There’s a scene in The Producers, which I have failed to find on video, in which Franz Liebkind is sobbing, and Leo Bloom comforts him:
Bloom: There, there.
Liebkind: Where? Where?
You left out Irish, which I suppose would be Carolans?
In Catch 22, Yossarian is treating a grievously wounded crew member and comforts him with the useless phrase. Anytime I hear it, I think of that scene in the book.
“I’m cold,’ Snowden said softly, ‘I’m cold.’
‘You’re going to be all right, kid,’ Yossarian reassured him with a grin. ‘You’re going to be all right.’
‘I’m cold,’ Snowden said again in a frail, childlike voice. ‘I’m cold.’
‘There, there,’ Yossarian said, because he did not know what else to say. ‘There, there.’
‘I’m cold,’ Snowden whimpered. ‘I’m cold.’
'There, there. There, there.”
Wildabeast quoted from the back of the bomber up in post #9
Ah, I missed that.
When I was in high school you got to pick your own book to read from an approved list, and I chose Catch-22. I wrote a poem about that scene.
Still one of my favorite books.
Mine too.
I feel like for anyone who’s ever read Catch-22, that scene is impossible to forget.
I actually use the phrase when I’m driving to the park with my dog and he’s losing his mind in the back seat. I say it just like Alan Arkin in the movie. My wife will say, “help him, help him,” and I say “there, there.”