# Unique words/phrases that remind you of songs/movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies, music\ **Created:** [March 30, 2020, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unique-words-phrases-that-remind-you-of-songs-movies/850652 "2020-03-30T08:40:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2020, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unique-words-phrases-that-remind-you-of-songs-movies/850652/1 "2020-03-30T08:40:53Z")
I thought there was a very recent thread on this subject, so if a mod can find it and put this post into it and close this one - much appreciated. Words that are unique enough that we can obviously bypass “hey”, “yeah”, etc. I don’t care what company I’m in, if I hear the phrase, “just the two of us”, with _Telefon_-like consistency I’ll break into the Grover Washington Jr. go-to that, really - do I need to link? If I hear “storage jars” I’m immediately waxing on the treacherous peril they face during Bolivian civil conflicts, with [nearby explosions going off as a reporter risk his life near a display table.](https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/12c1eab7-4922-43ac-ba27-6ac9a89a0b64) Zep’s “Since I’ve Been Loving You” is repsonsible for actually two niggling associations: when someone mentions “…that was a drag.” I’ll think of Bob going [“drag… drag… drag… drag… - Nooooooooooooooooooo!!!”](https://youtu.be/K8R7zjJMIfU?t=181) And once in a blue moon I’ve heard someone say “from seven to…” and if they know me well enough I’ll go [seven, seven, seven to eleven every night, it kinda made my life a drag."](https://youtu.be/K8R7zjJMIfU?t=358) If I see a boulevard or someone mentions one I’ll touretically blurt out (in the most Steve Perryest of fashions) [BOOOOO-LEE-VAAAHHD](https://youtu.be/1k8craCGpgs?t=87). ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2020, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unique-words-phrases-that-remind-you-of-songs-movies/850652/2 "2020-03-30T11:03:01Z")
When I hear the word “emergency,” I often think “E-mere-gen-cy! Everybody to get from street!” [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/qOZuLD1u_K4/hqdefault.jpg "Emergency") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOZuLD1u_K4) ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2020, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unique-words-phrases-that-remind-you-of-songs-movies/850652/3 "2020-03-30T11:46:14Z")
Surely and alltogehter from Airplane! Urgent makes me think of the Foreigner song. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2020, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unique-words-phrases-that-remind-you-of-songs-movies/850652/4 "2020-03-30T12:09:28Z")
The hedge fund Millennium is now indelibly associated in my mind with the string part from the theme to “You Only Live Twice” (via Robbie Williams’s song “Millennium”). ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2020, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unique-words-phrases-that-remind-you-of-songs-movies/850652/5 "2020-03-30T12:35:18Z")
Related to this, our oven plays the first three notes of “Dixie” when the timer sounds, and I often hum the rest. From about 1995 to 2005, whenever I shut down my laptop it would play what I always heard as four notes from Gary Numan’s “Cars” (though actually one of the notes is a slightly different pitch, giving the laptop song a happier feel than the Cars song). ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2020, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unique-words-phrases-that-remind-you-of-songs-movies/850652/6 "2020-03-30T13:36:35Z")
This is a real issue for me. My brain is so full of music and lyrics that I’m not sure I have room for anything else. And I CAN’T get an association out of there. For instance, I started using (and later teaching) the web design software _Dreamweaver._ Some days the name would get repeated a dozen times. Cue vapid 70’s synth hit _every single damn_ time… [No, I’m not linking to that! I might accidentally hear a snippet!] Oh, and I have a friend Roxanne… I’ll miss things she says; all I’m hearing is [The Police](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lQlajFq3cE) on a good day, [Eddie Murphy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjQ2DgNoHjs) all too often. It’s taken massive self-control to never sing this in her presence. The oven noise story above brought back this memory: In the early 90s, the lid of our changing table made a springy metallic sound that reverberated… exactly like the dub-like sound at the beginning of [a Fellow Travellers song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNQmN-XCJPc). So my kid got that sung to him at least once a day (now he’s into post-punk, so I don’t think listening to a folk/reggae/dub band had any effect…). ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2020, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unique-words-phrases-that-remind-you-of-songs-movies/850652/7 "2020-03-30T13:49:52Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Related to this, our oven plays the first three notes of “Dixie” when the timer sounds, and I often hum the rest. > > From about 1995 to 2005, whenever I shut down my laptop it would play what I always heard as four notes from Gary Numan’s “Cars” (though actually one of the notes is a slightly different pitch, giving the laptop song a happier feel than the Cars song). If I open the door to my '08 Mazda 3 with keys in the ignition, it goes beepbeep…beepbeep…beepbeep and my brain starts playing the strings at the start of Philadelphia Freedom by Elton John. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2020, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unique-words-phrases-that-remind-you-of-songs-movies/850652/8 "2020-03-30T23:32:56Z")
If I hear a police siren, I’ll blurt out “Puh-lice! Puh-lice!”, [Joe Flaherty style.](https://youtu.be/qkf4Cmv0-c0?t=262) When shortened names are bandied about, I’ll contribute from an _Odd Couple_ episode where Felix, after yet another misguided bonhomie pep-talk, addresses his roommate as “Osc!” Oscar, seething and ready to kill Felix, grits his teeth and says, “Sure, _Feeeel_”. Another [_Odd Couple_’er,](https://youtu.be/LfvTwv5o1Qs?t=23) oddly - whenever someone said the timeworn gotcha “when you assume, you make an ass out of you and me”. Or maybe never mention [pits](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZIlL0kJtyo) around me. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2020, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unique-words-phrases-that-remind-you-of-songs-movies/850652/9 "2020-03-30T23:39:57Z")
Just missed edit: Came seriously close to ordering this shirt: > **[Odd Couple: I Don't Like Pits In My Juice](https://www.mondomonsterwear.com/products/odd-couple-i-dont-like-pits-in-my-juice)** > > Finicky Felix Unger didn't like pits in his orange juice. Oscar Madison totally furious hits Felix with a rolled up magazine. Shirt. The Odd Couple ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unique-words-phrases-that-remind-you-of-songs-movies/850652/10 "2020-03-31T01:15:06Z")
Visual, rather than verbal stimulus, but: She’s got huge… tracts of land. ---
**Author:** ![Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/59ef9b/32.png) [@Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorkshire_Pudding)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unique-words-phrases-that-remind-you-of-songs-movies/850652/11 "2020-03-31T09:37:09Z")
> [@74westy](#): > > If I open the door to my '08 Mazda 3 with keys in the ignition, it goes beepbeep…beepbeep…beepbeep and my brain starts playing the strings at the start of Philadelphia Freedom by Elton John. The beeps made by the tyre-inflating compressor at my local Sainsbury’s, when holding down the button to set the required pressure, start slowly then quickly jump to double the tempo, causing me to whip my finger away so it doesn’t climb too fast. In so doing, it exactly replicates the rhythm of the bass-drum intro to Blue Monday. When my van had a corroded wheel and routinely lost pressure, I visited frequently. Couldn’t get New Order out of my head for months… ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unique-words-phrases-that-remind-you-of-songs-movies/850652/12 "2020-03-31T11:16:31Z")
Whenever someone verbalizes “number nine” or, sometimes, even just “nine”, my mind - and sometimes my mouth - go to the Beatles’ Revolution 9. mmm ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2020, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unique-words-phrases-that-remind-you-of-songs-movies/850652/13 "2020-04-01T01:09:04Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > Visual, rather than verbal stimulus, but: > > She’s got huge… tracts of land. I’ve seriously been wondering all day: how does this come up in daily conversation? Who says “She’s got huuuuge…” as a setup? Or do you have to set your own earworm up and do both halves yourself? ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2020, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unique-words-phrases-that-remind-you-of-songs-movies/850652/14 "2020-04-01T02:10:35Z")
If someone says “easy come, easy go”, do I even _need_ to say what that’s from? ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2020, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unique-words-phrases-that-remind-you-of-songs-movies/850652/15 "2020-04-01T18:49:11Z")
> [@digs](#): > > I’ve seriously been wondering all day: how does this come up in daily conversation? Who says “She’s got huuuuge…” as a setup? Or do you have to set your own earworm up and do both halves yourself? Try reading both halves of my post. ---
**Author:** ![Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/59ef9b/32.png) [@Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorkshire_Pudding)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2020, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unique-words-phrases-that-remind-you-of-songs-movies/850652/16 "2020-04-01T21:07:23Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > Try reading both halves of my post. Yeah, I’d been going to point that out. The stimulus is specifically declared as being visual, not verbal. I make exactly the same comment, incidentally… ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2020, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unique-words-phrases-that-remind-you-of-songs-movies/850652/17 "2020-04-01T21:44:17Z")
> [@Yorkshire\_Pudding](#): > > I make exactly the same comment, incidentally… Solidarity, brother. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unique-words-phrases-that-remind-you-of-songs-movies/850652/18 "2020-04-02T00:54:07Z")
There’s a Mercury Mountaineer that parks near my house. Whenever I see it, my brain starts humming the Beverly Hillbillies theme song. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unique-words-phrases-that-remind-you-of-songs-movies/850652/19 "2020-04-02T03:14:03Z")
The two-note tone on Star Trek TNG (and maybe others?) when somebody is ringing someone else’s cabin door (5-1 on a scale) always made me sing "… meet the Flintstones, " as it sounds like the first 2 notes of the Flintstones theme song. Used to drive my (now-ex) husband batty. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unique-words-phrases-that-remind-you-of-songs-movies/850652/20 "2020-04-02T06:37:46Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > The two-note tone on Star Trek TNG (and maybe others?) when somebody is ringing someone else’s cabin door (5-1 on a scale) always made me sing "… meet the Flintstones, " as it sounds like the first 2 notes of the Flintstones theme song. Used to drive my (now-ex) husband batty. I never made that connection, but now that you mention it… YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT! Damn, I’ll never not be able to hear that again! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unique-words-phrases-that-remind-you-of-songs-movies/850652.md?page=2)