I'm sure there's a theory on the laughing teens not yet Rita sees when she's stumbling her way to Havenhurst. Although I've never actually heard one. So dropping line on this one, any fishes?

As a bonus for helping out with this, check out the "No Dogs" (dog, red circle with red line through the dog) sign behind Betty at LAX.

No ideas on the laughing joking kids, what it reminds me of is Sandy and Jeffrey walking down the sidewalk in New Lumberton.

Hmmm... Well as there hasn't been any activity for the last few days, and because it is a clear indication of two things: 1) Lynch's obsession with detail, and 2) My obsession with the movie, ... here is my latest find.

During interstitial aerial views of the city streets, you see cars criss-crossing the streets of LA. The cars are always white, black, or red. Although maybe 1 or 2 blue vans are mixed in.

They hardly appear to be teenagers.

Like I said I think of them like Jeffrey and Sandy. Changed the subject line.

Any ideas?

From the Rabbits in IE:

7. "What time is it?" - [audience/tape] ha ha ha
6. "Were there any calls?" - [audience/tape] ha ha ha
5. [sound of footsteps] - Suzie Rabbit: ha ha ha

From MD:

1. While Rita was hiding in the front-yard, two passersby (teens?) were laughing.
2. On Diane's probable foolish question Joe bursted out into laughter that faded into the alley behind Winkie's, where a Bum fiddles with a blue box, sitting on his bum between fire and smoke.
3. The creepy old couple that had crawled under the door, grew till threatening proportions and drove Diane into the bedroom as they produced a hysterical laughter.
4. Dan felt being laughed at by Herb ("See what I mean?") when he told him about his worst fear; about a face he would never want to see outside his dream.


The common factor in these seven extracts is death. Isn't death a sort of disruption in life's continuum that goes beyond our comprehension? He who laughs last, laughs best, or did not understand the joke ...? Isn't a joke a playful disruption too, in a (short) story's logic, which makes us laugh?

If I were to fill in the dead persons, that are referenced by those seven extracts it would from this list:

Diane, Camilla, Dan, the wife, the husband, the mistress.

Anyway, Shakespeare let his gravediggers break the fourth wall to bring something likable and to release the tension in his plays when it neared an unbearable point.


Well, those were my guesses.

BTW Come to think of it, Joe and Ed were laughing as well ... soon there were three on the floor, figuratively speaking.

Thank you. That was very helpful.

One theory I had is the teens (I mean adults) were doppelgangers of the joy riding kids who crashed into Camilla. But laughter really is the thing that ties them into folks like Joe, Ed, and others.

I think they're doppelgangers of Adam and Camilla at the pool party, giggling so hard they can't get through their announcement (similar to how the laughing adulteens are giggling so hard they can't walk straight).

That's a realy interesting comparison, Siku. Nice thinking. I never thought about that in that way. Do you mind if I try to expand that a little?

We have three situations with obvious laughter: the couple on the street, the hitman and his friend and the hitman with Diane. As you said, Siku, this laughter stands for death. I guess it stands more specifically for (the confrontation with) the trauma. We have to keep in mind that the dream-fantasy-reality structure of the movie assumes that we get closer to reality in each segment So...

The situation with Rita and the couple seems harmful enough. Rita is just confused and a bit frightened by the laughter of the couple. This scene also functions to establish the fact that Rita is unable to communicate with others besides Betty, because in the dream Rita (= Diane's wish to make it in Hollywood) and Betty are one.

The scene with the hitman and his friend appears later in the dream. Here the two laugh at the fact that "They (Betty and Rita) thought it was real (the car accident)." The laughter in this scene isn't funny, because the hitman murders his friend (that is Diane "murders" her dream to make it in Hollywood) and this is closer to reality.

When the hitman laughs at the question of Diane: "What's it open?" we see him tapping his fingers at the window seat and above his fingers we see the blue dumpster. This time the laughter directly hints at the blue box and the confrontation of Diane with her trauma.

So the laughter becomes more sinister with each scene and closer to reality.

Like KMKmiller suggested, I used to relate them back to the crazy drivers on Mulholland Dr. If you recall, there are two cars racing. One car crashes into the limo, but remember, one car escapes, zooming on past pretty much unnoticed. So what if.... the laughing couple were in the car that escapes, they're laughing because they escaped death, just as Rita did. If this is Diane's dream, then the laughter could be seen as mocking, they are mocking the fact that it isn't real. Rita doesn't escape death, b/c Rita is not her name... she is Camilla and Diane kills Camilla. So the couple could be seen as one of those Lynchian, sinister, mocking characters who seem to know what is really going on--like the old couple, etc. etc. (I've always seen these "strange" characters as the horrible subconscious & repressed memories of the "dreamer" creeping in, trying to reveal the truth that the "dreamer" is trying to hide. Also explains why "Rita" (not her real name) is FRIGHTENED by them.

Another idea I has is that the racing cars and the crash are a microcosm of the whole story. The car that escapes unharmed represents the dream side of the story and Diane's wish-fulfillment (Camilla doesn't die), while the car that crashes represents the reality, Diane collides with Camilla and they both crash and burn.

Shes just trying to avoid them because she doesn't want to draw attention to the fact that her head is bleeding and also that she doesn't remember her name. Who want's to meet someone new when you don't remember your own name??

She doesn't want any help or attention where they will call an ambulance or something. All she want's to do is fall asleep because she thinks that when she wakes up she'll remember her name and who she is.

At this point in the movie, we don't realize that she has amnesia. By avoiding the people walking down the sidewalk, it just intrigues the viewer a bit and captures their interest. Then when we learn that she doesn't know her own name it makes sense.