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Vietnamese restaurateur tired of once-novel joke

For years, Nguyen Dinh Cam, the proprietor of Pho Hung, a small Vietnamese restaurant near the University of Arizona, has had to put up with tiresome jokes from his customers about the Vietnamese dish, phuket. "I have heard a lot of bad jokes," says Nguyen. "Some people also try to order in a limerick form, saying 'There once was a man from Nantucket,' and things like that." But a few years ago, the release of the Coen brothers' movie The Big Lebowski created a new dimension in phuket jokes. Nguyen explains, "The movie is very funny. A rich old man gets very angry with the lazy man and he yells at him not to give up all the time." The Big Lebowski is very popular with college students, who often visit Pho Hung. UA junior Matt Grady describes his ordering ritual: "I look at the menu, as if I'm casually checking out the offerings, and then when I get to phuket, I act really surprised and I do the whole thing, like, 'Oh, phuket--yes, that's your answer! That's your answer to everything! Tattoo it on your forehead! Your revolution is over, Mr. Lebowski. Condolences, the bums lost. The bums will always lose! My advice to you is to do what your parents did: get a job, sir. The bums will always lose!'" For while, Nguyen found the movie quotes quite charming. "I used to like it because they're not making dirty jokes, they just like to talk about the movie that they love so much. And I think somebody with a tattoo of 'phuket' on their forehead would be very funny, as they say in the movie," says Nguyen. The continuing popularity of the film among college students has meant that the joke has not disappeared. But Nguyen wishes his customers would move on and find a new way to mock the phonetically naughty dish.

Image: subject with cardboard sign hung around neck

Subject information:

Name: Vandewalker, Ian

Occupation: student

Age: 43

Sex: male

Weight: "yes, please!"

Identifying characteristics: tattoo of human face on and around front of head

Fingerprints: 10

Point of joke: unknown

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