“Left turn” always makes me add, “…Clyde.” (Any Which Way But Loose)
When asked (mostly by the spouse, since most others wouldn’t get it) any sort of question about why somebody did something stupid, I reply in one of two ways depending on how I’m feeling at the time:
“Because he’s an idiot. His parents were probably idiots too.” (Back to the Future)
or
“Because, Charlie, he’s a nit-twit.” (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory)
This one’s from a song: When asked “What’s (whatever) got to do with it?” the spouse and I will invariably reply “Tina Turner.” (sometimes “Tuna Turner.”)
Last night, upon hearing that the Greek president’s call for a referendum had caught the rest of Europe by surprise, I commented “Not only by surprise, but totally unarmed!”
Not quiet the topic but anytime it is appropriate to say “I care”, both my wife and I will do it like the one scene in “Lars and the Real Girl” where Emily Mortimer slips into a British accent.
“Wuv, twuu Wuv” is used often in our house, as with numeous Princess Bride quotes.
If someone says bottle, the response is “I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy!” or comments about puppies gets the song response “Dead puppies aren’t much fun”. Why yes, I did listen to a little too much Dr. Demento when I was young.
My parents attended a wedding a few years back; the bride was the daughter of some friends of theirs. It was a big of a non-traditional wedding, and the officiant wasn’t a traditional minister (I cannot now remember his exact credentials). Anyway, when he went to give the “sermon” in the middle of the service, he began with the word, “Mawwiage.” My parents (and the bride and groom) started laughing, but 95% of the guests seemed to think that the officiant just had some strange speech impediment.
In my family, Arnold Schwarzeneggers’ ***Commando ***gets quoted a lot.
My real first name is John, and in that movie, Arnold plays Colonel John Matrix. His arch-enemy is Bennett, an English guy who looks and sounds like… well, picture the Eighties version of Freddy Mercury after a month-long beer and pizza binge (he STILL has the nerve to wear a muscle shirt.)
On my birthday, I can count on getting phone calls from my brothers, who will put on Bennett’s voice and tell me, “You’re getting OLD, John.”
When I come home for Christmas or Thanksgiving, I can expect several relatives to greet me, in Bennett’s voice, with “Welcome back, John. So glad you could make it.”
And when ANYBODY in the family tells a bad joke that doesn’t get much of a laugh, he’s going to hear “You’re a funny guy. I like you. That’s why I’m going to kill you LAST.”
Of course, to switch movies completely, if someone tells a joke that DOES make you laugh… you’re almost automatically going to hear, “What do you mean, I’m funny? What, do I amuse you? Am I like a clown to you? What the $%#& is so funny about me?”
One of my poker buddies is named Terry. Whenever he raises, I look him in the eye and say, “You gonna f*ck with me, Terry?” (James Woods to Jeff Bridges in “Against All Odds.”) He never gets it, but a few of the others at the table always do.
I actually performed a wedding several years ago (I became an ordained minister over the internet, even though I’m agnostic), and was specifically ordered not to use “mawwiage.”
My daughter often mentions Burma (she’s got Asian genes, and uses the people’s name for their country), and would be disappointed if I didn’t interrupt with: “They call it Myanmar now, Elaine, but it will always be Burma to me!”
When I was a child, at our dinner table my parents would regale each other with endless boring stories of their respective days at work. Meanwhile us kids were trapped there, with nothing to do but listen until they were finished and dinner was officially over.
Around the age of 11 or so I started getting snarky. One evening my father was wrapping up a story with "Anyway, to make a long story short, " and I muttered, just loud enough to be heard, with perfect timing in the pause (at least that’s how I remember it) “Too late.”
Fortunately, he had a sense of humor about it.
As far as I know, I hadn’t heard this sequence before. This would have been around 1961. Surely I wasn’t the first or only one to say this before that movie came out. It just seems too easy.
I don’t do catchphrases any more myself, mostly because everyone I work with is at least 20 years younger than I am, or else they are not the types to have seen and remembered the movies that I did. I’m just too tired of the blank looks I get back.
However, on occasion, if someone asks “What is it?” I’ll say “The … stuff that dreams are made of.”
Roddy