Last week, Jeff Bridges teased a mysterious new project, in which he reprises his iconic character 'The Dude' from 1998 cult classic The Big Lebowski. In the Coen Brothers film, mellow Los Angeles slacker Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski gets mistaken for a cantankerous millionaire targeted by kidnappers. The hilarious mix-ups, trippy dream sequences and endlessly quotable dialogue made the movie so popular it inspired his own annual festival, Lebowski Fest.
However, the new project stopped being mysterious once the date flashed on screen at the end of the teaser video: February 3, 2019, the date of the Super Bowl, one of the most-watched events of the year, when companies unleash big-budget, celebrity-studded ads. And in the age of countless Memberberry revivals, nothing snags viewers more than nostalgia bait. 'Member when Jerry Seinfeld and Jason Alexander brought back their Seinfeld characters for a Super Bowl ad? I 'member!
Since the Coen Brothers stated they would never make a sequel to The Big Lebowski, it seemed pretty obvious this project was a Super Bowl commercial. To quote Seinfeld, "not that there's anything wrong with that!" It was fun to watch Matthew Broderick reprise Ferris Bueller in a Super Bowl ad for Honda, wasn't it? No? Well, that's just, like your opinion, man. If Bridges is going to don that ratty cardigan and pajama pants again, Lebowski fans are here for it.
A week before the Super Bowl, the Lebowski ad aired on television and contained a pleasant surprise: It also stars Sarah Jessica Parker, who reprises her iconic character, Carrie Bradshaw from HBO's Sex and the City. The concept is cute: Carrie's known for her signature drink, the Cosmopolitan, while The Dude is known for his signature drink, The White Russian. However, at this restaurant, they both decide to try something different: a Stella Artois.
When Carrie announces her order, staffers are so shocked they drop plates, crash into each other, and ignore saucepans engulfed in flames. The Dude then walks in, and accepts the chaotic scene with a cavalier grin. "Wild night, huh?" he observes, then orders a Stella Artois, mispronouncing it "Stella Ar-tose." When he sits down, Carrie compliments The Dude on his choice of drink, to which he replies, "Changing can do a little good. Dude abides!"
On Twitter, some people voiced their disappointment over the commercial, snarking, "This ad really does not tie the room together." But come on, Lebowski fans, did you really believe that The Coen Brothers secretly shot a sequel? And let's say they did: Do you think they could recapture the magic twenty years later, or, like Donny's ashes, the effort would blow back in viewers' faces, leaving a bitter taste?
As for Sarah Jessica Parker, Sex In The City returned for two films and a short-lived CW prequel series The Carrie Diaries. A third and final movie is rumored, but not confirmed. But if they never make it, maybe that's for the best, you know? As they say in Stephen King's Pet Sematary, "Sometimes dead is better."
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