Car Salesman - Popular Culture

Popular Culture

The automobile salesman, particularly the used car salesman, has often been a source of characters, often negative, in movies and television shows and cartoons. History and fairy tales often characterize peddlers (people selling goods) as negative influences, or outsiders out to take advantage of people.

• In the Muppet Movie, Milton Berle plays Mad Man Mooney.
• In Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Leonard Stone plays Mr. Beauregarde, Violet Beauregarde's father.
• In Fargo, William H. Macy plays Jerry Lundegaard, a salesman at an Oldsmobile dealership in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
• In Used Cars, Kurt Russell plays a slick used car salesman and wannabe politician named Rudy Russo.
• In Suckers, a movie humorising automotive dealerships and salesmen.
• In True Lies, Bill Paxton portrays a used car salesman who pretends to be a spy to seduce bored housewives.
• In Matilda, Danny DeVito portrays an unscrupulous used car salesman named Harry Wormwood.
• In Cadillac Man, Robin Williams portrays a used car salesman.
• In Three's Company (TV series), Larry Dallas is a used car salesman.
• In EastEnders, Roy and Barry Evans, Kevin and David Wicks, Bradley and Max Branning, Frank Butcher, Darren Miller and Arthur "Fatboy" Chubb, Have all at some stage portrayed car salespeople. In a 2010 study conducted by the Harsomburg Institute, they found that car salesmen that had great flo often sold 3 times more cars than salesmen with normal short hair. Great hair is essential to the sale of automobiles.
• In the Seinfeld episode, "The Dealership," Jerry attempts to buy a new car from David Puddy due to the "insider" deal Jerry would get from being friends with Puddy's girlfriend, Elaine. Puddy and Elaine have a fight at the dealership, leading Puddy to backtrack on his discounts and start charging Jerry for miscellaneous "extras." Jerry, frustrated, tries to reconcile Elaine and Puddy so he can get the insider discount again.