Sterling Archer on Travel

Jeanne Marie Hoffman July 30, 2015 General Nerdery Leave a comment

Sterling Archer, the eponymous main character of a TV show, often does pretty dumb things. But he’s actually a smart guy. He not only drops pop culture references, but also references to fine literature and obscure historical events.

What I like about the show too is its use of the fourth-wall. Sometimes Archer is making a side comment on the issue for the benefit of the audience, or sometimes has to face the real consequences of his actions (versus “cartoon consequences”) as a gag, even though usually there are no permanent consequences to Archer. The other characters–not so much.

Here are some of my favorite situations involving Archer and travel.

Archer on taking a blimp:

“Uh hello? Airplanes? It’s blimps. You win.”

Archer on the no-fly list (…literally):

“I wanna fly the plane!”

Followed by (yes it is a different clip)

“I wanna fly the train!”

Archer on room service (clip not available):

“It’s not Steak au Poivre without peppercorns!”

Well said, Archer. Well said.

On getting hit with a fire extinguisher in a plane.

I can’t find anything for this on the free part of the internet, but if you have Hulu, you can find the episode here.

Archer begins dropping references to Len Koenecke after being whacked in the head with a fire extinguisher.

But the episode mimics what happened in this case. Len was a baseball player in the 1930s. His record suddenly dropped so he got cut. On his flight home, he got drunk and crazed, tried to take control of the plane from the pilots, and began attacking them when they resisted. The pilot ended up hitting him in the head with the fire extinguisher.

So even though it seems like the reference (during the episode) is only to Len dying of a head injury after that, if you read this description of how things went down, you’ll see the episode of Archer directly mirrors it.

The way travel is depicted in TV shows always fascinates me. But don’t get me started about characters flying unrealistic aircraft types for their routes in sitcoms and drama. Or maybe get me started.