It’s more than 20 years since Clueless made a hero of Cher (Alicia Silverstone), the likeable and smart – if slightly superficial – 16-year-old who lives with her father in Beverly Hills. The movie, a coming-of-age comedy, is loosely based on Jane Austen’s classic novel Emma and charts popular Cher’s mission to turn the “tragically unhip” Tai (Brittany Murphy) into a cool kid. Also starring Paul Rudd, Stacey Dash and Donald Faison (Turk from Scrubs), it’s become a cult classic.
And Clueless has proved its longevity once again, with one clip in particular circulating recently on social media. In the video below, Cher takes part in a school debate and makes an impassioned argument on behalf of refugees who wish to enter the United States. The teacher allots her two minute to make her case, but she makes her compelling argument in one. Basically, if Cher were in power, politicians would all get a lot more stuff done.
She improbably – and successfully – compares the plight of Haitian refugees to a garden party at her dad’s house. “So, OK, like right now, for example, the Haitians need to come to America,” she says. “But some people are all, ‘What about the strain on our resources?’ But it’s like when I had this garden party for my father’s birthday, right? I said R.S.V.P. because it was a sit-down dinner. But people came that, like, did not R.S.V.P. So I was, like, totally buggin’. I had to haul ass to the kitchen, redistribute the food, squish in extra place settings; but by the end of the day it was, like, the more the merrier!”
The more the merrier. Goddamn, that’s beautiful. And that’s before Cher explains that “if the government could just get to the kitchen, rearrange some things, we could certainly party with the Haitians”. It’s also before she delivers her final, beautiful flourish, after which she twirls her bubblegum in victory: “And in conclusion, may I please remind you that it does not say R.S.V.P. on the Statue of Liberty. Thank you very much.” Let’s hope Donald Trump sees this.