Original artwork, not a still
My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with a girl who saw Ferris pass-out at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it's pretty serious.
— Ferris Bueller's Day Off · 1986
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
The news reaches the speaker through an elaborate chain of relationships and acquaintances. Listing every link makes the account comically indirect, while the final guess about its seriousness sounds surprisingly casual. The joke places an alarming report beside a wonderfully tangled route of secondhand information.
Context reviewed
