# Good comebacks that you thought of to snarky lines in movies. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 13, 2020, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-comebacks-that-you-thought-of-to-snarky-lines-in-movies/853707 "2020-05-13T12:39:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2022, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-comebacks-that-you-thought-of-to-snarky-lines-in-movies/853707/41 "2022-07-29T11:18:34Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > But the clearance bin she grabbed it from had a cerulean sweater and not a turquoise one. Designers don’t make two shades of the same color fashionable at the same time. After cerulean, there wouldn’t be another fashionable blue for years. By that time, cerulean sweaters would all be gone. > > If she Andy didn’t want blue at all, she’d still be chosing a color that was made fashionable. Clothes manufacturers follow the lead of fashion But what kicks this off is Andy mentioning that it doesn’t make a difference to her whether they go with Belt #1 and Belt #2, because she can’t even _tell_ the difference — and, in that context, Miranda is just _repeating_ Andy’s point by noting that she fished a cerulean sweater rather than a turquoise sweater out of a clearance bin: it presumably would’ve made no difference to Andy, who presumably wouldn’t have even been able to tell the difference, if a different sweater had been in there. The whole point of the set-up there is, if Miranda goes with Belt #2 instead of Belt #1, Andy genuinely won’t notice or care — and Miranda’s comeback is, if they’d gone with turquoise instead of cerulean, Andy genuinely wouldn’t have noticed or cared. How is that not just Andy’s point twice? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2022, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-comebacks-that-you-thought-of-to-snarky-lines-in-movies/853707/42 "2022-07-29T11:40:16Z")
> [@Isamu](#): > > **Comeback** > Firstly, I didn’t call this sweater blue. You did. Three times to be exact. In attributing it to me, you committed a straw-man logical fallacy which is generally considered to be an extremely dishonest debate tactic. Congratulations. > Secondly, you defend the fashion business by saying what one person does ‘filters down’ through the system and is copied by everyone else. How is playing follow-the-leader a virtue? You say that you, and people like you, selected this color for me? But then contradict yourself by saying you were all following someone else? And you somehow, inexplicably, ignore the fact that there are always many colors of sweaters to choose from at any given day. I could have even dyed it myself. You don’t know. > Thirdly, you then go on to defend the fashion business by claiming that it makes a lot of money and employs people. Well, so does Justin Bieber music, the sex slave trade, and Twinkies, so you’ll have to try harder than that to impress me. > And finally, in 2002, de la Renta showed Russian Cossack hats, lavishly embroidered coats trimmed with fur and some beautiful pale pink and gold gowns, but no cerulean. at. all. Thank you. I’ve always hated the snotty superiority of this speech and how it doesn’t really address the original issue. ---
**Author:** ![Jay\_Z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Jay\_Z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jay_Z)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2022, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-comebacks-that-you-thought-of-to-snarky-lines-in-movies/853707/43 "2022-07-29T12:49:06Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > I mean, clothes are SOME color. I’ve had an affinity for see through blouses myself. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2022, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-comebacks-that-you-thought-of-to-snarky-lines-in-movies/853707/44 "2022-07-29T12:53:45Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Thank you. I’ve always hated the snotty superiority of this speech and how it doesn’t really address the original issue. You’re welcome. Yes, she could have very easily said. “You’re new here, but you will learn that at the highest levels of any business it’s the attention to subtle details that makes all the difference.” But then she wouldn’t be ‘the devil’ 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2022, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-comebacks-that-you-thought-of-to-snarky-lines-in-movies/853707/45 "2022-07-29T13:17:45Z")
Sam Spade: [smiles at Effie] You’re an angel. A nice, rattlebrained little angel. [pats her leg] Effie Perine: And you’re an idiot if you think I’m going to keep babysitting your ex-girlfriends. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2022, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-comebacks-that-you-thought-of-to-snarky-lines-in-movies/853707/46 "2022-07-29T21:02:24Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Thank you. I’ve always hated the snotty superiority of this speech and how it doesn’t really address the original issue. > [@Isamu](#): > > You’re welcome. Yes, she could have very easily said. “You’re new here, but you will learn that at the highest levels of any business it’s the attention to subtle details that makes all the difference.” But then she wouldn’t be ‘the devil’ 😛 But that’s not really addressing the point. Anne Hathaway’s character isn’t saying “she’s not good at her job” or “the decisions she makes aren’t relevant _inside the topic of fashion_” or anything, she’s saying “the entire topic of fashion is, fundamentally, unimportant.” And the rebuttal that “it influenced the color the shirt you’re wearing” is easily dismissed if she _does not care about the color of her shirt_. Taking a step back, I think there’s at least somewhat of a conversation to have about the human need for decoration/symbolism/tribal identity through clothing, whatever; the role of the fashion industry in that, yada yada yada. It’s probably a bit of an overreach to just dismiss the entire industry as complete and total BS. But the infuriating thing in the movie is that she just has no rebuttal at all for what is a really facile observation. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2022, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-comebacks-that-you-thought-of-to-snarky-lines-in-movies/853707/47 "2022-07-31T13:33:52Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > she just has no rebuttal at all for what is a really facile observation. “She” means who? And what was the facile observation? The silly thing is that Miranda isn’t designing any clothing. She’s not designing a belt. Those two belts have already been designed and made by someone else, She’s just picking one of them. So she is also one of the people who have to chose from what other people have decided for them. lol. It would have been a power move if she said “neither of those belts work! Get me a pencil and paper” ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2022, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-comebacks-that-you-thought-of-to-snarky-lines-in-movies/853707/48 "2022-07-31T20:13:08Z")
> [@Isamu](#): > > “She” means who? And what was the facile observation? “She” meaning Anne Hathaway’s character. She had no rebuttal to the whole ridiculous spiel about how important Meryl Streep’s character was, when in fact it is easily rebutted, or at least easily substantially responded to. What irritates me about the scene is that the way the movie plays it, it seems like the moviemakers are taking a side, because they show her failing to respond, implying that there is no response. Now, maybe the intent was supposed to be “this guy is making a ridiculous and overbroad point, and Anne Hathaway is too meek to respond, but we filmmaker and the audience are certainly aware of the response.” But instead, I remember it coming off to me as “Anne Hathaway said something silly and naive and wrong, and then was shown the error of her ways.” It’s a pretty different speech in a pretty different movie, but it certainly reminds me of the preacher character in Contact trying to gotcha Jodie Foster by asking how she knew that her father loved her… wasn’t she taking that “on faith” just like he was taking on faith the existence of God? And… she had no response, leaving his specious and trivial question as the apparent point of view of the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-comebacks-that-you-thought-of-to-snarky-lines-in-movies/853707/49 "2022-08-15T23:00:57Z")
> **Mrs. Doubtfire:** Do you know what language they speak in England? > **Kovacs:** Pakistani? Mrs. Doubtfire’s actual reply is amusing enough: > That’s right. In many stores they do. But I still think she should have said > That’s not a language, you idiot. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2022, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-comebacks-that-you-thought-of-to-snarky-lines-in-movies/853707/50 "2022-10-24T13:05:09Z")
Another one off the dome. The Fugitive (1993) with Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones. Deputy Marshal Samuel Gerard: “Newman, what are you doing?” Newman: “I’m thinking” Deputy Marshal Samuel Gerard: “Well, think me up a cup of coffee and a chocolate doughnut with some of those little sprinkles on top, while you’re thinking” …[much later]… Deputy Marshal Samuel Gerard: “Newman, we’re gonna send you a bunch of cops, make sure they turn that place inside out” Newman: “You got it Sam” Deputy Marshal Samuel Gerard: “And don’t let them give you any shit about your pony tail” Newman: “I won’t” Last line should have been… Newman: “If they do, I’ll just put little grains of dog shit on their doughnuts and coffee, like always sir!” ---
**Author:** ![Uncle\_Jocko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uncle_jocko/32/2932_2.png) [@Uncle\_Jocko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Jocko)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2022, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-comebacks-that-you-thought-of-to-snarky-lines-in-movies/853707/51 "2022-10-24T13:14:58Z")
> [@Isamu](#): > > Bartlet: Here’s one that’s really important, cause we’ve got a lot of sports fans in this town. Touching the skin of a dead pig makes one unclean, Leviticus 11:7. If they promise to wear gloves, can the Washington Red Skins still play football? Can Notre Dame? Can West Point? > > Dr. Jacobs: Yes, with or without gloves. Anyone can still play football while being, so called, ‘unclean’. Of course, the best (and accurate) comeback to this point would be, “They make footballs from cowhide, Mr. President, not pigskin.” Although I’m not down with anything making Dr. Jacobs look good. Sam was right to take her crab puff. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2022, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-comebacks-that-you-thought-of-to-snarky-lines-in-movies/853707/52 "2022-10-24T13:16:57Z")
> [@Uncle\_Jocko](#): > > Of course, the best (and accurate) comeback to this point would be, “They make footballs from cowhide, Mr. President, not pigskin.” > > Although I’m not down with anything making Dr. Jacobs look good. Sam was right to take her crab puff. Yeah I discovered that like a few minutes after posting but let it stay anyway. The point still stands. Anyone can play football. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2022, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-comebacks-that-you-thought-of-to-snarky-lines-in-movies/853707/53 "2022-10-24T13:21:37Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > It’s a pretty different speech in a pretty different movie, but it certainly reminds me of the preacher character in Contact trying to gotcha Jodie Foster by asking how she knew that her father loved her… wasn’t she taking that “on faith” just like he was taking on faith the existence of God? And… she had no response, leaving his specious and trivial question as the apparent point of view of the movie. Good point. You might not “know” that someone loves you, but you do know that you love them because they were always in your corner, took the time to teach you about the world, looked after you when you were sick, gave you everything you needed in life, and treated you as a priority. It’s just not important whether I believe someone loves me. I try not to want to believe what is unknowable. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2022, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-comebacks-that-you-thought-of-to-snarky-lines-in-movies/853707/54 "2022-10-24T14:28:29Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > > [@Isamu](#): > > > > “She” means who? And what was the facile observation? > > “She” meaning Anne Hathaway’s character. She had no rebuttal to the whole ridiculous spiel about how important Meryl Streep’s character was, when in fact it is easily rebutted, or at least easily substantially responded to. Easily rebutted? Not if you listened to what Miranda said: It was our choice that made that color sweater available. If Andria had chosen a different shade, it still would be Miranda’s (or another person in the fashion industry) choice of what was available. Andrea could only choose a color that Miranda chose for her. ---
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2022, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-comebacks-that-you-thought-of-to-snarky-lines-in-movies/853707/55 "2022-10-24T15:11:15Z")
This actually happened in the theatre during ST II: The Wrath of Khan Joachim: “Our shields are dropping!” Khan: “Well raise them.” Joachim: “I can’t!!” Audience member: “Put in another quarter!” ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2022, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-comebacks-that-you-thought-of-to-snarky-lines-in-movies/853707/56 "2022-10-24T17:20:24Z")
This actually happened at a screening at MIT of the Sam Peckinpaugh movie _Straw Dogs_. Dustin Hoffman is an astrophysicist working a country house in England. He had a blackboard set up in the living room, covered with his equations. His character has a fight with his wife (-played by Susan George). As she walks by the blackboard, in a fit of pique, she erases a “+” (plus) sign in the middle of a long equation and replaces it with a “minus” sign. Somebody in the audience stood up, and with great depth of feeling yelled “I’D KILL HER!” Loud applause. It doesn’t really matter in the movie. Shortly afterwards Hoffman walks by the blackboard, notices it out of the corner of his eye, and swiftly corrects the “minus” sign to a “plus” sign with a casual stroke of the chalk. He knew the equation so well that the problem was immediately obvious. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2022, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-comebacks-that-you-thought-of-to-snarky-lines-in-movies/853707/57 "2022-10-24T17:25:14Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > If Andria had chosen a different shade, it still would be Miranda’s (or another person in the fashion industry) choice of what was available. Andrea could only choose a color that Miranda chose for her. OK, I just went and actually rewatched the scene on YouTube. Turns out that I had been seriously misremembering one thing, which is that I was sure it was AH having the argument with some underling who is talking about how important Miranda is, but in fact it is Miranda herself. But the point still stands, imho. Miranda ends by saying something like “you think you chose that yourself, but in fact people in this room chose that for you”. So the entire discussion goes something like this: (1) Someone on Miranda’s team comments about how very different two similar-appearing belts are (2) Andy (that’s what IMDB says AH’s character is named) snickers under her breath (3) She gets called out (4) She fairly gracefully admits that they look the same to her but she’s still new to it all (5) Miranda then makes one logical leap from “you don’t recognize the difference between two similar-seeming belts” to “you think you chose your own clothes” (which has NOTHING to do with what Andy said), then goes on a long rant about how that shade of blue isn’t blue, it’s Cerulean, its recent history in high fashion, and how, a-ha!, therefore it was people like the people in this room who spent millions of dollars to give you the illusion that you could pick out your own clothes when in fact we picked them out for you So there are in fact TWO obvious rebuttals: (1) That has nothing to do with whether or not two belts look similar, and whether it was over-the-top to describe them as being SO different; which is all Andy said, she never said anything about “those two belts look different, and also I think I’m better than you and somehow believe that I have agency over my own store-brought clothes” and in fact she basically admitted she still had a lot to learn (2) But, the point I’ve been trying to get at… if that whole Cerulean thing had NOT happened, and instead the color of that season had been more of an Azure, and oh my god we’re in a huge what if of parallel history and butterfly effects and What Ifs and we’d ended up in a crazy-ass wacky alternative timeline where Andy had been wearing an AZURE sweater instead of Cerulean, well, then… her life would not be the slightest bit materially different in any way at all. All of that effort that goes into being fashion leaders and trendsetters and what not clearly has _influence_, but that’s not the same as it being genuinely _important_. (All of that said, it makes sense in the movie that she not talk back, given that it would be talking back to her very very scary boss, not just a coworker. But it does bug me that the movie leaves us with the impression that Miranda’s viewpoint is correct, given that it is never rebutted.) ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2022, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-comebacks-that-you-thought-of-to-snarky-lines-in-movies/853707/58 "2022-10-24T18:45:10Z")
> [@Isamu](#): > > “Does Barry Manilow know that you raid his wardrobe?” > > “He most certainly does. What he doesn’t know is that, for male earrings, right = OK, left = gay.” Was this correct? I always remember Ann Lander’s quote on the subject. “The left ear is the right ear, the right ear is the wrong ear. Both ears - it’s a girl” ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2022, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-comebacks-that-you-thought-of-to-snarky-lines-in-movies/853707/59 "2022-10-25T00:55:57Z")
Kill Bill _The Bride_: ''Gogo, I know you feel you must protect your mistress, but I beg you, walk away." _Gogo_: --giggles-- “You call that begging, you can beg better than that.” _ **The Bride** _: “Hmm? Make me” ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2022, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-comebacks-that-you-thought-of-to-snarky-lines-in-movies/853707/60 "2022-10-25T06:25:34Z")
That is close to the point I’ve been making except that you’re extrapolating beyond what is being shown. Miranda’s “tangent” is based on her perception of Andrea’s reactions, where it’s clear she finds the discussion trivial. Miranda shows how it isn’t, that the decisions she makes affects what’s available to consumers. Note the implication is clear if you consider the question “What if the choice is unpopular?” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-comebacks-that-you-thought-of-to-snarky-lines-in-movies/853707.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-comebacks-that-you-thought-of-to-snarky-lines-in-movies/853707.md?page=4)