Almost no one remembers Breakin’ 2. But everyone remembers the title–or, more specifically, the subtitle: Electric Boogaloo. It’s the go-to punchline for ridiculous sequels, as Wikipedia notes (and as you can see on the SDMB if you search for thread titles with “boogaloo” in them).
The 1997 version of Island of Dr. Moreau is basically remembered for being a fiasco. But it also had a wee little sidekick for Marlon Brando, which in turn inspired long-running gags on South Park and the Austin Powers films.
I know there’s more stuff like this out there – little bits from forgotten or seldom-seen movies, TV shows, albums, and other works of pop culture that long outlive their origin. Other examples?
To the OP: I wonder, sometimes, how many “average” (intelligent, perhaps, but not as cinema savvy as most Dopers) folks quote things and have no idea of the source. Do most of the people who say a variation of “Badges! Badges! We don’t have/got/have to show you no stinkin’ badges,” know it was from “Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” or did they pick it up from the many parodies/imitations done of Alfonse Bedoya’s classic reading of the line (which I usually misquote myself, to be honest).
Same with other classic lines:
“What we have here is failure to communicate.”
“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”
“Go ahead, make my day.”
Yes, we know their sources, and many people might, but too a greater number they are just flotsam that got stuck in their heads.
Some quotes become such a part of our personal repertoire that we not only forget what we’re quoting, we forget that we’re quoting.
I had been saying the line “It could be worse: it could be raining” for years until I bought Young Frankenstein on DVD and remembered that I was quoting it.
I watch Silver Streak frequently enough now that I remember that “I left my Jag in Kansas City” is something I picked up from there, but there was a period of time in college when I went a few years without seeing it and forgot.
A good example that isn’t a quote would be the classic Perils of Pauline “man with long waxed mustache ties girl to the train tracks” bit. Everyone would recognise it, most would think it came from a cartoon. Almost none could refer to the original. [In fact, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to hear that Pauline wasn’t the first to use it. I think there may have been a melodramatic play that did it before film came about.]
I think a lot of people who use the word ‘grok’ would have trouble telling you where they got it.
Most would think of Casablanca when they use, “Play it again, Sam,” or “Here’s lookin’ at you, kid,” and many would even know that the first is a misquote. But I bet a lot don’t remember that “This could be the start of a beautiful friendship.” was from the same film.
It was only recently that I discovered “Badges? We don’t need no stinkin’ badges!” didn’t originate with Blazing Saddles but came from Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
I don’t think I was alone in my generation, and compared to most of my friends I’m a veritable Bogart expert.
I feel great shame. (I’m also not entirely sure this counts, but it was all I could come up with)
“It was a dark and stormy night” is a cue to discuss horrible novels, but I can’t remember the book, think the author was Bulwer-Lytton, but most people wouldn’t remember that much.
I have heard kids call a slow-witted person a “George”, and it came from the cartoon “I’ll hug him and squeeze him and call him George” but few know it is from “Mice and Men” and George was the smart one.
At this point, I’d say the vast majority of people who are vaguely aware that Tracy Ullman had a TV show only do so because The Simpsons charitably reference it now and then.
