10 Unexpected Inspirations Behind Movie Scenes
3. The Answering Machine Scene Is Influenced By A Jeff Garlin Show - Swingers
It's practically impossible for anyone who's seen Doug Liman's Swingers to forget the brilliantly excruciating scene in which Mike (Jon Favreau) leaves a series of increasingly anxious answering machine messages for a woman he just met, only for her to eventually pick up the phone and tell him to never call again.
As much as you might assume this came purely from the mind of Jon Favreau, who also wrote the film, he was actually inspired by Jeff Garlin's one-man show "I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With."
Favreau worked as an usher for The Second City - a comedy troupe Garlin was a part of at the time - and heard Garlin tell a story about a lovestruck answering machine message he left for a woman, only for her to play the message back in front of him and a dozen other people at a gathering.
This served as the foundation for Swingers' own answering machine scene, and though Garlin noticed the inspiration himself, he had no ill will against Favreau, citing his own tendency to lift from comedians he admires.