Scrubs quote help, please

Does anyone know the origin of the quote ‘Would you like to play a game’ spoken in a mechanical/computer generated voice?

In the second episode of Season One, My Mentor, JD deals with a chain smoking patient, Will Forte. JD is trying to convince Will to stop smoking to reduce his risk of lung cancer.

He shows Will one of those mechanical devices (not sure what they are called, it looks like a small microphone?) that picks up vibrations in your throat so people who have had their voice box (I assume…) removed can still talk.

They of course mess around with it and the funny voice it creates! :stuck_out_tongue: In particular JD says ‘would you like to play a game?’

I’ve had a wicked cold and lost my voice for a few days, when it came back low and raspy I entertained myself by wandering around the house asking people if they’d like to play a game. I was met with blank stares, followed by a :rolleyes: when I said it was a Scrubs quote, and one offer of pictionary (love you, ma!).

The way JD and Will said it though makes me think it’s a pop culture reference beyond Scrubs (and if it’s not, it’s a rather random thing to say), but I fear I’m too you and too not-American to know where it’s from.

Care to enlighten me?

The movie WarGames, though it was actually “Shall we play a game?”.

Was “Saw” out by then?

Here’s the relevant clip from WarGames. For more context, here’s a longer clip, where the quote is at a little after the 4:25 mark.

(The movie is from 1983, incidentally)

Thanks guys, that was really quick! 1983 means it was definitely a before-my-time reference.

Thanks for the clip, Indistinguishable. I’m not sure what I liked most - the retro computers or the whole exchange:
‘he was pretty old, 41’
‘oh yeah, that is old’
:smiley: