A friend of mine in the movie industry was telling me alot of people think Donny (Steve Buscemi) is really a figment of Walters imagination, in other words he is crazy and shell shocked from Vietnam

THe ending is the only hole in the theory but he said some say it is really Walters Dog and The Dude knows Walter is bat shit crazy the whole film

a couple key elements that may support this are,

all the bowling league teams are 2 to a team in the movie, Jesus and his friend, the guy Walter pulls the gun on and his bud

Donny only bowls strikes the entire movie

only time Donny is acknowledged in the film by The Dude is a simple, "Thank you Donny"
but remember how many times DOnny had to say, "phones ringing dude" to be acknowledged, could be like I stated Dude knew about Walters imaginary friend

Walter wants to go to the hamburger joint after going to little Larrys house, Walter and Donny are eating in the car only

Walter is a shell shocked Nam guy, anythings possible

I think Donny was real but the theory is pretty damn cool what do yall think?

doh

the main point to this theory

THe Dude and Walter are in the Finals at the end of the movie despite not having Donny

hhhhmmm??

I disagree

- I'm pretty there was a third player on Jesus's team...you can see him sitting in the background when the fat dude is marking his score down when he started doing a dance. There is a guy sitting on the bench in the background wearing the same uniform who raises his hand to Jesus. Go watch it again...unless that guy is a figment of Jesus(or my) imagination but that would be going too deep....even for the Coens.

- The fact that Donny rolled a strike and told Dude to mark the score before Walter even arrived at the building in the scene where Walter pulls the gun on Smokey.

- Dude did not really play along with Walter's shit....he told him that he had some "sick cynthia thing" "he was not really a jew" "you're an asshole" yet Dude will play along when some invincible person dying on the ground, look at him and run in to call an ambulance, have his friend repeatedly yell "SHUT THE FUCK UP" or interrupt a discussion to yell as some imaginary person and not call him on it? You don't get that from Dude and Walters relationship. If Walter had some sick multiple personlity...Dude would call him on it and in this case, Donny would have likely been around in EVERY SCENE involving Walter if the Coen's intended to have Donny as a figment of Walter's imagination.

- Dude acknowledged Donny in the scene you used as an example. How does Dude know when Walter is being Donny?

Donny was ignored by Dude and for the most part Walter because HE NEVER HAD ANYTHING OF USE TO SAY. We've all been around people at some point in time who don't talk much but when they do it's something completely obvious or useless and NEVER contributes to the coversation. You don't know what to say to those people. Laid back people like the Dude don't care if somebody is mumbling "I am the Walrus" over and over again while two people are having an A and B conversation..somebody like Walter will tell him to shut the fuck up. Donny was always ignored because he said useless crap and ask dumb questions usually when Walter and Dude were in the middle of discussion.

You pointed out that Donny kept telling Dude his phone was ringing before being acknowledged. That's because Dude was stressing to Walter about the important money hand off they just botched and NO SHIT MY PHONE IS RINGING.

The guy at the funeral parlor was acknowledging that their friend was indeed dead and being cremated. Even in the unlikely scenerio that Dude would play along for the whole movie i doubt this guy would.

- The Stranger at the end says "it was sad to see Donny go". If he was not real, then it's a good thing that Donny was gone because Walter killed off a split personality or it's not even really worth acknowledging.

- Walter is not the main character. It just would not make sense to have an imaginary friend for him that appears on screen. The story is shown from Dude's P.O.V..Walter should just be randomly yelling at somebody in this case unless the Coen's wanted to make this scenario very fuckin hard to catch and even harder to support with stuff evident in the film. Walter is Donny just has nothing that supports it.

In the end, Donny was just a 3rd player on the bowling team who was always out of his element and could not properly communicate with anybody...he was just Donny, who loved bowling.

hahaha all great points

funny thing is Buscemi is the one who talked about this being a possibility in a interview

im with you though think he was just donny but thought the thought of him being imaginary was interesting

That's fine chicken...

The post is not going anywhere...you can sober up and get back to it whenever you want.

GOD DAMN IT KILLEROFCHICKEN YOUR OUT OF YOUR FUCKING ELEMENT!!!!

Love that movie. Cool theory, never thought of it.

On a side note, one of my favorite drinking games in college was to make strong white Russians and watch the movie. Every time they say Lebowski in the movie your drinking, if you miss, you down your white Russian and get everyone's next round ready while still not missing the next. Great way to spend a Tuesday afternoon.

ya i think everyone wants to have a white russian after seeing this movie for the first time

It could be that the Dude is the crazy/drunk one, and Walter and the stranger are figments of his imagination, and he is so crazy that a figment of his imagination has a figment of his imagination.

here is the audio clip
http://www.entertonement.com/clips/vqpjtwnyft--The-Waterboy-Adam-Sandler-Robert-'Bobby'-Boucher-Jr-Henry-Winkler-He-pretends-to-fake

also Walter and the DUde could both be crazy

Donny is Walters figment and The Stranger is the Dudes

he fakes about faking he pretends to fake

hahaha