We all do it, quote lines from movies. If you say that you don’t you have either never seen a movie, or you are lying. Even my 72 year old mother quotes movies. Granted I may not get the reference because they are from movies that she saw before I was born, but she still does it.
Yesterday while flipping through the channels on television I came across a movie I had not seen. Well, the remake of a movie. I had seen the original many years ago, but this new one I hadn’t. It was the movie “Arthur” with Russell Brand. I didn’t watch all of it, actually probably only twenty minutes or so, but then he said a line that I will probably use, although I don’t know when, from now on just because it was so awesome. (to me at least)
It’s the scene where he and his true love (I don’t remember her name) are in Grand Central Station, sitting at a table amongst a sea of rose petals and the waiter lifts the platter lid to reveal a mound of PEZ candy and two PEZ dispensers. His true love plucks the dispensers from the mound of candy and remarks how one looks like her and one looks like him. She hands him the dispenser that looks like her and as he takes it he says, “I knew from the moment I saw you that I wanted to eat candy bricks from your neck hole.” In context that was very a very funny and very cute statement. Out of context that would be extremely weird. People would look at you strangely. There might even be a quiet murmuring amongst them. It’s the quiet murmurings you have to worry about.
Here is a list of my favorite quotes that I use often: (of course, as you say these, you HAVE to say them with the same fluctuation and pentameter as the person who originally said it.)
“I can’t see it!” – Star Wars, Episode IV, A New Hope
“Aw, dang!” - Mystery Men
“It puts the lotion on its skin or it gets the hose again.” – Silence of the Lambs
“Run Forrest, Run!” – Forrest Gump
“My Precious” – Lord of the Rings
“Pancake!” – Cabin Fever
“Hey! Hey! Her head don’t come off!” – Labyrinth
“We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad…You must be. Or you wouldn’t have come here.” – Alice in Wonderland
“He died.” – Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium
“I’ll never tell.” – Don’t Say a Word
Those are just a few of the cornucopia of quotes that ramble around in my head. You’re probably wondering in what situation would I actually use some of them…let me guess…the one from Silence of the Lambs. Ah, yes, a dark scene indeed for someone to use that line in their daily lives. Just so you know I am not a serial killer who wears the skin of their victims. But, sometimes lines like that just fit, because out of context they are benign, sometimes even funny. A ton of people have seen Silence of the Lambs (one of my favorite movies) and at least three fourths of the people who watched it remember that scene when he says that and the creepiness that chilled us. And to say it when someone is sitting at their desk and lotioning their hands, an act that most everyone does at some point, is funny. Or maybe it’s just funny to me and my friends, because we are weird like that.
I have always found a way to work in the most random movie quote to a situation, most of the time getting laughs, or at least a few strange looks, a quirked brow and perhaps even a quiet murmuring. I look forward to the day where I can actually say my new “Arthur” quote about candy bricks and neck holes. Although I honestly can’t tell you when I will be eating PEZ or when I will be eating it out someone’s neck, much less eating anything out of someone’s neck. Ew.
Welcome to the mind of M.L.
Enjoy,
M.L.
