"I especially like the shaft."

Susan Sparks (played by Annabeth Gish, who showed up on Halt and Catch Fire last year) hands a gigantic hammer to John Henry Irons (played by Shaquille O'Neal, who recently showed up in a Gold Bond commercial) and says something like, "A man named John Henry needs to have a hammer." Uncle Joe (played by Richard Roundtree) looks at the hammer lovingly and says, "I especially like the shaft."

That would be scanned.

First off, Richard Roundtree, for the love of Mike. I guess times was hard at the end of the 20th century. 

Second off, just in case you didn't know, Richard Roundtree played Shaft back in the day . . . before Samuel L. Jackson took on every black male role in Hollywood. (To quote Ted 2: "You ever see any movie, ever? He's the black guy.") In fact, Mr. Roundtree played Shaft in Shaft (1971), Shaft's Big Score! (1972), Shaft in Africa (1973), and in seven episodes of a tv show version (1973 - 1974). Not to mention his role as Uncle John Shaft in Shaft (2000), wherein Shaft was played by You-Know-Who. So even though "I especially like the shaft" sounds super-gay 1 , it's actually a coy allusion to Mr. Roundtree's most famous role. 

Enough scanning, but just for the check of it . . . 

Third off, Uncle Joe also has this line: "Well, I'll be dipped in shit and rolled in bread crumbs." Mmm-hmm.

And fourth off, there were a few amusing bits in this movie. Like when a voice disguiser makes Shaq sound like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Or when John's little brother finds out John is Steel, and Steel responds by saying, "Dont tell grandma." Or when grandma wanted to open a restaurant called Black and Bleu. Heh.

   


1 Not that there's anything wrong with that.