# Co-opted Quotes **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 13, 2006, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-opted-quotes/383909 "2006-12-13T02:16:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mouse\_Maven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@Mouse\_Maven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mouse_Maven)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2006, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-opted-quotes/383909/1 "2006-12-13T02:16:58Z")
Have you ever changed a quote around to fit the situation? Here is a recent exchange between Mouse\_Spouse and I: MS: Hand me a spoon. Me: Why a spoon, Husband? MS: Because it’s larger you twit! It’ll serve more! 😃😃 ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2006, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-opted-quotes/383909/2 "2006-12-13T05:28:51Z")
Love it. In my family it’s always “put ze [insert common noun] BECK!” ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2006, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-opted-quotes/383909/3 "2006-12-13T07:17:33Z")
[QUOTE=Mouse\_Maven] Have you ever changed a quote around to fit the situation? Here is a recent exchange between Mouse\_Spouse and I: MS: Hand me a spoon. Me: Why a spoon, Husband? MS: Because it’s larger you twit! It’ll serve more! 😃😃 [/QUOTE] Huh? I don’t get which quote you changed, but I think I know what you’re talking about–I do it all the time, changing proverbs and such to match the situation. I fancy myself rather clever about it, but most of the time no one gets it. Either I need more sophisticated friends or a better sense of humor. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2006, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-opted-quotes/383909/4 "2006-12-13T10:28:00Z")
I do it the whole time. Not so much with quotes as with those topics everybody repeats ad nauseam. For example, in Spanish we say that someone is “more lost than an octopus in a garage”; while an octopus in a garage has certainly lost its way, the line itself is so old that it doesn’t surprise anybody any more, so I started saying “more lost than an octopus in a galician kitchen”. Galician-style octopus is yummy 😃 More than once, specially during a period when one of the national anchormen was from my home town, we’ve seen the “Nava-version” grow and grow and… my brothers tell me I should get the copyrights on those things… It’s pretty funny, when you’re watching the news and the anchorman uses a line you came up with. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2006, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-opted-quotes/383909/5 "2006-12-13T11:16:52Z")
“These are not the [insert name of objects] you are looking for… go about your business” ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2006, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-opted-quotes/383909/6 "2006-12-13T14:45:16Z")
“X does more than Milton can, to justify God’s ways to man.” Let “X” equal anything that I’m feeling generally enthusiastic about at the moment. I sometimes change the occupation of the barbershop lead-in to Python’s lumberjack sketch for all-purpose griping: “AR just sent over a stack of about a hundred outstanding US orders for invoicing.” “I never wanted to be a data-entry clerk.” “Huh?” “I wanted to be a _lumberjack_ – leaping from tree to tree as they float down the mighty rivers of British Columbia!” _“What?”_ “The smell of fresh cut timber! The giant redwood! The larch! The mighty Douglas Fir! With my best girl by my side, we’d sing… sing… _sing!_” “Uhh, can you get these keyed in before November closes, then?” “Okay.” 'Just the sort of blinkered, philistine pig-ignorance I’ve come to expect from you non-creative garbage." ---
**Author:** ![Mouse\_Maven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@Mouse\_Maven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mouse_Maven)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2006, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-opted-quotes/383909/7 "2006-12-13T15:45:39Z")
[QUOTE=fetus] Huh? I don’t get which quote you changed, but I think I know what you’re talking about [/QUOTE] We altered an exchange between the Sheriff of Nottingham (Alan Rickman) and his cousin in _Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves_. The Sheriff threatened to cut Robin’s heart out with a spoon. In a later scene, the cousin asks, “Why a spoon, Cousin?” To which he responded, “Its dull you twit. It’ll hurt more!” [QUOTE=fetus] I fancy myself rather clever about it, but most of the time no one gets it. Either I need more sophisticated friends or a better sense of humor. [/QUOTE] I know the feeling. Since I take blood samples from mice on a regular basis, I refer to myself as Mouseferatu. Very few people get this. ::shrug:: ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2006, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-opted-quotes/383909/8 "2006-12-13T17:56:32Z")
[QUOTE=Mouse\_Maven] Since I take blood samples from mice on a regular basis, I refer to myself as Mouseferatu. Very few people get this. ::shrug:: [/QUOTE] I get it. That’s really clever. Once, we ran out of toilet paper in the women’s rest room. I asked one of the guys to get us a couple of rolls from the men’s. Teasing, the guy said, no, couldn’t possibly do it. I arched an eyebrow and said, “Can’t spare a square?”\* He doubled over and we got the toilet paper. \*Reference to a Seinfeld episode.