Twilight Zone?
Or maybe an SF story. Early Heinlein, or Clarke’s Tales from the White Hart.
This sounded familiar to me as well. I checked my copy of The Borderland of Sol in Tales of Known Space by Larry Niven and came up with this exchange between Beowulf Shaffer and Carlos Wu:
which is as close as anything I’ve seen to the quote in the OP.
Oh, somebody said this, I’m sure of it. Anybody checked Terry Thomas’s oeuvre?
(I think we can rule out How to Murder Your Wife but how about those old b&w Brit comedies?)
I would suggest Vonnegut, Neil Gaiman or Terry Pratchett. Those are three guys with the nerve to write something like that.
However, after checking out the blog of all the refuted items, I’m beginning to believe the quote doesn’t exist. Someone would have figured it out by now. Now it’s just a matter of time before someone famous uses the line and makes loads of money. Some nerd/genius made it up and started a blog. Wish I’d thought of it.
edwino, if you wanna help me out, please go to my post in Cafe, which I linked to in Post 93 above, and contribute to my list of tech companies to mail a letter to asking them about this quote. Here, I’ll link to it again.
2nd Law, yours is obv. not it, but is such a nice close one that you should contribute it at this blog, which enjoys keeping track of the close ones for fun.
I’ll repeat that I’m asking if anyone feels like rewatching these movies soon:
The Mask
Peggy Sue Got Married
What Dreams May Come
Yellow Submarine
Jumanji
b/c I don’t really want to and they are part of a short list of movies I have ever seen that I think could contain the quote. Thanks, it’s not a big deal, but think of it as doing your part? Just a small thing? You could watch a few with the fam…?
Btw, edwino, IBM is out. A guy at the beginning of this quest a couple years back mailed them as I plan to mail many others.
Okay, I’ll take Yellow Submarine for 50, Alex…
…er, I mean, it’s up next on my netflix list, I will try to stay attuned. Anything to help.
Done.
I can’t help wondering if it isn’t a misquote similar to “Play it again, Sam”. The quote I mentioned earlier from Airplane 2 is close enough that people might be misremembering it.
I’m 100% sure you won’t find the quote there. But Yellow Submarine is always worth watching.
Crap. Thanks a lot, folks. So far, this is one of the most viral memes that I have run across.
Time Bandits is what came to my mind. Checking that blog, I can’t tell whether it has been discounted yet, but it would certainly be inclusive of the British accent that many of us remember. Regrettably, I do not own a copy, an omission that I am questioning even as I type.
best to all,
plynck
Mrs. Evil Captor, aka Terrorcotta, has a suggestion, and I think she is probably right. You’re all on the wrong track. It’s from the movie “Lover Come Back” with Doris Day and Rock Hudson, and the “it” is Vip! the product Hudson’s character creates that … doesn’t do anything.
I don’t have any suggestions, but I am skeptical of the guesses that place it in novel form or anything written. I, and I think many others, have a pretty vivid memory of hearing this line spoken with a specific cadence.
Also, I’m doubtful that it’s from anything too old, though I admit that mainly becuase you can count me as one who’s heard this and I don’t watch many old movies.
Anyways, back to the hunt…
I’m trending toward TV shows, I can picture it as a line from Seinfeld (which I imagine is debunked by now) or maybe from X-Files or something 90’s pop culturish.
ARRRRGGGH!!! Now my brian hurts. It sounds so familiar and I keep picturing the second speaker as a grey haired old man. A Doc Brown type I can even see a mischeivious smile when he responds. One of those 60’s retro victorian films like “The First men in the moon” or something like it…
I refute both those statements.
There’s an even longer thread, in a board about a cancelled Tarantino film that’s 30 posts longer: How much will he steal this time? And I’m pretty sure that’s not the largest thread there either.
Of course, I just bumped the “do anything” thread at the IMDB, so it might retake its record.
And 95% of IMDBers are asshat teenagers. At least it seems that way. :eek:
If this goes on a few more pages we’re going to run out of possible movies.
Count me as one who “knows” he’s heard this, but can’t even begin to guess about where it came from. I think it’s just an exchange that sounds so “right” somehow that we all think we’ve heard it. Someone must’ve realized this and put it out there to screw with us.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see it in a future movie.
OK, left out a term. It’s the longest thread ever on the IMDB “I Need to Know Board.” I don’t know how to determine percentages of asshat teens, but that does not seem to be the case on “I Need to Know.”
Ever looked at the talkback on Ain’t It Cool News? That’s 98.7% asshat teens and the rest are autistic homophobes.
Aww. IBM was spoofin’ ya. It is clearly a reference to the IEFBR14 utility.