“Well I’m sure I’d feel much worse if I were’nt under such heavy sedation.”
“We’ve got armadillos in our trousers. It’s really quite frightening, the size.”
Wayyyy too many to pick from… I love Tap! 
::shrugs:: It goes to eleven? ::shrugs::
Their energy, their sheer exuberance, and their punctuality. They are one of Britain’s loudest bands, which counts for something.
“Hello Cleveland!”
I love that film.
i saw them in san fran. it was effin hilarious. they did a wicked funny kingston trio take off as an opening, calling themselves the folksmen. they did a brilliant cover of satisfaction, im laughing like hell thinking about it.
i wouldnt have gone on my own, someone treated me, but i am SO glad i didnt miss it.
and as to the movie, you have to watch 5 times just to catch all the jokes. brilliant, brilliant movie.
sammy davis jr’s autobiography is called ‘yes i can, if frank sinatra says its ok.’ that kills me.
Wouldn’t that make it a mockumentary?
wishbone wrote
Nigel: You know very much like, I’m really influenced by Mozart and Bach, and it’s sort of in between those, really, it’s like a Mach piece really.
Marty: What do you call this?
Nigel: Well, this piece is called “Lick My Love Pump.”
Many years after seeing the movie, I picked up the tape at the yard sale. After listening to it I became (and remain) eerily convinced that some of the old standards from the local radio station were actually Spinal Tap tunes that I hadn’t recognized because I had forgotten were in the movie. (Like “Give Me Some Money,” for one.)
-Ben
Nigel: “How much more black could this be?” and the answer is: “None … none more black.”
Lt. Hookstratten: This is our monthly “At Ease” weekend. It gives us a chance to let our hair down, although I see you’ve got a head start in that department. I shouldn’t talk, though, I’m getting a little shaggy myself. I’d better not stand too close to you, people might think I’m part of the band. I’m joking, of course.
Artie Fufkin: You know what I want you to do? Will you do something for me?
David St. Hubbins: What?
Artie Fufkin: Do me a favor. Just kick my ass, okay? Kick this ass for a man, that’s all. Kick my ass. Enjoy. Come on. I’m not asking, I’m telling with this. Kick my ass.
[Derek Smalls sets off a metal detector at the airport]
Airport Security Officer: Do you have any artificial plates or limbs?
How is it possible to not love that movie???
Derek Smalls: Er, not really.
[Reading a review of the album “Shark Sandwich”]
Marty DiBergi: Two words: shit sandwich.
Derek Smalls: It’s like fire and ice, basically. I feel my role in the band is to be somewhere in the middle of that, kind of like lukewarm water.
boy that was a mess. sorry.
Here’s another big vote for this as one of the best movies of all time. I first saw it at 3-00am on an all night scouts party (strange, because I was never in the scouts, and that was the first time I ever stayed up all night). Every minute of it has at some point cracked me up - I think I’ve watched it 30 or 40 times from a tape taken from TV.
Most of my favourite moments have been given, but the scene where they are in the hotel room and one of their old songs is played (to much excitement), followed by the DJ saying they’re a band well and truly in the ‘Where are the Now’ basket, is just beautiful.
I definitely think you have to have some appreciation of overblown 70’s rock bands, and the movies they made, particuarly the ‘mystical’ scenes in ‘The Song Remains The Same’.
“This really puts things in perspective, doesn’t it?”
“Too much f**kin’ perspective!”
Oh my God. This movie definitely ranks, for me, as one of the 5 funniest movies in existence. I loved it the first time I saw it…even with all the hype.
I suppose the movie’s appeal has to partly with what kind of humor you’re into. It also helps a lot to be a big music fan. I love music, have played in bands myself, and have known a handful of people in the professional music circle, so I can identify with the characters in the movie, and they are so well satirized, it’s absolute genius.
There’s also the satirization of insipid pop artists taking themselves too seriously…resulting in such moments like “there’s a fine line between clever and stupid” and the stonehenge fiasco.
Or how about the puppet show and Spinal Tap’s “new direction” into a jazz-fusion band inspired by the bassist? Knowing bassists myself, I found this to be rolling-on-the-floor funny.
The band’s inability to keep a drummer? The exaggerated rock-star deaths? (ie. choking on someone else’s vomit?)
Going from memory here: “We just got canceled in Boston. Don’t worry…it’s not a big college town.”
For me, every second line of dialogue was pure genius. I mean, look at all the quoted lines our fellow dopers have come up with. I can’t think of any other movie off-hand that has so much memorable dialogue, with the exception of monty python films.
Oh, and one of the best…during one of Nigel’s guitar solos, he picks up a violin, starts strumming his guitar with the violin, then stops and quickly tunes one of the strings of the violin! How can you not find that funny?
It’s such a brilliant satire of the excesses of late 70s/early 80s stadium rock bands.
I gotta run out and rent it again.
I think that the Tap is one of the great cultural landmarks of the 20th century. Perhaps this is an overstatement, but if you have ever seen “The Song Remains the Same” , you instantly recognize the genius behind the Tap.
Example : Discussing the cover-art for the latest Tap release “Smell the Glove”
“The cover is a picture of a woman on all fours with a dog collar and a leash on with a man’s forearm shoving a black leather glove in her face. You don’t find that sexist??”
“Well what’s wrong with being sexy?”
adam yax: Yeah, I said I liked FOABH in the OP. That movie is hysterical.
Everyone else: I still don’t get it. 
I’ve seen my share of rockumentaries on TV, although I’ve never been in a band myself.
I must like the style of humor, since I love Guest in Best in Show and Guffman, and I love McKeon in Clue and Best in Show, and even Laverne and Shirley. I love Shearer in the Simpsons and even Godzilla.
The lines you guys are quoting range from just ok, to pretty darn funny, in isolation. But in the movie they were so few and far between, I got bored waiting for them.
Gotta admit, getting lost on the way to the stage was funny, but at that point I had almost given up.
(Didn’t notice the cold sore, by the way)
I saw it on DVD, maybe I should’ve put on the commetary track. A good MSTing makes any film better.
I just can’t imagine sitting through it more than once to “get it”.
jayjay Mahybe it was Tolkien Syndrome, or as I like to call it Casablanca Syndrome.
Actually, Sir, there were at least two (check Amazon.com):
“This Is Spinal Tap” (Special Edition) (1984) – Rob Reiner, Michael McKean;
“The Return of Spinal Tap (1992)” – VHS
“Spinal Tap - Break Like the Wind Music Videos (1992)” – VHS
I think it also helps if you look at the bands Tap was based on, especially the lyrics of 80’s deep purple. The line “Swimming in a sea of retarded sexuality” covers many heavy metal bands of that time. It’s also the style and the way they threw lines away that on second thought are just funny. The subtlety of some of the jokes are hilarious, and the stupidity of the band, well that kills me.
My favourites:
“How much more Black can it get and the answer is none…none more black”
“People should envy us, I envy us
Yeah me too,”
“Oh we got a bigger dressing room than the puppets,”
“It’s not your job to be as confused as Nigel”
“exciting this computer Magic… wheee”
Another thing to consider is that much of the humor was improv.
My favorite scene is where Nigel complains about the food and sandwiches.
“look… who’s in here? No one! And over here, look, it’s alittle guy.”
“If you keep folding it…”
“It’s a complete catastrophe!”
Another fav part is when the guy is giving htem directions to the stage and he says “go down that way, a little jog” and Derek Smalls says “We don’t have time for that”
Actually, all of it was improv. They had the scenes mapped out and certain things that had to happen, but all the dialog was improvised. For example, in the interview with DiBergi discussing bad reviews. etc, they didn’t know what the reviews were going to be. He sprung them on the band completely unprepared. They shot the movie by walking around in character and filming it. (source: cast commentary on the This Is Spinal Tap quicktime cdrom movie–different commentary from the DVD)
And my favorite piece of dialog (one of, anyway):
DiBergi: so the last time you were here, you played in 12,000, 15,000 seat arenas. Now you’re plaing in 1200, 1500 seat arenas. Does that mean that the groups popularity is waning?
Ian: No, I don’t think it’s that their popularity is waning, I think it’s that their appeal is becoming more selective.
Just thought of another
Howard Hessman (AKA Johnny Fever on WKRP)is trying to get out of a conversation with the band so he can get his star away he states:
Look guys it was nice talking to you but we’ve got to go over there to sit and wait for our ride."
Cold and funny.
That was great. It was the delivery. “Look guys, it was nice talking to you but we’ve got to go over there and… wait for the limo”
As soon as they leave “What a wanker.”
same scene:
When Ian first sees Howard Hessman he runs up to him and and Hessman turns and thinks for a minute
“…Liam?”
“Ian”
I also like the part with the hotel clerk trying to explain his mixup: “well it’s a king leisure (pronounecd Lezshur)”
I also liked the idea of the musical based on jack the ripper “Saucey Jack-he’s a naughty boy”
Oblong: Believe me, if there’s anyone who’ll appreciate improv, it’s me. I was in my college troupe for 2 years, stage managed one long-form improv production, and acted in another, and I’ve been a big fan/occaisional participant ever since. As I said, I loved Guffman and Best in Show, which were also completely improv. That fact that Spinal Tap was improv was a major reason I wanted to see it.
A friend of mine (also an improv fanatic, founder of my troupe, and a student of Upright Citizen’s Brigade) and I were discussing Best in Show a while ago, and his contention was that “remember it’s improv” doesn’t excuse something that’s bad. Or in that case, that knowing it’s improv shouldn’t make you like it if you didn’t before. Ideal improv should seem like it isn’t. “What makes good theatre makes good improv.”
At the time, I could see his point, but didn’t know if I bought it. Now it’s clear. I knew Spinal Tap was improv, I love improv, and I still didn’t like it.