In honour of the 25th anniversary of When Harry Met Sally, I thought I’d take some time to draw parallels between myself and that beautiful, wonderful, clever character … Harry Burns.
You thought I would say Sally Albright, didn’t you? Oh, except, I guess I rather gave myself away in the title of this blog post, didn’t I?
Oh well. Let the listicle begin!
1. I ruin endings of things, like Downton Abbey, to see if it’s worth watching.
It was a fateful day, that day I spoiled season three of Downton Abbey for myself. The difference between Harry and I, though, is that he flips to the end of a Robert Ludlum novel because he thinks he’s a dark person. Whereas I read through every episode summary of season three because I was scrolling through Tumblr and happened upon a Downton gif of Branson crying about the death of his wife and I felt the need to rip off the bandaid of BBC-induced pain in one go to gauge whether or not it was worth watching. And at the time, I did not think it was worth watching.
Also, I immediately realized I’d made a huge mistake.
So maybe Harry and I aren’t that alike in this regard after all.
2. I, too, dance sporting the “white man’s overbite.”
What can I say? I’ve got some sick dance moves.
Oh, don’t misunderstand me, my dance moves have the power to make people sick. I’ve never actually been dancing, so this is purely based on my car dancing and the dancing you did in front of the mirror as a teenager but don’t actually tell anyone because no one admits to having danced in front of the mirror. Even though everyone has done it.
But this is my go-to move. It’s like in Hitch when Will Smith teaches Kevin James how to dance, but Harry, Kevin and I don’t listen to Will’s advice of “elbows six inches from the waist, 90 degree angle, don’t you bite your lip, stop it!”
We bite our lip.
Because we’re awkward and we’re not sure of what else to do.
3. My friend and I often watch the same thing and chat with each other (via messenger not over the phone, but it still counts).
This is clearly evident by the many commentaries that are on this blog. It’s quite a lovely thing to do, actually. You get to enjoy your own couch, your own bed, your own bathroom. And you still get to hang out with your friend.
It’s like the introvert’s dream hangout session.
4. Sometimes I put an accent on for my friends causing them to look at the director behind the camera.
The biggest difference between Harry and I in this situation is I don’t put on an accent as a preface to asking out my friend.
I just do it to try and make them laugh. Or because I’m bored. Or because I’ve gone too long without human interaction and my friends have to deal with the repercussions.
It’s mostly just attempts at British accents that fail miserably, or an Irish accent when I try to channel Declan from Leap Year. Or something akin to the Swedish Chef. Or I’ll just say, “Bit of a weirdo if you ask me … one of these vigilante types” like the chief superintendent in Sherlock.
5. I’ve never had to sing over the phone to cheer a friend up, but I have texted them songs, which can be difficult.
Sometimes my friend is having a hard day or I’m having a hard day and we just need a song break, but we don’t phone each other because, well, because we don’t now how to use a phone as a phone so we “sing” via text. For example, one time I sent her this:
“WHEN THE NIGHT. HAS COME. AND THE LAND IS DARK. AND THE MOON … IS THE ONLY LIGHT WE’LL SEE … NO I WON’T! BE AFRAID OH IIIII WON’T BE AFRAID … JUST AS LONG … AS YOU STAND … STAND BY ME … SO DARLING DARLING STAAAND BY ME. OOOOH STAAAND BY ME. OOOH STAND … STAND BY ME. STAND BY ME.”
Which is just a classic.
Although thankfully I’ve never had to call and sing an apology over the phone for the same reason that Harry had to call Sally and sing an apology over the phone.
If you’re a fool who has never seen When Harry Met Sally, do yourself a favour and watch it. Because there is no statute of limitations with this movie.
It’s a classic for a reason.
Just Comma, 