Most of us have a movie, book, or TV show quote that's worked its way into our daily use, serving as an inside joke among our little club of fellow fans. Who among us didn't quote Monty Python's Holy Grail constantly in high school or college? (If you didn't, you might not be nerdy enough to enjoy my blog.)
Ickie and I have several regulars in current rotation. We can always make each other laugh by saying "Go back from whence you came!" (G.O.B. in Arrested Development). As cuss-word substitutions, Ickie often uses "Frak" (BSG) and I use "Blurg" (30 Rock). But the really random, just-between-the-two-of-us quote is "When will they listen, Bob? When will they listen?" We're not even sure that's the exact quote anymore. Any deviation just makes us laugh harder. "When will they learn, Jim? When will they learn?" It comes from a Mystery Science Theater short that's a cheesey educational video about train-track crossing safety (view here). Basically, a 1950s kid gets hit by a train because he doesn't follow proper precautions, and the railroad employees comment on his carelessness, shaking their heads grimly in a laughably stilted bit of acting. We reference it all the time. You'd be surprised how applicable it is to everyday life. For example, Pizza Hut shows an ad for gross-looking pasta, some rednecks have a noisy argument on the street outside our house, Ickie's students fail because they don't apply themselves, a duck gets hit by a rock...the possibilities are endless, especially when you go around feeling superior all day long like we do. Just thinking the phrase now in my head makes me feel like laughing.
I'd love to read your favorite oft-used quotes in the comment section. Maybe I'll even make a pie chart of the results. Because pie charts are super fun.
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Books and Sundry
Watoosa
How Am I Excessively Diverted?
Big Ben
Ben's Bookshelf
The Minerva Louise books & Lawrence, Stoeke
The House in the Night, Swanson
Little Oink, Little Hoot, & Little Pea, Rosenthal
The House in the Night, Swanson
Little Oink, Little Hoot, & Little Pea, Rosenthal
Jackamo
Jackamo's Sophisticated Tea Corner
- The Tea Table
-
I Highly Recommend the following decaf delights:
- Orange Spice (lovely for the fall and winter months with just a touch of sugar)
- Green Tea with Apricot (fruity and chock full o' healthy antioxidants)
- Bourbon Street Vanilla Rooibos (mild and pleasant with a nice hint of vanilla and grenadine...one of my very favorite teas!)
- Special Teas
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I Highly Recommend the following decaf delights:
- Chai (nicely flavored with ginger, cinnamon, and vanilla)
- Peach ( a
- Cinnamon Orange Spice (a touch stronger than the Tea Table blend)
- The White Lily Tearoom
- This was a precious tea room until it closed, but you can still order tasty teas and a mix for Vickie's yummy scones online.
Greta
Greta's Favorite Smelly Old Books
Young Horatio Hornblower, C.S. Forester: I love to sniff the old torn spine of this book. I sit primly on the open pages and just rest my nose on the book, getting a high from the musty, basement-y odor.
The Bastable Children, E. Nesbit: It's soft, faded linen cover is almost as tattered & smelly as YHH.
The Father Christmas Letters, J.R.R. Tolkien: I am only able to smell this rare secondhand copy during Advent, and I have to sneak to sit on it when no one is looking.
14 comments:
It’s from a blog rather than a tv show or movie (and you may not appreciate my posting it), but our favorite new word from the past 5 years or so has to be fucktards.
Inconceivable from ‘The Princess Bride’ gets used pretty often too.
A favourite of my partner and I: "Just in cases" (Aurelia, in the Marseille restaurant proposal scene from Love, Actually).
Mine: "So, Spess-enJell..." (Queen Zora in the TV cartoon Space Angel, circa 1962, probably before you were born...)
As for that YouTube 1950s safety video ... I was too spell bound by the foreground silhouette hecklers to pay full attention to the video itself. What IS that right hand figure???
Sorry, Felix. The 50s video was on Mystery Science Theater 3000, a show where a guy is sentenced to go into space and watch bad movies. He invents two robots to watch them with him, and they make sarcastic comments throughout. Ickie and I are fans.
Felix's confusion at MST3K reminds me of when I was in my German dorm watching the old Incredible Hulk TV show. A polish housemate came in and sat down, assuming I was watching a typical show. Suddenly Bruce Banner started turning into the Hulk and she absolutely freaked. I just shrugged and said, "What? When he gets mad, he turns into a giant green hulk. Duh." I guess something about it seemed unusual to my Polish friend.
So many things from The Grail and Breakfast Club come to mind, but two others I use come from some classic movies. First, "there's something afoot at the circle k" from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Also from Can't Buy Me Love, "Something stinks in suburbia". Both are used quite frequently in the Timpe household.
I forgot, last time round ... "A bit of cheeeeeeese, Grommit?" (Wallace, the eccentric Heath Robinson inventor, to his canine companion, in the Wallace & Grommit cartoons.)
Watoosa: Thanks for explaing the two robot companions!
I too love Wallace & Gromit!
Al, I'm going to start saying "There's something afoot at the Cumberland Farms" (because that's what we have here).
Any time I had a bad day, week, month, etc. my dad would always listen to my woes, nodding thoughtfully while patting my hand. It could be anything, like a bad breakup, a failing grade, a car breaking down. As I would finish my tale of doom, and wipe my eyes, my dad would draw in his breath and sing/shout:
BUT! There are no cats in America and the streets are paved with cheese..."
He still does this. It works every time.
I'm also partial to Frak from BSG. Also, "That's what she said" from The Office and "You Lied to Me, You are a Liar" from Freaky Friday. I don't know why I said it all the time, but I do.
"Now you're too loud" from Waiting for Guffman is one used frequently in the Taylor household. Some others are "meet some Italian guys and watch some TV or something", "healthy, low-fat, non-fat, healthy ... blizzard", "but I don't have any swimmin in my show","you're blowing in my ear","a wrastl'n match between me and the muse of dance", "I certainly know how the Kennedys feel","they probed me","I have no feeling in my buttocks"
From Oliver's Travels, "Have a nice agenda, dear"
On a similar note, from Yes, Prime Minister -- "We have no agendum today"
From A Fine Romance, "Well, Hello there" in an over-the-top-trying-to-be-sexy voice
And from Look Around You, "Thanks, Ants; Thants"
Not from a book, but from a review of one:
"...darkly worrying..." in a review by The Times of Magnus Mills novel All quiet on the Orient Express (1999).
Courtesy call:
http://sammysdot.blogspot.com/2009/12/phraeology.html
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