Origin of "I regret nothing!"

Factual Questions
1

For years now, I’ve seen pop culture references (Simpsons, MST3K, etc.) where someone shouts out “I regret nothing!” as they (or someone on screen) is falling.

A friend and I, frustrated at not getting this reference, have been trying to track down what this means, and have had no luck in doing so.

At one point my friend thought that he’d found that it was the last words of one of the Nuremberg prisoners before he was hanged. That would explain why the quote is always associated with falling. However, when I tried to delve further I had no luck linking it to any hangings. It was part of Rudolph Hess’ statement to the tribunal, but since he was sentenced to life in prison rather than hanged, I don’t believe that’s it.

So, Straight Dopers, I turn to you. Can anyone out there illuminate us, and make us feel (however briefly) ‘with it’ again?

2

“Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien” [No, I regret nothing] is a song by the late Edith Piaf. Don’t know if that’s a help.

3

Something similar to that occurs in on of Anton Chekhov’s plays. It’s two guys debating a perfect meal, item by item. One of them, when asked to concede, says something like, "I concede Nothing!.

4

I thought the quote was from William Hung. :slight_smile:

5

gum got it in one. Google for “regret nothing piaf,” and you’ll find a bunch of info about Edith Piaf. According to this site:

6

“and now the end is near and so I face the final curtain … regrets, I’ve had a few, but then again too few to mention”

7

Piaf sang the 1960 song, but it was written by Michel Vaucaire.

I can find Babe Ruth in 1935, when asked about the Yankees letting him go, he said, “I have no regrets. In fact, I think I’m a lucky guy.”

So, the line must have been spoken by countless persons. Piaf perhaps popularized it.

8

These were the last words of President Zachary Taylor, according to this site

'I am about to die. I expect the summons very soon. I have tried to discharge my duties faithfully. I regret nothing, but I am sorry I am about to leave my friends."

As samclem says, the formulation must have been very common.

9

Right…but none of these (as far as I can tell) explain why it’s funny in relation to falling, dropping, plummeting, or otherwise discovering that the law of gravity is still in effect.

10

Damn! I hate when I don’t read carefully the OP.

Why when falling? Don’t know yet. I’ll look further.

But, sometimes, lines are just lines. They don’t have any deeper meaning.

11

Plummeting to their deaths, I presume. Which turns it into a dying declaration. A la Edith Piaf.

12

That’s my reading too. It’s the imminence of death which elicits the phrase.

13

But the OP’s implication is that it’s only death by falling that elicits the phrase.

14

Falling from a great height provides the perfect opportunity for such a declaration. You have several seconds to wrap your head around the inevitable outcome, and finish a complete sentence

A deathbed declaration is much less dramatic, unless you time it right – and even then, it loses impact unless you get it right the first time. (Imagine the halls of some Kafkaesque nursing home, echoing with “I-regret-nothing” shouted every few minutes by dying patients who don’t know if the end will be in a minute or a week.)

Most accidental deaths are too quick [“I can’t see if this gas tank is empty. It’s too dark. Let me light a match.” “I REGRE-”- (BOOM) Nah.], too unpredictable (“Honey, I love it when you give me hummers when I drive” (CRASH) or aren’t certain death until the last instant. (“The hogs are stampeding! RRRRUUUNNN!”)

15

The Nazi who said it while awaiting trial was Adolf Eichmann.