I don't get it. Admittedly, either I've never seen WAoVW or I've only seen parts of it. I do vividly remember the Mad Magazine parody -- it was in the very first Mad Magazine I ever owned.
But what's with Jake's performance, specifically? Is he failing to do a good Richard Burton accent or did Richard Burton attempt an American accent in WAoVW? And what's with the kind of bumbling overacting? I know the movie was pretty melodramatic but wasn't it at least Richard Burton-level acted? (I once read something that listed RB as among the worst actors -- ALSO among the best, but prone to overacting, perhaps the way people might think of Al Pacino now).
As I (very vaguely) remember the plot, they kept referring to a son but it was later revealed they didn't have one. Is that why they were alcoholic? Was not having a baby considered that life-destroying back then?