So I swore to myself that I wouldn’t start madly posting topics as soon as I signed up for the SDMB, but I thought I’d ask this while the guilt’s still fresh. Hopefully I’m in the right forum; It’s got a little Cafe twist (movies, music), it’s a bit of a poll, and it’s certainly frivolous. Mods, please relocate this to wherever you might see fit.
My story: A little over a week ago, I was out on a first date with my new love interest. At the end of the night, we were at her apartment, and shortly before leaving I used the line, “That smile is going to be the death of me.” Evidently she was not familiar enough with the movie Vanilla Sky to recognize that it was a quote, and her reaction was quite favorable.
Has anyone else ever done something like this and gotten away with it? Did you feel guilty afterwards? Or, conversely, ever try to use a line and been called on it?
I have, in the past, used paraphrased lines from songs, but most always from songs I’ve written, so I don’t feel so bad about it then. At least the sentiment was my own. My favorite being something along the lines of, “Sorry if I stumble on my words when I’m around you… It’s just because you take my breath away.”
Side question: did I steal that line from someone else subconsciously, or is it an original?
I actually used one of Darth Vader’s lines in a conversation once. It was, “I find your lack of faith…disturbing”, complete with that one second pause before the word “disturbing”.
The other person wasn’t a SW fan (I don’t think he ever saw any of the SW movies) so yeah, I guess I got away with it. I’m sure he must have thought I was either a nutter or pretentious. Or a pretentious nutter. I mean, who speaks like that in real life anyway?
I’ve dropped Buffy quotes into conversations and gotten away with it. The only one that comes to mind is when I was living in Ann Arbor, my mom asked me if there were any boys there. I responded with, “No, Mom, it’s a nun town”. (Which is actually a paraphrase, but the idea is the same as the original line.)
True story: Once when I was in high school, I went out with a guy who got totally plastered… well, okay, we were both plastered. He took my hand, looked deeply into my eyes, and asked “Willya love me forever?” (On the second date, ew!) Naturally, I replied, “Well, lemme sleep on it, baby baby, lemme sleep on it…”
I once used “Remember, no matter where you go… there you are.” from Buckaroo Banzai in the course of a wedding ceremony. The bride’s father was Soka Gakkai and had insisted that everything religious be removed from my script, leaving the whole thing pared from 20 minutes to less than 10. So at the end of my message in Japanese I just started ad-libbing in English about love, respect and togetherness and that line just popped out.
I adapted a line from *Duck Soup * and got good results.
I was on the stage crew for a community theatre production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. The last midweek rehearsal is typically the time for the cast to make up dirty lyrics to the songs and indulge in other high jinks. The director, however, made it abundantly clear that there was to be absolutely! no! goofing! off! Naturally, the cast ignored her warning, and at the end of the first act, she marched furiously down the center aisle, grabbed her coat, and went home.
Another member of the stage crew had been in the restroom and had missed the grand exit. He said, “Someone told me that Jeanne left in a huff.” I practically levitated. You wait your whole life for such a straight line.
I replied, “She didn’t leave in a huff; she left in a minute and a huff. Actually she left in a taxi.”
In my Blood Bowl league (a football-like board game with fantasy races,) a friend’s Ogre team all had fairly simple names such as Bash the Basher and Devo the Devourer.
I waited patiently for months for a good moment, and when his opponent said “how many men are on the pitch?” I pointed and said “they are not men: they are Devo!”
I used that line regularly. Of course, with a bunch of SW nerds who knew where it came from, so I guess that doesn’t count.
Ditto for “Franky, my dear, I don’t give a damn” and for “Go ahead, make my day”
“Are you entertained?” (from Gladiator) is another regular staple of my daily talk.
Actually, I use a lot of song lines on a daily basis. I even sing them most of the times (so I am not concealing their origins) or add “as the song says…”
I have used “Don’t be a bigger asshole than you have to”. I forget the movie it came from, maybe that’s why I can use it, nobody remembers the movie.
And when someone asks me for someone’s name that I don’t remember because it is one of those latinamerican messed-up combination names with Y’s and H’s all over the place, I reply “Leeloo” as in Fifth Element.
I have used hundreds of times since I first saw it in **Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein ** Lou’s line “I saw what I saw when I saw it.” Usually I re-write it to “We’ll see what we see when we see it.” Noone has ever picked up on it. I guess not too many people today have seen or remember a movie classic.
I use movie quotes nearly every day, some are noticed some aren’t.
The funniest one to me was when I walked into the lunch room at work,one of my co-workers aimed a little dig at me,so I went over to him and said in a mean,deep voice "You’re gonna look awful funny sucking my dick with no teeth.“Everyone in the room looked at me and froze.One guy in the corner said"What the hell is he talking about” It was a tense couple seconds until someone realised I was quoting Captain Hadley from Shawshank.
I also use the Darth Vader line “I find your lack of faith …disturbing.” Replacing faith with whatever is appropriate to the moment. Friend says"I need some gas" I say “I find your lack of gas…disturbing”
Also from Star Wars the “thats no moon…thats a space station” line. Friend-“Aww look at the kitty” Me- “Thats no kitty…”
In Rio Bravo,John Wayne says “You want that gun? Pick it up.” I use that one a lot while playing cards if my opponent is thinking about picking up a card. “You want that card? Pick it up” in my best John Wayne voice.
There are many others that I use whenever I can…little hobby of mine.
I use Airplane lines a lot, such as: “don’t call me Shirley”; “what is it?” answered by"it’s a [mundane description], but that’s not important right now"; stuff like that.
But nothing is as quotable as a certain line in Return of the Jedi whenever you are in an RPG and are worried about your rogue’s ability to find tampered-with rooms…
I, too, use the “That’s no (x) – that’s a space station” line to great comedic effect. At least it’s effective to me.
From the same galaxy, far, far away, a colleague and I once traded this exchange, when I was headed out the office door into a raging blizzard:
Colleague: “But (Gordon), you’ll never make it to the first marker!”
Me: “Then I’ll see you in hell!” (Then I left dramatically. It was awesome, even if I wasn’t on a Tauntaun at the time.)
DurbBook & Shakes, that’s more of the sort of thing I was hoping for; not so much finding clever places to use well-known lines, but using lesser-known ones in ways that make you look particularly witty, cleverl, or whatnot.
Anyone who can get away with at Groucho Marx quote is ok in my book.
I was once asked why, after twenty-plus years in the workforce, I would choose to go back to school full-time for another degree. I explained that this degree was one that I always wanted but hadn’t got around to getting yet because, “life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.”
All the time. For example, when talking about some improvement to whatever process I’m implementing at work, I’ll make the occasional reference to “turning it up to 11”.
No.
Occasionally. I always acknowledge the overwhelming coolness of whomever caught the reference.
Sometimes I like to say “I’m on my way” to the wife when she asks me to do something and I have no intention of doing it. It’s from a SImpson’s episode.
I had a friend who once used “drive by fruiting” when someone he was riding with threw some fruit out the window. The other guy thought he was brilliant, but he totally ripped the line from “Mrs. Doubtfire” and didn’t fess up abou it. . .until the other guy saw the movie.
