When the art teacher in "Ghost World" was introduced, it was to be with a pretentious film that she made that says everything we need to know about this person. As scripted, it was, as I recall, about returning to the house of her father, with POV shots of someone coming home, then the doll in the flushing toilet. And that all worked really well. But the more I watched it, the less it felt as pretentious and "arty" as it could be. So, I mulled over what I could do.
Well, a few years before "Ghost World," I had attended a Burroughs exhibit at LACMA and picked up a copy of his films. One of them haunted me. And I taunted many people with it, including a producer I tried to convince into making it into a feature (I wasn't serious).
So, I thought that Roberta's film in "Ghost World" should be an homage to the Burroughs film. I did a cut and showed it to Terry. He watched it eagerly, laughing throughout. His eyes grew wide when he anticipated the final joke when she announces the obvious title of her film (that, in this version, I had her repeat over and over and over again during her film). The image of Terry slapping his leg is one I will always cherish.