I don’t know if SDMB’s ever had a post about where the darned thing came from, but I’ve seen it brought up on about 10 different message boards without a definitive answer. If it has been brought up, please link me because I didn’t find it when I did a search.
So, I pose it to you:
“What does it do?”
“That’s the beauty of it. It doesn’t <i>do</i> anything.”
It’s reminding me of a similar quote in …Titan A.E., I think? Maybe Treasure Planet.
I’m unable to get to the IMDB board currently, but it’s the single longest thread ever over there. It has never been answered–or even verified that it exists. Another thread on the IMDB board lists movies that have been posited, but refuted.
So, no, it has not been answered–and those people (the experts at IMDB) know everything.
But how could so many people recognize it without it ever being said?
I know, I know, it happens. But the first time I saw a thread on it, the title of the message was the quote, and it immediately clicked in my head as something I’d heard somewhere, even before I clicked on the post and started reading the debate.
Maybe. I saw one thread on Sin Ciuty where one guy swore up and down that Benicio Del Toro is not a real human, but rather a totally CGI character that is inserted into all of his movies.
Folks <a href=“http://msgboard.snopes.com/message/ultimatebb.php?/ubb/get_topic/f/32/t/000374/p/1.html”>over here</a> seem to think it originated as some sort of Ultimate Meme-y Mindgame, for what it’s worth. It does sound so familiar, too…
Agh, okay, so that didn’t work. Here:
http://msgboard.snopes.com/message/ultimatebb.php?/ubb/get_topic/f/32/t/000374/p/1.html
" do anything." where do is pronounced dooo rings bells with me as well, and used in a situation similar to the OP’s whole quote.
Maybe though it was “I didn’t do anything.” or “can’t do anything.” are the real quotes that are ringing so many peoples bells?
IMDB is back up. Here ya go:
Included in the first post is a link to movies that have been refuted.
The bizarre thing about this is how many people think it sounds familiar. It would have to be a hugely popular movie for so many people to recognize it, and it seems to transverse different movie-watching habits. I’ve mentioned it to a couple of friends who are action/blockbuster-oriented and they immediately thought it sounded familiar. My girlfriend is an artsy/independant type and she couldn’t place it either.
But if it IS such a well-known movie (assuming it isn’t some weird meme-y thing), why would it somehow evade all of us?
There’s a similar quote in Airplane 2. William Shatner is staring at some blinking light doodad and says something like. “Keep working on it, it must do something!”
Could it have appeared, not in a movie, but on a television program? It feels like something said by a kid who invents something. Maybe a teenaged kid. I know I’ve heard it, too.
Curiouser and curiouser.
http://kcor1953beauty.tripod.com/blog/ - appears to be a resource dedicated to the research of this question.
My first thought when reading the OP was “ooh ooh! I’ve heard that but where?” It’s truly maddening that we all seem so share a memory of it but can’t recall from where. The Universe can be so cruel at times.
I’m thinking it may have been from a commercial. I’m going to go bang my head on the wall for a while.
Here’s another vote for “it has to have been said somewhere” and I’d be willing to accept that it might have been some comedian like, say, Jonathan Winters, during one of those ad lib sessions where somebody tossed him a stick and he went off with it. Johnny Carson had a similar “Dicky the Stick” bit where it might have popped up as a punch line.
What if we think about it this way?
Could the quote be something like this:
“What do/does you/she/he do?”
“I/she/he don’t/doesn’t DO anything?”
Something just popped into my head. Maybe it was in a Seinfeld episode? Kind of describes George Costanza don’t ya think?
My new purpose in life is to find the origin of this quote.
BTW, rather than waste my valuable time on it, has anyone asked The Master?
There’s a somewhat similar line in the play Shear Madness: Detective Rosetti asks socialite Eleanor Corcran Shubert her husband’s occupation…
MRS. SHUBERT: Adam works for the government.
DET. ROSETTI: Yes, but what does he do?
MRS. SHUBERT: He’s a diplomat. He doesn’t do anything.
According to this site, it’s from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Here’s the except of dialogue about this from that page:
I’ve got the book, but there’s no way I’m fishing through 1000+ pages to find the quote.
Somebody download the pdf version from kazaa and ctrl-F the bitch.
Until further notice, my work here is done.
For clarification, that’s part of the quoted material, not my sentiment.