# At the Institute they said I was mad! But I'll show them! I'll show them all! BWA HA HA HA!!! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 22, 2009, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-the-institute-they-said-i-was-mad-but-ill-show-them-ill-show-them-all-bwa-ha-ha-ha/503830 "2009-07-22T05:44:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2009, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-the-institute-they-said-i-was-mad-but-ill-show-them-ill-show-them-all-bwa-ha-ha-ha/503830/1 "2009-07-22T05:44:20Z")
Has a mad scientist ever actually said this in book, film, or comic rag? What’s the origin of this stereotypical bit of dialogue? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2009, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-the-institute-they-said-i-was-mad-but-ill-show-them-ill-show-them-all-bwa-ha-ha-ha/503830/2 "2009-07-22T11:50:28Z")
In the Woody Allen movie _Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex \* But Were Afraid to Ask_, the character of Dr. Bernardo (played by John Carradine) says things that are very close to that. He says something like “Mad? Mad? Yes, that’s what they called me at the Masters and Johnson clinic.” Of course, this particular sketch is intended as a parody of old movies, so all it shows was that when it came out (in 1972), it was already a cliche to have mad scientists talking like that, so it’s not a direct example of an old movie in which someone says that in a non-parodying way. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2009, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-the-institute-they-said-i-was-mad-but-ill-show-them-ill-show-them-all-bwa-ha-ha-ha/503830/3 "2009-07-22T12:05:58Z")
Bela Lugosi expresses sentiments along this line in **Bride of the Monster**. An old comrade from the mother country tries to get Bela to return and Bela goes on about how they all laughed at him and he’ll show them all when he creates his “Race of Atomic Supermen” and takes over the world! ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2009, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-the-institute-they-said-i-was-mad-but-ill-show-them-ill-show-them-all-bwa-ha-ha-ha/503830/4 "2009-07-22T12:17:43Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > Bela Lugosi expresses sentiments along this line in **Bride of the Monster**. An old comrade from the mother country tries to get Bela to return and Bela goes on about how they all laughed at him and he’ll show them all when he creates his “Race of Atomic Supermen” and takes over the world! Worth quoting in it’s entirety: > [@](#): > > My dear Professor Strowski, twenty years I was banned from my homeland, parted from my wife and son never to see them again. Why? Because I suggested to use the atomic elements for producing super-beings, beings of unimaginable strength and size. I was classed as a madman, a charlatan, outlawed in the world of science which had previously honoured me as a genius. Now here in this forsaken jungle hell I have proved that I am alright. No, Professor Strowski, it is no laughing matter … Home? I have no home. Hunted! Despised! Living like an animal. The jungle is my home. But I will show the world I can be its master. I will perfect my own race of people, a race of atomic supermen which will conquer the world. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2009, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-the-institute-they-said-i-was-mad-but-ill-show-them-ill-show-them-all-bwa-ha-ha-ha/503830/5 "2009-07-22T12:20:01Z")
Without re-watching it, I think Colin Clive’s “Henry (?) Frankenstein” in the Karloff version has similar lines.