No, it’s not atypical. My friends three kids would watch this over and over and over. They could quote the entire movie, given the cues. None of them were much into reading or fantasy, more video games, sports and boys. But still this one film got watched more than all the others, maybe even combined.
Casablanca? Sure, but only to the extent of a few lines. And that’s mainly as those lines are endlessly quoted in other sources such as even cartoons. I have an example. One of the kids was calling someone a “george”. I asked why that? She said “I hug him and squeeze him and call him george” , which is a Bug Bunny take off from “Of Mice and Men”. They had no idea that George was the smart one.
Don’t know about the Princess Bide (was that Star Wars?), but that may be a good point about the Princess Bride.
It reminds me of a theater group I was part of in the 1960’s. Everyone could recite the entire monologue from the opening of Music Man verbatim, in rhythm, followed by “Ya Got Trouble!”. Sometimes parties degenerated into the entire group doing parts like that spontaneously, en masse. Probably wouldn’t happen today.
I was at TAM 9. At the end of one of the talks, someone with a Spanish (as in Spain) accent asked a question. The MC, who was holding the mic for the questioner, told the questioner “please say the phrase ‘prepare to die’”. Despite being befuddled, he did, which was answered by uproarious laughter from the crowd.
So I guess Dopers aren’t the only ones who know the Princess Bride. Of course, you can make a good case for the equivalency of Dopers and TAM’ers…
It seems that certain lines take on a quality rather like a song lyric. It’s not just the words; there’s some quality in the way they are spoken that single time that makes them memorable. I can hear them again in my memory as I would a snippet from a favorite song. I have no idea what it is that makes certain bits of dialog take on that quality, but something about it makes them memorable.
There’s also the Thagomizer on the end of a stegosaurus’s tail, and the collective noun for a “flange” of baboons. (And who knows how else that connects to this thread?)
A recurring thing I run into is people incorrectly quoting lines from movies they claim to love. We’re not talking long. complex lines either. So far no one’s said “Inevitable!” in place of “Inconceivable!,” but it’s only a matter of time.
It irks me when people quote something because it’s memorable and they’ve watched it multiple time and they STILL get it wrong.
TAM would probably be The Amazing Meeting, an annual event sponsored by the James Randi Educational Foundation focussing on science, skepticism and critical thinking. Randi is known professionally as “The Amazing Randi .”
My daughter Kizarvexilla (who is about to turn 14) and I have quotathon sparring matches. The art of the game is to avoid using the same sources in a single match. Movies, musicals, songs, and comedy routines are all admissible.
Example.
Her: (singing) Aaaagonyyyy… (Into the Woods)
Me: (singing) All alone in the moooonlight… (Cats)
Her: Quiet! (1776)
Me: …Bet you’re gay. (MP and the Holy Grail)
Her: Statement! (Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead)
Me: You keep using that hword. I do na think it means what you think it means. (The Princess Bride)
Her: (singing) I can spell all the words that I use, and my grammar’s as good as my neighbor’s. (Iolanthe)
Me: Why, without your good grammar, the whole darn shootin’ match could go arse over tea kettle. (A Series of Unfortunate Events)
Her: I will tell you, Mr. Wang – if you can tell me why a man who possesses one of the most brilliant minds of this century can’t say his prepositions or articles! (Murder By Death)
Me: Avada Kedavra! (Harry Potter)
Her: In English? (The Usual Suspects)
There’s a scene in the book Ready Player One where the protagonist has to get thru a round by playing various roles in Monty Python and the Holy Grail and I thought “Damn, I know a lot of people that would ace that.” The book is is set in the 2040s though…
These quotes fit many everyday situations so yeah, they’re going to come up. If someone is heading out: “Have fun storming the castle!” Or if you bark your shin or get a paper cut: “Just a flesh wound! Not dead yet!” Or “He’s a close talker.”
And Casablanca must have quite a few quotables because when I finally saw it as a young adult, my reaction was “What a cliche! I’ve heard all these lines before.” :smack:
I guess I’m a screaming eel, because I’ve never seen it. Nor have I any great desire to.
By the time I finally saw Monty Python and the Holy Grail, I’d had people quoting it at me for 18 years. It didn’t particularly excite me at that point, either.
Movie quotes also serve as markers of common tastes, as well. If I say “Inconceivable!” and you respond " I do not theenk that word means what you theenk it means", that’s a good sign that your sense of humor is similar to mine; or at least closer than someone who responds “Hunh?”
For my own part, I probably don’t go a week without quoting Strange Brew: “Luke, I am your father! Come to the dark side, you knob!” or “No way, eh? Radiation, has made me, an enemy, of civilization!”
“This isn’t heaven! This sucks!”