Paula Abdul on American Idol.
Professor Farnsworth generally prefaces every conversation he starts with “Good News Everybody!”
In real life, there’s Jim O’Connor, the former host of Food Network’s Secret Life Of… show. The guy loved everything he tried, and was almost comically effusive in his praise.
Harry Dean Stanton’s Character in Alien
Ripley: Whenever he says anything you say “right,” Brett, you know that?
Brett: Right.
Ripley: Parker, what do you think? Your staff just follows you around and says “right”. Just like a regular parrot.
Parker: [laughs] Yeah, shape up. What are you some kind of parrot?
Brett: Right.
Ed McMahon never disagreed with Johnny, did he?
Kaylee from Firefly
Mal:I don’t believe there’s a power in the 'verse that can stop Kaylee from being cheerful. Sometimes you just wanna duct tape her mouth and dump her in the hold for a month.
Kaylee: I love my captain. kiss
after hearing that the destination planet had been destroyed
Leela–“Why is that good news?”
Professor–“They paid in advance.”
Don’t forget Huell Howser, whose show California’s Gold appears on my local PBS station. There is not a place he visits, a person he meets, or a dish he eats that doesn’t merit some amount of praise from him. I think I read some L.A. Times article, perhaps a review of one of his shows, in which it is speculated that somewhere there may or may not exist an outtake reel of Huell Howser remarking on the ugliness of a place, spitting out a restaurant’s food, and cussing out the locals. I still remember the episode where Huell and his cameraman drove up to Fresno or thereabouts in search of some fruit trees in bloom, but they had just missed the blooming season. So, instead of bitching about the missed opportunity, Huell and company drove to the nearest town, found a hole-in-the-wall restaurant that served delicious Armenian food, and somehow stumbled across a group of elderly quilters who were happy to show off their work for the cameras. I’m sure some of that was planned, in retrospect.
I’m afraid these two examples will date me, but:
On the original Saturday Night Live, Bill Murray once played a character who could speak only five words, and in a single order: “That’s true; you’re absolutely right.”
And in the old SPY magazine, blueblood movie critic Walter Monheit had only two ratings: three monocles, for “Excellent,” and four monocles, for “Indisputably a classic!”
That dude that Phoebe dated for like 15 minutes in Friends, played by Alec Baldwin.
Also Butters, from South Park. “You stupid Jew!” “haha, you’re right. I’m a Jew!”
And the joke of the skit was how he’d managed to achieve incredible success in life on just those five words.
Well, I suppose there are those times when Mr. Smiley substitutes for Mr. Cranky on Cranky’s review site.
Very different styles. “It might have been the greatest experience of my life,” versus, “If I could use the appropriate words to properly convey just how bad this movie is, this review would likely be a string of expletives so long that its power would reanimate Lenny Bruce.”