Except that’s not the exact quote uttered by Dirty Harry.
It’s “you’ve gotta ask yourself one question: “Do I feel lucky?” Well, do ya, punk?”
Watch it here: Dirty Harry (2/10) Movie CLIP - Do You Feel Lucky, Punk? (1971) HD - YouTube
At about the 1:41 mark.
Right, but the OP wasn’t explicit about it being an exact quote, and the bastardized version is close enough that people understand the reference.
Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker!
I suspect that, like the phrase “we’ll head 'em off at the pass”, this is one that people think is pretty common in Westerns, but, in fact, rarely or never is used. I only found one case of a non-ironic use of “head them off at the pass”, snd I suspect you won’t find any other non0ironic uses of variations of “Meanwhile, back at the ranch” besides the ones already cited.
How would you know someone’s quoting the Western and not Buddy Holly?
I remember it being kicked around during the bleak Minnesota winter of 1984. It was quite the cool and trendy Edina-milieu catchphrase.
I actually used this on the radio when I was interviewing a guy I’d never met before with the sobriquet “Crazy Ziggy,” owner of the first American restaurant in Moscow.
This far down and nobody’s mentioned “I’ll have what she’s having” ?!?
Post # 56
Most of the time they’re not. They’re just using a phrase that conveys an idea. That’s why I think it fits nicely with the OPs definition.
Buddy Holly wrote that song after seeing the western. So, by extension…
I think the expression “Golden Ticket” came from the novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Raold Dahl in 1964 but was popularized by the 1971 movie. It gets used in all sorts of ways, possibly as often as “Bucket List”.
Miriam Webster claims “horror show” goes back to 1959, but doesn’t give the example. Polyglot Anthony Burgess used it in 1962’s A Clockwork Orange as an ironic pun on the Russian word “khorosho” for approval, made widespread by the 1971 Kubrick film, and the 1973 stage Rocky Horror Show and 1975 Rocky Horror Picture Show.
This is a pretty good one–but the OP says
There’s no question that “golden ticket” is original to the novel instead. And I think the novel’s a lot more popular among GenX kids than you might think: while movies almost inevitably have a greater reach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was a classic read-aloud in the seventies and eighties in American elementary classrooms, and was a mainstay for plenty of kids.
That said, it share a property with “Bucket List” that few of the other offerings do: when people talk about a Golden Ticket, they’re usually not alluding to the movie, in the way that someone is when they say “Yippee Kay Yay” or “I’ll have what she’s having” or “Do you feel lucky, punk?”
Did not know that. OK, then that one overtakes bucket list, if it comes from the movie and wasn’t a common phrase before then.
“Find a golden ticket” is on my Charlie Bucket list.
I have to believe the phrase is way older than the movie.
The phrase “horror show” must be older than 1959. And the Burgess usage is an odd cite.
Bravo