Recently, Steely Dan principles Donald Fagen and Walter Becker wrote an open letter to actor Luke Wison on letterhead from a Corpus Christi hotel requesting that he speak to his brother, Owen, about his new movie, “You, Me and Dupree.” The decidedly-tongue-in-cheek letter from the notoriously sarcastic Dan duo mock ripped the elder Owen for acting in a movie they claim was stolen from their Grammy-award winning song, “Cousin Dupree.”
They appeal to Luke referring to Owen as his younger brother even though they admit at the bottom of the letter that they found out Owen is the elder, but, “You seem a lot more mature somehow…don’t you?”
A lot of people on the web who don’t get the sarcastic humor of the guys from Steely Dan ripped the duo in all sorts of ways. It was really pretty funny reading rants about how no one cares about SD anyway. Even funnier was seeing the media report that SD really was upset with Wilson in their stories.
It reminds me a little of a lyric from a Harvey Danger song: “You missed the point completely. I get the point exactly.” where the singer trys to explain that his pretending to not get the point of a stupid joke is his own way of making a joke at the person’s expense.
To his credit and judging by his response, Owen Wilson gets the point exactly.
“I have never heard the song `Cousin Dupree’ and I don’t even know who this gentleman, Mr. Steely Dan, is. I hope this helps to clear things up and I can get back to concentrating on my new movie, `HEY 19.'”
That is just BRILLIANT! Bravo!