the Goddamn line say, Tony!?", and "I don't give a shit what the line says." The next few scenes are him irritated about the presence of flies near (or on) the RV. He says "Shun of a bitch. Get out of here, you fuckin' flies.". Then Tony is seen walking toward the camera in the next scene, with Jack off-camera, saying "We have flies coming for us. Fuck!". He tells Tony to make sure they don't get a fly in the shot. Rebney then becomes extremely agitated at the flies, swatting at them with his hand yelling "Get outta here, ya Goddamn jackass!". He takes matters into his own hands in the next scene, sneaking up on a fly and crushing it in his hand. The next few scenes show Rebney even angrier about flubbing his lines, exclaiming "I can't fucking make my mind work!". A tired Rebney then politely asks Tony for a towel. We see the towel fly in from outside the frame and hit the Winnebago; Rebney did not see it coming, explaining he was "Blinded by that fuckin' hot light.". The next scene is Rebney in the Winnebago driver's seat, yelling "Goddamn son of a bitch!" After that, he is seen climbing down the back of the RV, shouting "What do you mean? I'm gonna fall off the fucking thing!"

The next couple of scenes show Rebney back inside the Winnebago, exclaiming "Bullshit, I'm gonna slate this fucker!" and how he "...don't got time to mark this motherfucker down.". In the next scene, Tony says the camera is still rolling, to which Rebney replies, "Well, turn the fucking thing off!". Rebney then says, in reference to Tony, "You dumbass." and "Man, I'd like to kick your fucking head in.". We then see Rebney walking out of the Winnebago telling us to "Meet innovation. Money!" He flips a coin into the air, but swats it onto the ground when he tries to catch it, gets angry and goes to pick it up. After a few more scenes, he starts making noises with his mouth.

Then we go into a montage of different scenes where Rebney says, in this order: "Son of a bitch! Jesus Christ! Fuck! Shit!". A couple of scenes later and we once again have Rebney frustrated because he "Can't remember the Goddamn line.". He tries to tell some customers about Winnebago "accoutrement," before exclaiming "Accoutrement?! What is that shit?". After a couple more scenes of Rebney explaining how his mouth "Gets so Goddamn diuretic" that "it never stops," we see the penultimate shot of him inside the Winnebago, musing that "It ain't worth it. Not this shit. It ain't fucking worth it."

The final shot shows Rebney confidently talking about the "Mini-Winnie" being part of American tradition, with which he concludes, "D'you believe any of that shit?"

Links

* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4099099782912716663&q=Angry+Winnebago+Salesman Angriest Man in the World (Google Video)]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drj-ZSGssYA Vulgar Winnebago Salesman Outtakes (YouTube)]
* [http://jackrebney-winnebagoman.blogspot.com/ Video Blog]

References