Open Thread — Favorite Silly Movie Line
After returning to LA following three days of classes, I have had to take care of some busy work today and find myself exhausted, with little energy to write. I wil try to get a few posts up tomorrow, but until then, I’ll do my latest movie open-thread.
Just before heading up to class, I watched one of my favorite screwball comedies, The Naked Gun with a classmate of mine. That fantastic flick included this great silly line, “This is our hill and these are our beans.” Other silly lines that I appreciate include “You made a yummy sound” (Young Frankstein) and “I’ve loved you more than any woman’s ever loved a rabbit.” (Who Framed Roger Rabbit). And that’s just to name a few of my favorites. What are yours?
So, today’s open thread, what’s your favorite silly movie line, one which makes you laugh and sticks in your mind long after the film’s credits have rolled.
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Pretty much anything in Airplane! or Top Secret. The East German National Anthem was one of my favorites:
Hail, hail East Germany / Land of fruit and grape / Land where you’ll regret / If you try to escape / No matter if you tunnel under or take a running jump at the wall / Forget it, the guards will kill you, if the electrified fence doesn’t first.
Comment by Greg — April 27, 2006 @ 10:24 pm - April 27, 2006
Peter Sellers as President Merkin Muffley to Gen. ‘Buck’ Turgidson and the Russian Ambassador as they scuffle over a camera in the best American movie of all time “Dr. Strangelove”:
“Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room!”
Comment by Ian S — April 27, 2006 @ 10:55 pm - April 27, 2006
Madeline Kahn as Lily von Stupp in Blazing Saddles:
“He’s like vet sauerkraut in my hands. By morning he will be my slave!”
Or, closely following:
“I hear that people like you are….gifted. Is it twue?”
(zzzzziiiiipppppp)
“Oh, it’s twue….it’s TWUE, it’s TWUE!”
Comment by North Dallas Thirty — April 27, 2006 @ 11:17 pm - April 27, 2006
I love Undercover Blues. Jeff Blue (Dennis Quaid) has everyone in the movie setting him up for great responses…
Jane: You brought our baby into a knife fight?
Jeff: It was a fair fight. Two of them, two of us…
Cop: Cute baby. Boy or girl?
Jeff: Gosh, I hope so.
(realizing their hotel room has an intruder inside)
Jane: One man on the couch. He’s reading.
Jeff: A literate burgler. How refreshing.
Comment by DinaFelice — April 28, 2006 @ 12:06 am - April 28, 2006
Yeah, anything Airplane!
I always LOL on the bit where the dressed-up little boy stiffly gets coffee for the dressed-up little girl… “Cream?” he asks her. “No, I take it black… like my men”.
Or the bar scene where the camera pulls back on the fighting gamblers, and they’re girlscouts in pigtails. (sight gag I guess) I just about died, the first time I saw it – decades ago!
Comment by Calarato — April 28, 2006 @ 12:13 am - April 28, 2006
3: According to Mel Brooks, there was another line that followed “it’s Twue, it’s Twue”, but supposedly, the suits at Warner Bros thought it went toooo over the top:
Cleavon Little: “Miss Lily….you’re suckin’ on my elbow”
Comment by Kevin — April 28, 2006 @ 12:33 am - April 28, 2006
I was just watching “Black Widow” the other night (hardly a belly-laugher) but there is that great line when Teresa Russell tosses an envelope stuffed with money at the heroin addicted private investigater and says, “There’s two things you should know about me Mr. Shin. I’m very rich…and I’m very wealthy.”
Or how about the Tony Curtis/Jack Lemmon exchange from Some Like It Hot;
Joe: “You can’t marry Osgood.”
Jerry: “Why? Do you think he’s too old for me?”
Joe: “Jerry, why would a guy want to marry another guy?”
Jerry “Security!”
Other than that I could riff all night on my favorite film “The Great Race” (also with Lemmon and Curtis) but what leaps to mind is when the four main characters are trapped on the floating iceberg. The Great Leslie is helping Maggie DuBois prepare a dinner of cold beans while Max grumbles to Professor Fate:
“I’m starving. When’s dinner gonna be ready?”
Fate: “The eternal struggle takes time.”
Max: “What struggle. She’s got a can opener.”
I guess you’d have to see it to appreciate it. And everyone should see The Great Race.
Comment by Andre — April 28, 2006 @ 12:37 am - April 28, 2006
Breakfast Club. When the teacher, Mr. Vernon, is going through the rules and regulations in detention, he asks the group if anyone has a question. He’s about to leave, and then John Bender (Judd Nelson) finally says – I have a question. Does Barry Manilow know that you raid his closet?
Comment by Pat — April 28, 2006 @ 12:45 am - April 28, 2006
Alsatia (Joan Cusack) in Toys:
“Will you be back for Easter? We’ll be having eggs.”
Comment by Doug — April 28, 2006 @ 1:04 am - April 28, 2006
not funny, I love the sequence , but can’t recall it exactly but it ends like this: Liberty 2-4 is changing call signs, Liberty 2-4 is now Air Force One, hell even typing it is bringing tears to my eyes
Comment by ralph — April 28, 2006 @ 2:00 am - April 28, 2006
“It’s Just A Flesh Wound!!!”
“We are the Knights who say ‘NEEE”!!!”
“What is your favorite color?
“Blue. I mean green…. AAAaaaagghhhh…”
CUSTOMER: Here’s one — nine pence.
DEAD PERSON: I’m not dead!
MORTICIAN: What?
CUSTOMER: Nothing — here’s your nine pence.
DEAD PERSON: I’m not dead!
MORTICIAN: Here — he says he’s not dead!
CUSTOMER: Yes, he is.
DEAD PERSON: I’m not!
MORTICIAN: He isn’t.
CUSTOMER: Well, he will be soon, he’s very ill.
DEAD PERSON: I’m getting better!
Well you can’t expect to wield supreme executive power just ’cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!
Dennis, there’s some lovely filth down here.
Comment by sonicfrog — April 28, 2006 @ 3:26 am - April 28, 2006
I pretty much agree about “Airplane.” Some “memorable quotes” from the Internet Movie Data Base at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080339/quotes
Comment by raj — April 28, 2006 @ 4:19 am - April 28, 2006
From “Real Genius”
CHRIS: Well, the first thing you have to do is get even with Kent. It’s a moral imperative.
Darlington Recruiter: You’re Chris Knight, aren’t you?
Chris Knight: I hope so. I’m wearing his underwear.
Comment by sonicfrog — April 28, 2006 @ 4:59 am - April 28, 2006
Ahh! Real Genius. Not the funiest movie ever, but I do remember one quote. Val Kilmer is hitting on the dean’s daughter and it goes something like this:
Val: If there’s anything I can do for you…or to you, just let me know.
Dean’s daughter: Can you pound a six inch nail into a two-by-four with your penis?
Val: No.
Dean’s daughter: Well, a girl has to have her standards.
Comment by Andre — April 28, 2006 @ 5:21 am - April 28, 2006
How about a great line from 9 to 5:
Lilly Tomlin (Violet Newstead): “I just killed the boss. You think they’re not gonna fire me for a thing like that?”
Comment by Andre — April 28, 2006 @ 5:30 am - April 28, 2006
Not a movie (yet) but a play, Del Shore’s Southern Baptist Sissies, two lines; Aging drunk queen “Well, as for me, I’m just a social drinker. You have a drink then so shall I”. And young man talking about past boyfirends “I’m so fuckin co-dependent, when I die someone elses life is gonna flash before my eyes”.
Comment by John F in Indy — April 28, 2006 @ 9:20 am - April 28, 2006
“The Great Outdoors”……….Dan Ackroyd “gotta go to the john and introduce Mr thick dick to Mr urinal cake”
Comment by nuyorker — April 28, 2006 @ 9:21 am - April 28, 2006
I vote for most of the movie The Princess Bride, but I’m not good at remembering quotes exactly.
Comment by Synova — April 28, 2006 @ 12:08 pm - April 28, 2006
Naked Gun: “I was young, I needed the work.”
Airplane: “I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.”
Comment by The Egyptian Mormon — April 28, 2006 @ 12:22 pm - April 28, 2006
I vote for most of the movie The Princess Bride, but I’m not good at remembering quotes exactly.
“Hello. My name is Diego Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!”
Of course, being in HR, my favorite is going around saying in a hiss, “The Pit of Despair! Don’t even….”
Comment by North Dallas Thirty — April 28, 2006 @ 1:24 pm - April 28, 2006
ROUS’s? I don’t believe they exist. Ugh, or was it, Rodents of Unusual Size? They don’t exist. *sigh* I can only remember in paraphrase. Bah.
“My way doesn’t sound very sporting, fair,…something ?” that was a good one. “I do not think that word means what you think it means.” “I’m going to go kill myself now. That’s nice dear… did you see that? She kissed me!” Oh! “We’ll never make it through.” “You’re only saying that because no one ever has.”
Different movie… “Do not seek the treasure….” “We thought you was a toad…”
Comment by Synova — April 28, 2006 @ 3:23 pm - April 28, 2006
Comment by Dale in L.A. — April 28, 2006 @ 4:00 pm - April 28, 2006
Let’s try this again. I wish I could edit my technical mistakes.
Comment by Dale in L.A. — April 28, 2006 @ 4:02 pm - April 28, 2006
Bah! It’s not working. Anyway, those lines are from Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. Drat.
Comment by Dale in L.A. — April 28, 2006 @ 4:02 pm - April 28, 2006
#24 Anyway, those lines are from Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. Drat.
Try http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095088/quotes
Comment by raj — April 28, 2006 @ 4:26 pm - April 28, 2006
Mawwiage. Mawwiage is what bwings us togethaw today. Mawwiage, that bwessed awwangement, that dweam wiffin a dweam…
Westley: Why won’t my arms move?
Fezzik: You’ve been mostly dead all day.
Inconceivable!
Comment by sonicfrog — April 28, 2006 @ 4:39 pm - April 28, 2006
From Roger Rabbit… All this time you could have just taken the cuffs off? No. I could only do it when it was funny.
Comment by Synova — April 28, 2006 @ 5:00 pm - April 28, 2006
The Princess Bride:
Valerie: Bye bye boys.
Max: Have fun storming the castle.
Valerie:Do you think it will work?
Max: It would take a miracle.
Comment by Nicole — April 28, 2006 @ 6:12 pm - April 28, 2006
From Monty Python and the Holy Grail, during the scene at the French Castle with the wooden rabbit….
“I’m French! Why do think I have this outrageous accent, you silly king!”
“You don’t frighten us, English pig-dogs! Go and boil your bottom, sons of a silly person. I blow my nose at you, so-called Arthur King, you and all your silly English k-nnnnniggets.”
“I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!”
“No. Now, go away, or I shall taunt you a second time!”
Comment by Barry — April 28, 2006 @ 6:57 pm - April 28, 2006
Jessica Lange’s line from ‘Sweet Dreams’ (the Patsy Cline story/Bio) shortly after she meets her future husband, Charley Dick…
“bumpin uglies, is that what you call it? Why, what a charming expression?” ‘-)
Comment by ndtovent — April 28, 2006 @ 7:26 pm - April 28, 2006
Bill Murry in Stripes: We’re Americans. With a capital A. You know what that means? That means our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world. We are the wretched refuse. We’re the underdogs. We’re mutts.
Comment by Kelly — April 28, 2006 @ 9:20 pm - April 28, 2006
#31 And proud of it… HooAHH.
Comment by Synova — April 28, 2006 @ 11:41 pm - April 28, 2006
Dr. Evil’s monologue. It speaks for itself. Funniest damn dialogue I’ve ever heard.
“My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a fifteen year old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet. My father would womanize, he would drink, he would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Some times he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy, the sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament. My childhood was typical, summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring we’d make meat helmets. When I was insolent I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds, pretty standard really. At the age of 12 I received my first scribe. At the age of fourteen, a Zoroastrian named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles. There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum, it’s breathtaking, I suggest you try it.”
I only wish I could write that well!
Eric in Hollywood
Comment by HollywoodNeoCon — April 29, 2006 @ 12:59 pm - April 29, 2006
Dr Evil is brilliant in so many very twisted ways.
Comment by Synova — April 29, 2006 @ 4:28 pm - April 29, 2006
#15 – Three other quotes from 9 to 5, one of my fave movies (even though Hanoi Jane is in it):
a) Female janitor in hospital – “Hey, Vera! We got another stiff in the john”
b) Dolly Parton (as Doralee Rhodes) – “Well, I say we hire a couple o’ wranglers to up there and beat the shit outta him!”
c) Dolly again – “If you ever make another comment about me, I’m gonna git that gun of mine and change you from a rooster to a hen with one shot!”
Comment by Peter Hughes — April 30, 2006 @ 2:34 pm - April 30, 2006
“I hope you enjoy today’s cartoon; it’s a sad depressing story of a pathetic coyote who spends his life in the futile pursuit of a sadistic road runner who MOCKS HIM and LAUGHS AT HIM as he’s repeatedly CRUSHED AND MAIMED! I hope you ENJOY IT!”
—Weird Al Yankovic, “UHF” (1989). And to think they gave the Oscar that year to “Driving Miss Daisy”
“You mean I’ve been marked down?!?!? I’ve been kidnapped by K-Mart!”
—Bette Midler, “Ruthless People” (1986)
“Why any kid would want to be an orphan is beyond me.”
—Carol Burnett, “Annie” (1982)
“How dare you say ‘penis’ to a dead woman!”
—Lily Tomlin, “All of Me” (1984)
I want to pick a line from “The Producers,” but there’s no room to type the whole screenplay.
Comment by Attmay — May 1, 2006 @ 11:14 pm - May 1, 2006
What, no Office Space references? C’mon people! Rat Race has some great ones, too. The best one is on those signs leading to the cliff: You. Should. Have. Bought. A. Squirrel.
Comment by Amber — May 2, 2006 @ 9:41 am - May 2, 2006
Ruthless People has so many great lines! I think, if I had to narrow my favourite doewn to one, it would be when Carol and her imbecilic lover are plotting the holiday they’ll have when they make off with Sam Ston’es blackmailed money. Carol’s busy organising the sting, and her boyfriend, anticipating a wonderful holiday, dreamily says, “Yeahhhhh…..Haiti!”
Carol looks at him as if she can’t believe that anyone in their right mind would ever want to go to Haiti and says, with the air of an exasperated mother dealing with a fractious child, “Not Haiti! TAHITI!!!!”
He shoots her a look of defiance and mumbles, “I knew that!” Mightn’t look funny in script- it has to be seen. Subltle, quick, and very funny, partiocularly as Tahiti and Haiti are not even in the same hemisphere!
Comment by Francoise — June 30, 2006 @ 4:32 am - June 30, 2006