The Room is a cult classic disasterpiece of a movie, written, directed, produced, and starring Tommy Wiseau. Despite bombing at the box office and generally being considered one of the worst movies ever made, it ended up running in a theater in Los Angeles for years and inspired a movie about the making of the movie, as well as a remake that’s ostensibly supposed to come out this year.
Despite all that, you probably didn’t expect a reference to The Room to sneak its way into the Invincible Season 2 midseason finale. But it did!
Here’s the info on The Room, if you’re not familiar. The movie is ostensibly about a guy named Johnny (Wiseau) who discovers his best friend Mark (Greg Sestero) is having an affair with his girlfriend Lisa (Juliette Danielle). Through Wiseau’s off-kilter delivery, various turns of phrase have made their way into popular and meme culture. Two of those lines? “Oh hi Mark,” and “You’re tearing me apart, Lisa!”
The context for the above lines isn’t that important (the first is preceded by a dramatic speech about not hitting his girlfriend that turns on a dime, the second is just insanely overdramatic). What is important is that in the middle of Invincible‘s latest episode, “It’s Been a While,” writer Helen Leigh pretty clearly snuck in a bonkers reference to The Room.
Specifically, in the middle of a knock-down, drag-out fight between Nolan (J.K. Simmons) and Mark (Steven Yeun), and three Viltrumites. While Nolan has already impaled Lucan (Phil Lamarr), and is holding his own against Vidor (Chris Diamantopoulos), Mark is getting a beat-down from Thula (Grey Griffin). Nolan briefly knocks her out of the way, and chides his son, explaining that he needs to get over his compunction about killing people. That’s when Nolan drops The Room reference:
It’s actually almost two references in one, clearly inspired by Invincible’s real name Mark. But it’s Nolan saying, “She’s tearing you apart,” which drives the joke home. Yes, they could have done the “oh hi Mark” meme pretty easily. Heck, the internet has already done this multiple times.
Instead, they went for the extra level of difficulty to sneak in a reference to, “You’re tearing me apart, Lisa,” without explicitly driving the Easter egg home. And bonus points because it takes place in the middle of an incredibly dramatic sequence. Though Invincible is undoubtedly miles beyond The Room, like the latter the animated series shifts tones wildly, sometimes in the same scene. So to throw a sneaky joke in the middle of a deadly fight is the perfect level of parody and tribute.
Now get Tommy Wiseau to voice General Thragg and we can call it a day.
Invincible Season 2 Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
Invincible Season 2 officially premiered on Prime Video on Thursday, November 2 at 8 pm ET / 5 pm PT. Though Season 2 will be eight episodes long, only one episode will premiere on Thursday, followed by the next three Thursdays. Then there will be a break, and the second half of Invincible Season 2 will premiere sometime in 2024.
Here’s the full list of episodes in Invincible Season 2:
- Thursday, November 2, 2023: Invincible, Season 2, Episode 1 – “A Lesson For Your Next Life”
- Thursday, November 9, 2023: Invincible, Season 2, Episode 2 – “In About Six Hours, I Lose My Virginity to A Fish”
- Thursday, November 16, 2023: Invincible, Season 2, Episode 3 – “This Missive, This Machination!”
- Thursday, November 23, 2023: Invincible, Season 2, Episode 4 – “It’s Been A While”
- 2024, TBA: Invincible, Season 2, Episode 5 – “TBA”
- 2024, TBA: Invincible, Season 2, Episode 6 – “TBA”
- 2024, TBA: Invincible, Season 2, Episode 7 – “TBA”
- 2024, TBA: Invincible, Season 2, Episode 8 – “TBA” *Season Finale*
