Another Thing 'Winnebago Man' Doesn't Like: Babies

(July 18) -- In 1988, a man named Jack Rebney spent two weeks in Iowa filming a sales video for Winnebago. It was hot, the shoot was kind of a mess and Rebney was annoyed. Extremely annoyed. Like, livid.

His profanity-laced outtakes were cut into a four-minute video clip that started circulating hand to hand in those old VHS days, rising to cult status. When YouTube took off, so did Rebney, who became known to millions as "The Angriest Man in the World." His quotes were uttered on the big screen by Ben Affleck, on "30 Rock" by Alec Baldwin and even by SpongeBob SquarePants. There's a painting of Rebney as Shrek that hangs in the offices of DreamWorks Animation.

Ben Steinbauer was one of Rebney's fans. A film professor at the University of Texas, Steinbauer began to wonder about the man behind the clip and found Rebney, who is now 80, living atop a mountain in Northern California. The two formed a relationship, and out of it grew a documentary film, "Winnebago Man" -- an unexpectedly touching and uplifting tale of what happens to someone after viral celebrity. It's in theaters now.

In the Weekend Questionnaire, Rebney, a former television news director, takes on George W. Bush, his own large head and the perfect car to take on a road trip (we'll give you one guess).

Where are you right now?
I'm on Planet Earth.

What is your idea of a perfect weekend?
I would stay at home, sleeping with a cold beer.

If I could grant you one superpower for this weekend, flight or invisibility, which would you choose?
I would say flight. Definitely. I'm a veritable eagle.

If you could take a road trip with any three people, living or dead, who would you take, where would you go and what car would you drive?
I would take James Monroe, Abraham Lincoln and John Fitzgerald Kennedy. I would go to Campobello. And there's no question in my mind what I would drive: I'd take a Winnebago!

What would you choose as your last meal?
Lobster Newburg.

What feels overpriced each time you buy it?
Everything! Particularly airline tickets.

Name the one thing you must do before you die.
Have people understand that the United States is in terrible, terrible trouble because we have had eight years of infamy piled on top of us through lies, through theft, through cowardice, through the most profligate use of what few funds we have. We're in the midst of a multiplicity of wars, and the insanity is that we borrow money from other countries to fight these wars.

What's the best thing ever?
That's simple enough: liberty.

If you had to enter a competitive eating competition, what would you want the food to be?
We've been through this: Lobster Newburg.

Which fictional character do you most identify with?
Ahab. [Laughs.] But I'm probably more like Don Quixote.

If you could have lunch with the president, what's the one idea you'd want to plant in his head?
That he has to remember that with his commitment to give up an enormous amount of his life, which is what he's doing right now in a valiant attempt to be able to rectify the violent misuse of our country, of our people, of our lives, of our liberties -- that in effect makes him a very, very fine man.

What's your most embarrassing moment from your youth?
When my father wouldn't give me a choo-choo train.

Which accomplishment are you most proud of?
That I've come to a peaceful recognition that I'm beginning to understand logic, rationality and ethics.

When was the last time you swore at someone?
I swear all the time.

Do you have a recurring dream?
The short answer would be no, because I don't dream in the sense that you and I might consider to be a dream. That is to say, some time after we've fallen asleep we'd have some psychological factor running through what's left of our brains. I daydream, and that recurrent daydream is being able to promulgate thinking, the concept of being able to teach our children and our people how to think. That is a recurrent daydream of mine. How does one go about doing that?

What song captures your mood right now?
First of all, I don't believe that I have a recognition factor of a song since probably the last time I heard Lena Horne sing. I don't listen to songs. I listen to Bach, Beethoven, Berlioz, Holst, etc. I don't listen to people screaming and screeching at the top of their lungs accompanied by boards being smashed onto hollow logs, which presumptively is music. I don't hear any of that.

Are all babies cute?
I don't see anything either funny, cute, productive or useful about babies.

Do you believe in an afterlife, and if so, what would you like it to be?
I believe in an afterlife in the same relationship that I believe Bush, Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Miss Minute Rice ever said one word that was true. What would I like it to be? By definition then it cannot be; by hard fact and logic it is not; and anyone who contends that it is then by definition is a bona fide psychoneurotic.

If you could live in some time other than your own, what would you choose?
In the 1600s in America. Because it was new, it was verdant, it was clean, it was excellent, it had been populated by people who understood that if you didn't take care of it, it wouldn't take care of you. Over the course of these last 350 years what we've done is ruin it. It's become progressively less and less tasteful and honorable. In those days it was a vibrant, clean, gorgeous country. And I would love to have lived then.

How many true friends do you have?
You'd have fingers left over on one hand.

What movie have you seen the most times?
Probably "Dr. Strangelove." Either that or "Citizen Kane" or "Lawrence of Arabia."

Which animal do you most identify with?
The question leads you into a mass of bifurcated conditions. I identify because I love dogs. I identify because I have a kinship with elephants. I identify because I like the concept of the primate predator. But to answer -- dogs. Because a dog loves you when no one else does.

If it were possible to know the date of your own death, would you want to know?
No, I don't think so. As a matter of fact, no, I would not. I haven't known the date of my birth. I didn't know the date of much of anything else that took place because it was irrelevant to me. The date of my death is infinitely more irrelevant to me than anything I can think of.

Who would you like to play you in the movie of your life?
I would say probably Jimmy Stewart.

What would you title your autobiography?
"The Man Who Finally Found That He Knew Something."

If you were teaching an English class, what books would be required reading?
If there's a book that should be read by every American, that would be "The Sorrows of Empire," by Chalmers Johnson. That would be a modern book. The only two authors that are critical in terms of history, and inclusive of all history, are David Hume and Kant. The best American piece of literature that's ever been written is Joseph Heller's "Catch-22." And you could go into O. Henry, Mark Twain, James Michener. But the critical one, the foundation one, which encompasses everything that's right and wrong about America, is "Catch-22."

If you could punch one famous person, who would it be?
Well, it would have to be Dick Cheney.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how attractive are you?
There's a line that I said about myself during the original filming of the marketing videos for Winnebago: "You big, dumb sonofabitch." So, no, I don't find myself attractive. I'm large-headed, bald and scarred, and people tell me I never smile. How attractive can I be?

If you knew you only had six months to live, what would you do?
Exactly what I'm doing now. Read. Listen to books on tape. Write. Think. And not change a thing. Why would I change anything? What would I do? Would I marry and go to Acapulco? Come on.

If you had to enter a talent show, what would your talent be?
The ability to be able to think logically.

Do you collect anything?
A history of opinion.

Have you ever been in a fistfight?
A multiple number of times. [Laughs.]

You're in the express lane at the grocery store. Do you secretly count the number of items people in front of you have?
Not only do I not count the items, I don't count the people. They're a complete irrelevancy to me.