Mar 22
'Piper, nooOooOo!' Parker Posey's Memorable 'White Lotus' Line Readings Go Viral
READ TIME: 3 MIN.
On "The White Lotus" Parker Posey is getting the buzz that Jennifer Coolidge did in Season One of Mike White's satirical series, especially with the queers who are finding her Victoria Ratliff a hilarious caricature of Southern privilege. But what else can you expect from Posey who shares with Coolidge a distinct, wacky comic style that's impossible to pigeonhole. Her casting on the show was heaven-sent, and she has not disappointed with a performance that leans into broad satire as she draws out every word in affecting a mid-South accent, which only makes her line readings even funnier.
Perhaps the best scene thus far occurred on Episode 5 when Victoria and her husband Timothy (Jason Isaacs) are told by their daughter Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) that she plans on spending a year at a Buddhist monastery near The White Lotus resort. Piper had convinced the family, which also includes her older brother Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) and younger one Lochlan (Sam Nivola), to travel to Thailand so she could interview a monk at the monastery for her senior thesis. But, she tells them, there is no thesis: she has come to check out the monastery and she likes it enough that she wants to stay.
"But you're not a Buddhist," Posey drawls. "Honey, you're not from China." And then asks, "You're gonna live in some dirty monastery for a year with a bunch of grungy kids who have no purpose?" Her argument becomes more ridiculous by claiming it's a cult and comparing it to Catholicism. When Piper says that the monk has written books, Victoria counters with "Charles Manson wrote books! Bill Clinton wrote books! The list goes on! Hillary Clinton wrote five books!" And she concludes with the incredulous: "You want to live in Taiwain?" seemingly oblivious to the fact that they are in Thailand.
Posey's pronunciations of some words have become instantly iconic, so on a recent visit to the Today Show, she was asked to repeat some of more meme-worthy ones: "Tsunami," "Buddhism" and of course the memorable "Piper, nooOooOo!" that left the hosts and viewers in stitches.
"The appearance had viewers living for it, so much so that Instagram meme maker T.Kyle took the appearance and remixed it into his very own Parker Posey club mix, creating a new gay anthem," reports the Star Observer.
As The Guardian observes, while Jason Isaacs, who plays Posey's husband Timothy has a Southern accent that frequently veers to one from Down Under, "Posey's accent is resolute. She groans out all her lines through her downturned mouth, forcing many more syllables out of words than anyone ever thought possible (the verbal origami she deployed transforming the word "society" into the astonishingly drawn-out "sohsoiietay" this week deserves particular attention). It's incredible. In Parker's hand, every line becomes an obstacle course."
At first, many viewers were turned off, but then they got the joke. Posey's appearance on The Today Show made it plain that she knows what she's doing, and recently claimed in another appearance has gotten some Southern validation. "Last week, while promoting the show, Parker claimed that her accent had received the seal of approval from actual North Carolinians, albeit North Carolinians fancy enough to run into her during Paris fashion week. 'There were these people from North Carolina at the hotel,' she said, 'and they were like, 'We just have to say, 'We're from North Carolina. We think you're doing a great job. We love the accent. It's dead on. You've got that part down,'" adds The Guardian.
