“Shaka, when the walls fell”
“Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra”
and the rest of the Tamarian language from the ST:TNG episode “Darmok”
From the 1991 film Suburban Commando: Hulk Hogan (a space mercenary on forced vacation on Earth) enconters a mime doing the “trapped in a box” trope. He says, “Huh. Looks like a K7 force field. Don’t worry, I’ll get you out.” Then punches the mime into the wall.
One of my favorites:
“They used dogs. They used probes. They used cardioplate crossoffs. They used teepers. They used bribery. They used stiktytes. They used intimidation. They used torment. They used torture. They used finks. They used cops. They used search & seizure. They used fallaron. They used betterment incentive. They used fingerprints. They used Bertillon. They used cunning. They used guile. They used treachery. They used Raoul Mitgong, but he didn’t help much. They used applied physics. They used techniques of criminology. And what the hell: they caught him.”
– from “‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said The Ticktockman”, by Harlan Ellison.
My favorite for the mumboist jumbo will always be Dr. Strange:
“I summon the powers of the Vishanti! By the spell of the Dread Dormammu, in the name of the All-Seeing Agamotto – all thy powers I summon — begone, Forces of Darkness!”
“Let the vapors of the Vishanti drive you from the sight of man! Let the mystic Hosts of Hoggoth prevent you from ever returning again!”
“Back, creatures of the night!! Back – I command you, by the seven rings of Raggadorr!”
“By the mystic moons of Munnopor – By the demons of night and day – By the flames of the flawless Faltine – Let yon spell be dissolved away!”
These(and many more) can been found at Cat Yronwode’s The Lesser Book Of The Vishanti, the best Dr. Strange reference I have ever been to.
“The eye of Orion.”
Though it isn’t mysterious in the context of the story, I always liked “Mother Hitton’s Littul Kittons,” one of dozens of great evocative names by Cordwainer Smith.
“The 600 series had rubber skin. We spotted them easy, but these are new. They look human… sweat, bad breath, everything. Very hard to spot.”
One Arcturian interpretation. NSFW.
Old joke among those of us who spent too much time discussing the book. Maybe too obscure to use here, sorry.
“The twins keep us on Centarian time. It’s a 37-hour day. Give it a few months, you’ll get used to it…or you’ll have a psychotic episode.”
Men In Black
[QUOTE=Alistair Grout]
It is quite peculiar the happenings I’ve been made to witness from my supernatural longevity. I’m thinking of one unfortunate phenomenon in particular, of unique interest to my station both as a professional and as a sufferer of this vampiric condition. It seems the stream of time has begun to erode the moorings of my chosen course of study for the methodologies that gave birth to psychology are slowly disappearing. I find myself in an era that overlooks the physical component of psychological pathology time and again in favor of the sophistic practices of Freud. Phrenology, Dactopindalism, and the rest of the old guard is fallen by the wayside, its champions all silenced in death with my unique exception. Would that I could make my voice heard again, although it may be suspicious should I return to popular medical discourse fifty years after my apparent death.
[/QUOTE]
From Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. What is “dactopindalism”, anyway?! No one seems to know…
Well, “pindal” is a West Indies word for “peanut”, so maybe “dactopindalism” is “reading peanuts”, like reading tea leaves?
Considering that the character is a vampire psychologist who doesn’t believe in magic and superstition that’s unlikely. Of course he’s also insane, so…
Well, my alternative definition was “grabbing somebody’s nuts and squeezing until the truth comes”.
ahem…
That seems a bit more likely. 
My vote is just about everything Zelazny ever wrote, especially regarding Amber. There are entire realms invented just for those insane transit-sequences.
Some of the NuWho episodes are similarly stuffed with asides of that sort. Drives me a bit batty; either they follow up on an idea and I don’t like what they did with it (Face of Boe) or they don’t follow up on it at all and I’m left disproportionately peeved that they let it drop (the Adipose as a race).
“He doesn’t know about thethree seashells.”
I’m not sure either of these qualify since they’re pretty self-explanatory.
Lynn, while you have a valid point, it is tangential to the point of this thread. For Alessan’s purposes, 12 seconds or 12 minutes or 12 days or even 12 splitziks would have had the same impact. His point was the fact that “Kessel Run” is meaningless to us, but that we can parse from the use that it suggests it is a standard transport route and that 12 ___ is supposed to be impressive. Your issue with the misuse of “parsec” takes something that is supposed to sound impressive and makes it something to snicker at.
For my example, I suppose Jabberwocky would be an example. It’s supposed to sound impressive without actually meaning anything.
Nobody mumbos the jumbos better than Scotty.
“Ach, Cap’n! Me wee Bairns of a warp engines! It cannae take the strain!”
“Mumbo… perhaps! Jumbo? Perhaps NOT!”
- Futurama, “The Honking”