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From the movie Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. On a career day at school, a parent speaks to the class about his job.

A parent: I'm happy that Waffle House was okay with me coming here to talk to y'all about my day-to-day. And, y'all, that's pretty much, in a shell what it's like to manage a Waffle House. Ma'am, I don't know what else you want me to say to them. And I'm also gonna need to know where your commode's at.

Teacher: Okay, let's give him a round of applause. Thank you.

That line is supposed to be him addressing the teacher, but what does it mean here? Commode being a piece of furniture doesn't seem to make the sentence make sense.

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    It is an older euphemism for toilet. Originally it was a cabinet that contained a pot for that purpose, which was emptied manually, and then it came to be used for flush toilets in much the same way that "icebox" continued to used for refrigerator.
    – TimR
    Commented May 6, 2018 at 23:52

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"Commode" means "toilet". Its a rather odd euphemism and adds to the general awkwardness of this scene: The parent talking to a class of children about (probably) a rather uninteresting job (working at a fast food place). He doesn't speak very clearly ("And, Y'all, pretty much...") And then in front of the children he asks the teacher about the toilets, and he does it in an "odd" way. This is probably for comedy purpose.

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  • The whole character is for comedy purposes; the language is very believable.
    – fectin
    Commented Apr 20, 2023 at 23:04

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