PJ and I watched the movie Fargo last night.

Earlier in the day he’d asked if I ever saw it.

“Yes. Did you?”

“No.”

“What?! Really??”

Whenever I find PJ alone on the couch he’s either watching Red Dawn or The Patriot but he’s never found the time for a classic like Fargo. Ok.

When it premiered in 1996, the movie was all the rage. Every person in ear shot was saying “Oh yah” in a Midwestern accent or discussing the wood chipper scene.

PJ’s explanation: “It annoyed me that everyone was talking like that so it made me not want to see it.”

You might think this is a dumb reason but I completely understand.

I was 37 the first time I saw Home Alone. In fact, not seeing it became ‘my thing’.

Conversations went like this:

“You never saw Home Alone?!”

“Nope.”

Cue the wide-eyed dismay.

“No way?! Really?? (person slaps both cheeks as if to say “How can you resist all that cuteness?”)

I generally can’t stand when people have “a thing” but this was fun.

Truth be told, I wanted to punch that Culkin kid in the face every time I saw him do that.

Little did I know, I’d been cutting off my nose in spite of my own punchable face.

Home Alone is a masterpiece. That pizza delivery scene makes me laugh just as hard now as it did the first time I saw it.

Anyhooo… I hadn’t seen Fargo in years. Decades maybe. Not only did it hold up, it got better.

Interestingly though, when we got to the wood chipper scene, PJ didn’t make a peep. Not even a gasp.

🚨 Spoiler alert 🚨

As Peter Stormare’s character stood before a wood chipper, pressing down on what was supposed to be (the always magnificent) Steve Buscemi’s socked foot to continue feeding his body through it, my stomach turned.

The stark-white, snowy backdrop was now sprayed and drenched with dark red blood.

PJ had no reaction.

When it was over:

“What’d you think?”

“I really liked it.”

“What about the wood chipper scene? That’s the part everyone always freaked out about.”

“Oh really?” like he thought nothing of it.

This worries me. Either The Patriot has desensitized him (probably one too many views of Benjamin Martin getting revenge with a tomahawk in front of his kids ) or I’m married to a psychopath.

To quote my Pa:

If you find me in the freezer, don’t believe the suicide note.