This series of sketches featured Phil Hartman as Gene, a fastidious[1] chef who could not bear to be in the presence of anything cluttered or dirty. After peeling some vegetables he advised throwing the peels away by wrapping them in paper toweling, then aluminum foil, then putting them in a paper bag that was then to be sealed with scotch tape. Gene never completed any of his recipes; he always became too distracted by the effects of his psychological complex, and ran out of time. The majority of these sketches featured the Gene character as a chef, however, he also played an anal retentive sportsman and home improvement expert. The sketch was presented as a PBS program sponsored by the Chubb Group.
phil hartman anal retentive
I see nothing wrong whatsoever in his behavior, other than the fact that he never gets around to completing, or even beginning, a dish. He reminds me of my mother, one of my brothers, me. My mother would wrap certain unsavory drippy bits of garbage before putting them in the trash bin. The counter was wiped down constantly, the sink sparkled, the refrigerator contained nary an expired speck of cheese or meat. Is this O.C.D., control freak, or anal retentive behavior?
At the end of the last show, the "producer" came up to me, grabbed me by the shoulders and said, "You know what? You complain a lot." I was very traumatized by this, but like all good control-freak, anal retentive, O.C.D. chefs, I dusted off the counter, gave the sink a jaunty Ajax scrub, neatly folded my apron into three sections with the ties tucked inside, safely wrapped my very sharp Wusthof knives in a clean, dry dish towel, stacked my laminated recipes in a neat pile, and went on my merry, well organized, mapped-out route home.
I am only anal retentive when it matters. It is more important to fully cream sugar and butter, than it is to have EXACTLY one teaspoon of vanilla, for example. As for cleaning? Well, I am genetically challanged in that department. You can't imagine what it was like to be a germaphobe and not neat at the same time ;)
I'm anally retentive in all areas of my life except cooking. I substitute at will, adjust according to my own beliefs/intuition and generally use a recipe as a guide rather than an edict. I do tend to clean as I go simply because my current kitchen in tiny so I run out of room well before I finish cooking. 2ff7e9595c
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