Google maps
- performs a useful and practical function
- is one of the most popular apps of all time
- its value is most realized in a mobile environment (way-finding)
Quintessential Monty Python quote
“Nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more, say no more!”
- endlessly quoted
- instantly evocative of the sketch in which it appears
- occurs nowhere else in pop culture
- eventually leads to classic absurdist MPFC punchline
Quintessential Bogie quotation.
“Here’s looking at you, kid” from Casablanca
Occurs multiple times (three times, I think)
Is not a common expression, so people know you’re quoting the film
Is part of the famous dialogue at the end (“the lives of three people don’t amount to a hill of beans”)
Quintessential professional basketball team
Los Angeles Lakers
- Lots of championships
- many super famous players throughout history (Wilt, Kareem, Magic, Kobe, Shaq)
- usually pretty good, though a few bad years
Next up:
Quintessential song lyrics
“I left my heart in San Francisco
High on a hill, it calls to me
To be where little cable cars
climb halfway to the stars…”
- it tells a story…but vaguely so.
- the words are ultimately sentimental
- there’s a rhyme
- lives up to the old adage “we sing that which we feel too foolish to say”
Next: Quintessential dog breed
Quintessential dog breed:
Labrador Retriever
- According to the American Kennel Club, has held the title of Most Popular Dog Breed since 1991. Frequently holds similar records in other countries.
- Easily recognizable even by people who don’t know anything much about dogs.
- Well known as a household pet, assistance dog, law enforcement dog, sporting dog and hunting dog. All these roles in society definitely make it “man’s best friend.”
- A very attractive breed with all the major qualities you could want in a dog - both strong and muscular but still perfectly adorable and cuddly. Also very even-tempered and not overly noisy.
Next up:
Quintessential Postmodern Novel
Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
- not a linear novel; chapters can be read in any order
- included in Time magazine’s “100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005”
- adapted to film by David Cronenberg
- banned in Boston for 4 years
next: Quintessential fictional tragedy
Gone With The Wind
-Extremely well written
-Known by everybody
-Set against a war
-Incredibly high body count
-Scarlett doesn’t understand either of the men she loves, and loses them both
-Ends suddenly, with unanswered questions
-Basis of an iconic movie
-Author died young and tragically in a car accident
Quintessential New York City landmark
The Statue of Liberty
Known throughout the world as a symbol of America
Frequently used in political comics when someone feels the American president is acting contrary to American values
It was often the first glimpse of America for untold numbers of immigrants
It has the famous poem, “Send me your tired, your poor…”
Quintessential James Bond movie
Quintessential James Bond movie:
Goldfinger
- Contains all the essential tropes of a typical Bond film and in many instances was the first to introduce that trope:
[ul]
[li]Great theme song and opening credits[/li][li]Villian with outrageous scheme[/li][li]Memorable henchman[/li][li]Bond girl with blatantly sexual name (indeed, none of the others could ever beat it)[/li][li]Features Q and his gadgets[/li][li]Iconic Bond car (often regarded as the most iconic one)[/li][li]Features the line “Bond. James Bond.” (though not the best delivery)[/li][li]Ends with Bond choosing to get laid over being rescued[/li][/ul] - Standouts of the film itself:
[ul]
[li]The pre-credits sequence in which Bond emerges from the water in a wetsuit to plant explosives then casually unzips the wetsuit to reveal a white dinner jacket, pops a rose in his lapel and strolls on into a bar oozing class. Pretty much sums up the two sides of the character.[/li][li]The iconic death by gold paint[/li][li]The iconic scene in which Bond is expected to die via laser[/li][li]Bomb timer being stopped at “0:07”[/li][/ul]
Next up:
Quintessential Batman movie
The Dark Knight (2008)
- faces off against the Joker
- Version of the Joker the most famous now
- over a billion dollars at the box office
- very much improved on its previous movie
- widely regarded the best Batman movie, if not the best superhero movie
Next up:
Quintessential figure skater
Dorothy Hamill
- American
- won lots of medals
- very skilled
- cute
- iconic hair
- still remembered when many other skaters have faded into obscurity
Quintessential *Star Trek *character
Captain Kirk
- introduces the series in opening sequence
- handsome dashing captain who scores with all the alien chicks
- Shatner’s over-the-top acting style is often mimicked and appreciated
- KHAAAAAAAANNNNN!!!
Quintessential Star Wars character
Han Solo
- way cooler than anyone else
- hugely important to the success of that first movie
- one of the few roles to actually push the actor into stardom
- everybody wanted to either date him or be him
- flies the coolest ship in the series
Next up:
Quintessential religion
Zoroastrianism
- Of the hundreds of different religions the world has seen this is one is fairly typical
- one of the first to introduce the concept of dualism
- polytheistic
- started in the same general region where so many other of today’s A list religions have started (e.g. Judaism, Islam, Christianity)
- still practiced today
Next:
Quintessential hit from the big band era
"In The Mood by Glen Miller
-People know this song
-People also know who did it
-Topped the charts at #1 for 13 straight weeks in 1940
-Featured first in the movie Sun Valley Serenade
-Used to set the time period in many films and TV shows
-Inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and the Library of Congress National Recording Registry.
-National Public Radio included the song in its list of “The 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century”
-The best selling swing instrumental ever
Quintessential song by a single member of the Beatles (John, George, Paul or Ringo)
My Sweet Lord by George Harrison
- is actually a good song
- remains popular to this day(decades later)
- uniquely in the style of individual who wrote it
- launched his solo career and established he really could stand alone
Next up:
Quintessential Overrated Thing
- completely unnecessary except for emergency notifications
- electronic power is wasted so millions of users can be passive-aggressive to each other
- notification hell
- retards the ability to think, reason, and spell properly because of character limit
- a hundred years from now, historians will look at Trump’s tweets and wonder how he became president with such little knowledge
next: Quintessential instrumental jingle
The NBC chimes
- so successful as a jingle you probably don’t even think of it as a jingle, yet that’s what it is
- one instantly associates these three notes with the network
- will exist as part of our civilization’s historical records long after the network ceases to be
Next Quintessential activity associated with college fraternities/sororities
Getting drunk
-THE activity most associate with college
-Totally legal as long as you are 18 or 21
-Makes people mellow
-Okay as long as you don’t drive under the influence
-Still seen as “funny” by many
-Animal House anyone?
Quintessential vegetarian dish