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Movie Title/Year and Scene
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The Cable Guy (1996)
- the "Medieval Times" dinner theatre
scene in which clingy and needy cable guy Chip Douglas (Jim Carrey)
took cheating cable customer Steven Kovacs (Matthew Broderick)
to the "finest restaurant in town" -- "Medieval Times" -- where
they were waited upon by "serving wench Melinda" (Janine
Garafolo); Chip ordered for them: "Dos thus have thou a
mug of ale for me and me mate; he has been pitched in battle
for a fortnight and has the king's thirst for the frosty brew
dos thou might have for thus!"; when she returned to the
table, Steven asked for a knife and fork, but was denied: ("There
weren't any utensils in medieval times. Hence, there are no utensils
at Medieval Times. Would you like a refill on that Pepsi?");
he wondered about the incongruities: "There
were no utensils but there was Pepsi?" - she rebuked him:
"Dude, I got a lot of tables"
- also the scene of Chip pretending to be Hannibal
Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs (1991) by placing
pieces of chicken skin on his face: "Hello Clarice, it's good
to see you again"
- the moment when the two of them - armor-clad "noblemen" from
the audience - were called upon to "battle to the death" in
the arena with swords and other medieval weapons
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Caddyshack (1980)
- the dancing gopher in the opening (and closing)
credits sequence, to the tune of Kenny Loggins' song: "I'm
Alright"
- the memorable characters associated with the
Bushwood Country Club, including its lunatic, dim-witted greenskeeper
Carl Spackler (Bill Murray)
- his boss
Sandy's (Thomas A. Carlin) request - misinterpreted: "I
want you to kill every gopher on the course" - with Carl's
reply: "Check
me if I'm wrong Sandy, but if I kill all the golfers, they're
gonna lock me up and throw away the key." Sandy clarified: "Gophers,
ya great git! Not golfers! The little brown furry rodents!"
- the demented Spackler's fixation and
obsession about destroying the intrusive gophers, while
loading his shotgun (with an attached light), of why Varmint
Cong (gophers) had to die: "License to kill gophers by the
government of the United Nations. Man, free to kill gophers at
will. To kill, you must know your enemy, and in this case my
enemy is a varmint. And a varmint will never quit - ever. They're
like the Viet Cong - Varmint Cong. So what you gotta do, you
gotta fall back on superior firepower and superior intelligence.
And that's all she wrote"
- later, his speech as he
molded clay models of a squirrel and rabbit: ("I
have to laugh, because I've often asked myself. My foe,
my enemy, is an animal, and in order to conquer him, I have to
think like an animal. And, whenever possible, to look like one.
I've gotta get inside this dude's pelt and crawl around for a
few days. Who is the gopher's ally? His friend? The harmless squirrel
and the friendly rabbit. I'm gonna use you two guys to do my
dirty work for me")
- Spackler's threat to the animal as he planted
dynamite in the gopher's hole, and tried to lure it with his
Mr. Squirrel clay model: ("Anybody
home? Uh, hello, Mr. Gopher. Yeah, it's me, Mr. Squirrel. Yeah,
hi. Uh, just a harmless squirrel, not a plastic explosive or
anything, nothing to be worried about. I'm just here to make
your last hours on earth as peaceful as possible...In the words
of Jean Paul Sartre, 'Au revoir, gopher.' This is gonna be sweet")
- speech-impaired, wacky Carl Spackler's recounting,
to another incredulous caddy, of how he once caddied for the
Dalai Lama in Tibet: ("So we finish 18, and he's gonna stiff
me. And I say: 'Hey, Lama! Hey, how about a little somethin',
you know, for the effort, you know.' And he says: 'Oh, uh, there
won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will
receive total consciousness.' So I got that goin' for me, which
is nice")
- also, Spackler's "It's In the Hole!" Cinderella
story and golf fantasies when he pretended to be an announcer
and player, imagining himself at Augusta in a championship Masters
golf game, while he was actually practicing teeing off by whacking
down rows of planted flowers: ("The crowd is standing on
its feet here at Augusta, the normally reserved Augusta crowd,
going wild, for this young Cinderella. He's come outta nowhere.
He's got about 350 yards left. He's gonna hit about a 5-iron,
I expect, don't you think? He's got a beautiful backswing --
that's -- oh, he got all of that one! He's gotta be pleased with
that. The crowd is just on its feet here. He's the Cinderella
boy, uh -- tears in his eyes I guess, as he lines up this last
shot, he's got about 195 yards left. And he's got about a --
it looks like he's got about an 8-iron. This crowd has gone deathly
silent, the Cinderella story, outta nowhere. A former greenskeeper
and now, about to become the Masters champion. It looks like
a mirac- it's in the hole! IT'S IN THE HOLE!")
- the advice given by blindfolded golfer Ty Webb
(Chevy Chase) to caddy Danny Noonan (Michael O'Keefe): ("I'm
going to give you a little advice. There's a force in the universe
that makes things happen. And all you have to do is get in touch
with it. Stop thinking, let things happen, and be the ball!");
and Ty's other Zen-like pronouncements: ("A flute without
holes is not a flute. And a donut without a hole is a Danish" or "You're
rather attractive for a beautiful girl with a great body")
- the scene of Carl taking a bishop onto the course
for a last round of golf during a thunderstorm - when lightning
struck the religious man - and Carl skulked off
- one of the golfers - elitist Judge Elihu Smails
(Ted Knight), one of the club's co-founders, accompanied by his
sex-loving, bra-less young blonde niece Lacy Underall (Cindy
Morgan), who was judged by ogling males as "Madonna with
meatballs"; Ty's awkwardly-delivered pick-up line to Lacy:
("What brings you to this nape of the woods, neck of the
wape. How come you're here?")
- the scene of the performance of a Busby Berkeley-style
water ballet by golf caddies in the pool - and the scatological
moment that a floating "Baby Ruth" candy bar thrown
into the pool ("Doodie!") sent swimmers screaming from
the water in a Jaws-inspired panic - and the shock and
fainting caused when Spackler (after the pool was "scrubbed,
sterilized and disinfected") ate the brown object and claimed:
("There it is! It's no big deal!")
- the boorish, nouveau-riche, brash wisecracking
loudmouth club member Al Czervik (Rodney Dangerfield in his feature
film debut) and his many one-liners: ("Oh, this is the worst
lookin' hat I ever saw. You buy a hat like this, I betcha get
a free bowl of soup, huh? Oh, it looks good on you though!"),
or "Hey, you wanna make $14 dollars the hard way?",
or after farting at the table during dinner: "Oh, (did)
somebody step on a duck?"
- also, Al's insulting words to an older white-haired
lady: "Oh, this is your wife, huh? A lovely lady. Hey baby,
you're alright. You musta been somethin' before electricity," and "The
last time I saw a mouth like that, it had a hook in it",
and his curtain-closing invitation: "Hey everybody, we're
all gonna get laid!"
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The Cameraman (1928)
- co-director/actor Buster
Keaton's classic comedy about a photographer named Buster (Buster
Keaton himself) who became a newsreel-cameraman to win over pretty
MGM secretary Sally (Marceline Day) - this was Keaton's
first film with a big studio - MGM
- the embarrassing screening of Buster's first test
film reel - a series of double-exposed footage that showed a
battleship floating down a street, and pedestrians being run
over by buses and cars
- the famous, fully-improvised, pantomimed one-man
baseball game (filmed at Yankee Stadium)
- the
small-scale changing-room bathhouse scene: in the crowded men's
locker room of a public swimming pool, Buster was confronted
in one of the tiny cubicle-booths by a burly man (Edward Brophy)
who wasn't willing to compromise and share the small space; when
Buster asserted: "This is my dressing room!", the
man threatened: "Shut up... or it'll be your coffin!"; Buster
was forced into a corner, became entangled
in the man's suspenders and clothing, and eventually
ended up on the man's back, who complained: "Will you keep out
of my undershirt?"
- the funny visual sight of Buster exiting the bath-house
dressing room, wearing an oversized, ill-fitting bathing costume,
and losing his suit in the public pool after attempting to impress
Sally with a fancy dive (and staying underwater to hide being naked),
including diving deep to avoid Sally's request: "Let's
get out of here and go walking on the beach"
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Cat Ballou (1965)
- the dual roles of evil twins both played by the
often type-cast actor Lee Marvin - who spoofed his own macho
image:
(1) Tim Strawn or Silvernose - a tough gunslinger with a tin nose
(after his own was bitten off during a fight) and
(2) Kid Shelleen - a whiskey-soaked, fast-draw gunfighter and staggering
drunkard who sang "Happy Birthday" when he saw candles
during a funeral
- the scene of Shelleen leaning against a building
in a drunken stupor on his horse
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Chasing Amy (1997)
- the scene during a panel
seminar at a comic convention, when Banky Edwards (Jason Lee)
asked black activist Hooper X (Dwight Ewell), author of the comic
'White Hating Coon', the ill-advised question: "What's a
Nubian?"
- the question was followed by Hooper's reply about
how Star
Wars was
a racist film: "Vader's beautiful black visage is sullied
when he pulls off his mask to reveal a feeble, crusty, old white
man! They tryin' to tell us that deep inside we all wants to
be white!";
when Banky replied: "Well, isn't that true?", Hooper
pulled out a gun and shot Banky while crying out: "Black Rage!" (it
was only a set-up)
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Chicken Run (2000)
- the repeated futile and disastrous attempts of
fiesty heroine Ginger (voice of Julie Sawalha) to escape from
the 'concentration camp' chicken coop (with barbed wire and a
high fence) of evil, money-hungry Mrs. Tweedy (voice of Miranda
Richardson)
- dim-witted Babs' (voice of Jane Horrocks) statement: "I
don't want to be a pie! I don't like gravy" - and her disappointment
after a near-death experience: "All me life flashed before
me eyes... it was really boring"
- the entrance of swaggering, smooth-talking American
rooster Rocky (voice of Mel Gibson), who falsely claimed he could
fly: ("The name's Rocky. Rocky the Rhode Island Red. Rhodes
for short...Catchy, ain't it?"), and his explanation of
why he came to England: ("Why, all the beautiful English
chicks, of course")
- Rocky's daring rescue of Ginger from the Tweedy's
Rube Goldberg-like chicken pie-making machine, when they were
both in danger of becoming chicken pie ingredients: ("It's
like an oven in here")
- the crowd-pleasing climax when Mrs. Tweedy, clinging
to a rope of Christmas lights attached to a chicken-shaped flying
aircraft (the Old Crate), swiped her axe at Ginger -- momentarily,
it seemed as if Ginger had been beheaded, but revealed she'd
ducked and tricked Tweedy into severing the line, causing Mrs.
Tweedy to plunge head-first into a vent of her own pie-making
machine -- as her hen-pecked husband (voice of Tony Haygarth)
smugly told her: "I told you they was organized!" -
and the explosion of the entire machine from a build-up of pressure
- in the end credits, the chicken-and-egg debate
between two black-marketing, wisecracking rodent-rats Nick (voice
of Timothy Spall) and Fetcher (voice of Phil Daniels): (Fetcher: "If
you don't have a chicken, where are you gonna get an egg?" Nick: "From
the chicken that comes from the egg." Fetcher: "Yeah,
but you have to have an egg to have a chicken." Nick: "Yeah,
but you've got to get the chicken first to get the egg, and then
you get the egg..."); earlier during the film, they had
numerous quotable lines: ("Birds of a feather flop together!", "Is
that your first of-fence?", "Poultry in motion!")
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A Chump at Oxford (1940)
- a full-length Laurel and
Hardy comedy, with the duo sent to Oxford for an educational
reward after foiling a bank robbery
- in one hilarious scene, Stan (dressed as a maid)
was told to "serve the salad without dressing"
- in another, they were terrified of a man dressed
up as a ghost
- the scene of Stan transformed into his alter ego
- the brilliant academic Lord Paddington (who lost his memory
several years earlier from a knock on the head and had vanished)
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The Circus (1928)
- the brilliantly-choreographed scene of the Tramp
(director/actor Charlie Chaplin) eluding a real pickpocket and
cop in the hall of mirrors (Mirror Maze), after being mistaken
by the police as the pickpocket-crook
- his antics in a circus environment where he inadvertently
became part of the show as a prop man
- his eating of a hotdog from the extended hand
of a baby in its father's arms
- the scenes of being locked in a cage with a sleeping
lion (and a barking dog outside)
- the tightrope act attempt with a wild monkey
on his head and biting his nose
- the classic memorable finale in which The Tramp
walked in the opposite direction away from the departing circus
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Citizen
Kane (1941)
- the scene of reporter Jerry
Thompson's (William Alland) playful question to the prim attendant
at the Walter Parks Thatcher Library, "You're not Rosebud,
are you?"
- Kane's (Orson Welles)
office party with the jauntily sung Charlie Kane Song ("There
is a man - a certain man") with dancing chorus-girls
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City
Lights (1931)
- the Tramp's (Charlie Chaplin) mocking of talkies
in the opening scene - his unsuccessful attempts to extricate
himself from the lap of a large marble statue - with a giant
sword catching the seat of his pants
- the Tramp's encounters with a drunken millionaire
who repeatedly attempted suicide
- the scene of the Tramp admiring a store window
- and just missing falling into a freight elevator hole behind
him
- the marvelous pantomime of the prize fight episode
in which the Tramp tried to raise money for a beautiful blind
flower girl's (Virginia Cherrill) operation by entering the boxing
ring in a balletic bout that he believed had been fixed - he
danced around the ring to evade his opponent by hiding behind
the ring referee
- the slapstick scene when the blind flower girl
was knitting and she pulled a thread from the Tramp's vest and
completely unraveled it
- the hilarious spaghetti-confetti sequence in which
the Tramp confused the spaghetti on his plate with strings of
streamers
- the tearful, sentimental ending when the Tramp
first saw the blind girl - now with restored sight in the flower
shop window of her successful business
- the moment that she took pity on a trampish beggar
- and simultaneously realized that he was her unlikely
benefactor-savior when she had a moment of hand-held recognition
- this was followed by a closeup of the Tramp's face and smile
(with a rose stem in his mouth) after she identified him
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City Slickers (1991)
- the character of tough,
straight-faced, leathery ("He's like a saddlebag with eyes"),
intimidating and crusty Southwest trail boss Curly (Jack Palance)
who showed the ropes to three urban mid-lifers: Mitch Robbins
(Billy Crystal), Phil Berquist (Daniel Stern) and Ed Furillo
(Bruno Kirby), who were on a lengthy cattle-drive "vacation" at
Stone Canyon Ranch
- Curly's bragging to Manhattan
radio-ad salesman Mitch: "I crap bigger
than you"
- also the scene of 'career day' at his child's
grade school, when Mitch delivered a morose "What is life?" speech
that forecast a bleak future of aging for everyone: "Value this
time in your life, kids, because this is the time in your life
when you still have your choices, and it goes by so fast. When
you're a teenager, you think you can do anything, and you do.
Your twenties are a blur. Thirties - you raise your family, you
make a little money and you think to yourself: 'What happened
to my twenties?' Forties - you grow a little pot belly,
you grow another chin. The music starts to get too loud
and one of your old girlfriends from high school becomes
a grandmother. Fifties - you have a minor surgery. You'll
call it a 'procedure', but it's a surgery. Sixties
- you'll have a major surgery, the music is still loud
but it doesn't matter because you can't hear it anyway.
Seventies - you and the wife retire to Fort Lauderdale.
You start eating dinner at two o'clock in the afternoon,
you have lunch around ten, breakfast the night before.
You spend most of your time wandering around malls looking
for the ultimate soft yogurt and muttering: 'How come the
kids don't call?' 'How come the kids don't call?' The eighties,
you'll have a major stroke. You end up babbling to some
Jamaican nurse who your wife can't stand but who you call
mama. Any questions?"
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Clerks (1994)
- a foul-mouthed comedy with some outrageous laughs
about two clerks in Asbury Park, NJ stores: convenience store
clerk Dante Hicks (Brian O'Halloran) and his grungy anti-social
video-store clerk friend Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson)
- the anti-smoking diatribe of a Chewlies Gum Representative
(Scott Schiaffo) speaking to a convenience store customer, arguing
that for his health's sake, he should buy gum instead of cigarettes
and save his money: ("This is where you're heading. Cruddy
lung, smoking through a hole in your throat. Do you really want
that?")
- his more general rant against the cancer-causing
smoking industry: ("You're spending what? Twenty, maybe
thirty dollars a week on your cigarettes?... Fifty-three dollars
a week on cigarettes! Come on! Would you give somebody that much
money each week to kill you? 'Cause that's what you're doing
now, by paying for this so-called privilege to smoke... It's
that kinda mentality that allows the cancer-producing industry
to thrive. 'Course we're all gonna die some day. But do we have
to pay for it? Do we have to actually throw hard-earned dollars
down on the counter and say, 'Please Mr. Merchant-of-Death, sir,
please, sell me something that'll stink up my breath and my clothes
and fry my lungs'? ...Yeah. Yeah, and now here comes the speech
about how he's just doing his job by following orders. Friends,
let me tell you about another group of hate mongers that were
just following orders. They were called Nazis!...Yeah, and they
practically wiped an entire nation of people off the Earth just
like your cigarettes are doing now")
- the "I'm 37!?" scene when Dante's girlfriend
Veronica (Marilyn Ghigliotti) told her shocked boyfriend the
honest truth about her sexual history, that she delivered 37
instances of fellatio: (Dante: "...I understood that you
had sex with three different guys and that's all you said!...How
many?...How many d--ks have you sucked?" and Veronica's
reply: "Something like - 36..." and including him,
it was 37)
- the appalling scene in which clerk Randal phone-ordered
X-rated stock (with really filthy titles like "Cum Clean," "All
Tit-F--king, Volume 8," "I Need Your C--k," "Ass-Worshipping
Rim-Jobbers," "My C--t Needs Shafts," etc.) from
his distributor in front of a customer at the counter - a Mom
(Connie O'Connor) and her young daughter who wished to purchase "Happy
Scrappy Hero Pup"
- Randal's ludicrous Star Wars: Return of the
Jedi (1983) dialogue with Dante about the ethics of the
destruction of the second Death Star when innocent independent
contractors lost their lives - the ending of the film: ("Something
just never sat right with me that second time around. I could
never put my finger on it, but something just wasn't right....The
first Death Star was manned by the lmperial Army. The only
people on board were Storm Troopers, dignitaries, lmperialists....So
when they blew it up, no problem. Evil's punished....")
- the second time around, when independent contractors were
working on the uncompleted Death Star, they became innocent
victims: ("...the second time around, it wasn't even done
being built yet. It was still under construction....all those
innocent contractors brought in to do the job are killed, casualties
of a war they had nothin' to do with....Look, you're a roofer.
Some juicy government contract comes your way. You got a wife
and kids, the two-story in suburbia. This is a government contract
which means all sorts of benefits. Along come these left-wing
militants who blast everything within a three-mile radius with
their lasers. You didn't ask for that. You had no personal
politics. You're just trying to scrape out a living")
- the "We're so Advanced" diatribe delivered
by Randal to Dante about working in a low-level convenience store
job: ("Jesus, nobody twisted your arm to be here. You're
here of your own volition. You like to think the weight of the
world rests on your shoulder, like this place would fall apart
if Dante wasn't here. Jesus, you over-compensate for havin' what's
basically a monkey's job. You push f--kin' buttons! Anybody could
waltz in here and do our jobs. You, you're so obsessed with making
it seem so much more epic, so much more important than it really
is. Christ, you work in a convenience store, Dante, and badly
I might add. I work in a s--tty video store, badly as well. You
know, that guy Jay's got it right, man, he has no delusions about
what he does. Us - we like to make ourselves seem so much more
important than the people that come in here to buy a paper or
God forbid, cigarettes. We look down on them as if we're so advanced.
Well, if we're so f--kin' advanced, what are we doin' working
here?")
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Clueless (1995)
- Alicia Silverstone's portrayal in this teen-oriented,
coming-of-age comedy, of self-centered, ultra-rich Beverly Hills
Valley-Girl high-schooler Cherilyn "Cher"
Horowitz, with her distinctive lingo, including such expressions
as: the PC-correct "hymenally-challenged"
(instead of virgin), "as if," "surfing the crimson
wave", "Baldwin"
(meaning a very handsome male), "Betty" (Cher's term
for the perfect girl), and "Monet" - ("It's like
a painting, see? From far away, it's OK, but up close, it's a big
old mess")
- the opening scene in which she picked out her outfit
for school - using a computer to match her tops and bottoms: ("I
actually have a way normal life for a teenage girl. I mean, I get
up, I brush my teeth. And I pick out my school clothes")
- the classroom debate scene in which Cher debated
immigration policy ('Should all oppressed people be allowed refuge
in America') for two minutes against Amber (Elisa Donovan), when
she talked about Haitian (pronounced 'Hay-tee-ans') and used a
garden party anecdote: ("But it's like when I had this garden
party for my father's birthday, right? I said R.S.V.P. because
it was a sit-down dinner. But people came that, like, did not R.S.V.P.
So I was, like, totally buggin'. I had to haul ass to the kitchen,
redistribute the food, squish in extra place settings. But by the
end of the day it was, like, the more the merrier! And so if the
government could just get to the kitchen, rearrange some things,
we could certainly party with the Haitians. And in conclusion may
I please remind you it does not say R.S.V.P. on the Statue of Liberty");
after Cher's side was presented, Amber claimed that she couldn't
argue against Cher's inane statements: "If she doesn't do
the assignment, I can't do mine"
- Cher's father Mel's (Dan Hedaya) warning to a date: "Anything
happens to my daughter, I've got a .45 and a shovel. I doubt anybody
would miss you"
- the scene of Cher's mugging when she was robbed
of her cellphone and bag, and forced to lie face-down on the pavement,
and her excuse not to - it would ruin her dress: ("Oh, no.
You don't understand. This is an Alaia....It's, like a totally
important designer")
- Cher's attitude toward report cards: ("Some
teachers were trying to lowball me, Daddy. You say never accept
a first offer. These grades are a jumping-off point to start negotiations"),
and her father's surprise at her improved report card when she
argued her way from a C+ to an A- and asserted: ("Totally
based on my powers of persuasion")
- the freeway driving scene ("We're on the freeway!")
in which Cher's best friend Dionne Davenport (Stacey Dash) was
driving for the first time on an LA freeway, and her boyfriend
Murray (Donald Faison) tried to offer helpful instruction, while
everyone was freaking out, until they exited safely and Dionne
and Murray kissed: (Cher: "Boy, getting off the freeway makes
you realize how important love is. After that, Dionne's virginity
went from technical to non-existent. And I realized how much I
wanted a boyfriend of my own")
- the scene of Cher's driving test with a DMV officer,
when she almost hit a bicyclist, and also side-swiped another car
when moving to the right lane in her Jeep: ("Oh, my bad!" and
"Oh, should I write them a note?"), and the officer's assessment:
("We're going back to the DMV...It's over...How'd you do? Ha,
ha, ha. Well, let's see, shall we? You can't park, you can't switch
lanes, you can't make right hand turns, you damaged private property
and you almost killed someone. Off hand, I'd say you failed")
- and ultimately, Cher's finding of unexpected romance
with her ex-stepbrother Josh (Paul Rudd) on her stairway, and sharing
a tender kiss with him after he complimented her; she revealed
her love for him: ("You're young and you're beautiful...You
know you're gorgeous, all right? And popular and, uh, and... but
this is not, you know, why I'm here...Are you saying you care about
me?") - Cher summarized: ("Well, you can guess what happened
next"), although she was humorously referring to a match-making
wedding she attended between two nerdy teachers Mr. Hall (Wallace
Shawn) and Ms. Geist (Twink Caplan), where she was able to kiss
Josh after catching the flower bouquet
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The Cocoanuts (1929)
- the numerous puns (Groucho
and the famous ice-water routine: "Oh, you want some
[ice water]. Get some onions, that'll make your eyes (ice) water" and "On
this site we're going to build an Eye and Ear Hospital. This is
going to be a sight for sore eyes") and one-liners ("Believe
me, you gotta get up early if you want to get out of bed")
- the many insults and attempts by corrupt real estate
salesman and leering hotel manager Hammer (Groucho Marx) at courting
wealthy widow Mrs. Potter (Margaret Dumont): ("Are you sure
your husband's dead?...Tonight, when the moon is sneaking around
the clouds, I'll be sneaking around you. I'll meet
you tonight under the moon. Oh, I can see you nowyou and
the moon. You wear a neck-tie so I'll know you" and "Your
eyes, your eyes, they shine like the pants of a blue serge suit.
That's not a reflection on youit's on the pants")
- the crazy 'swapping bedrooms' scene between two
adjoining or connecting hotel rooms
- the non-sequitur reenactment of Willard's famous "Spirit
Of 76" painting in the hotel lobby
- the famous tongue-twisting, precisely-timed "viaduct"/"Why
a Duck?" routine
between con man guest Chico (Chico Marx) and Hammer with a wet
blueprint: (Hammer: "Now here is a little peninsula and here
is a viaduct leading over to the mainland."
Chico: "Why a duck?")
- the rigged land auction scene led by Hammer: ("Ill
wrestle any man here for five dollars!" and "You
can have any kind of a home you want to. You can even get stucco.
Oh, how you can get stucco") during which Chico did most of
the bidding
- the "I Want My Shirt" scene after the
brothers had played tic-tac-toe on Detective Hennessey's (Basil
Ruysdael) undershirt
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Coming to America (1988)
- the scene of wealthy, sweet-natured
African Prince Akeem's (Eddie Murphy) bath on his 21st birthday,
when a Nubian bathing attendant (Victoria Dillard) declared after
emerging from under the water: "The royal
penis is clean, your Highness"
- the scene on a New York fire-escape, when Prince
Akeem called out to his tenement neighbors: "Good morning, my
neighbors!"; an unidentified voice responded: "Hey, f--k you!";
Akeem happily returned the compliment: "Yes, yes! F--k you too!"
- the famous barbershop scene,
in which five characters (two played by Eddie Murphy (including an
elderly white Jewish man) and two played by Arsenio Hall) argued
about the best boxer in history: (Clarence: "There they go,
every time I start talkin 'bout boxing, a white man got to pull
Rocky Marciano out of their ass. That's their one, that's their
one. Rocky Marciano. Rocky Marciano. Let me tell you something
once and for all. Rocky Marciano was good, but compared to Joe
Louis, Rocky Marciano ain't s--t"); the eldery white Jewish
man retorted: "He beat Joe Louis' ass"
- when Akeem sat down in the barber's chair and showed
off his ponytail, he claimed: "It's my natural hair. I'm been
growing it since birth"; the barber asked: "What kind
of chemicals you got in there?" Akeem answered: "I don't
put no chemicals, only juices and berries"; the barber disagreed: "That
ain't nothin' but Ultra-Perm. Tell me how you want me to cut this?" Akeem
specified:
"Just make it nice and neat"; after one quick snip of
the ponytail, the eight-dollar haircut consisted on only one scissors
cut
- the scene of Akeem and Semmi (Arsenio Hall) in
a club bar interviewing NYC candidates as Akeem's bride-to-be:
-
one large black woman complained: "I
can't find a man that can satisfy me. Now, some guys go an hour,
hour and a half. That's it. A man's got to put in overtime for
me to get off"
-
another pretty one claimed: "I'm not interested
in a man unless he drives a BMW"
-
a third said: "I'm
almost single. My husband's on death-row"
-
two twin sisters
asserted, in unison: "This is the first date Teresa and I have
been on since the doctor separated us"
-
a black woman with big breasts boasted: "I'm
into the group thing"
- a masochistic female who burned her hand with a lighter said: "I
was Joan of Arc in my former life"
- two black rappers sang together: "My name is Peaches, and I'm the
best. All the DJs want to feel my breasts"
- a long-winded starlet asserted: "I want to work in video, but really
I want to be my own star in the videos, because I wanna become a pop
singer, and a rock singer, and write my own songs, produce my own
songs. And then I'm gonna try an actress, because people tell me how
talented I am, I'm a natural and stuff like that. So, then I'm gonna
write my own stories and direct my own stories, you know, produce
the movies I'm doing..."
- and finally, the last candidate (Arsenio Hall in drag) apologized:
"I hope you don't mind me coming over and sitting down. But I'm been
watching you all evening. And I want to tear you apart, and your friend
too"; Semmi did a spit-take at the thought!
- the scene in which fast food manager Cleo McDowell
(John Amos) explained the difference between his restaurant and
McDonalds: "Look,
me and the McDonald's people, we've got this little misunderstanding,
hmm? See, they're McDonald's. I'm McDowell's. Huh? They've got
the Golden Arches, mine is the Golden Arcs. They say they got
the Big Mac. I got the Big Mick. We both got two all-beef patties,
special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions, but they use
a sesame seed bun. My buns have no seeds"
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The Court
Jester (1956)
- the film was notorious for its infamous, tongue-twisting
and rhyming wordplay and convoluted dialogue
- the mad-cap comedy was about a spy - medieval carnival
entertainer-performer Hubert Hawkins (Danny Kaye) - who was to
infiltrate into the ranks of the evil and tyrannical King Roderick
(Cecil Parker) by impersonating or masquerading as court jester
Giacomo (also Danny Kaye); his objective was to restore the rightful
heir to the throne - a baby boy with a royal birthmark (the purple
pimpernel) on his behind
- the first tongue-twister was between King Roderick and Hubert Hawkins:
- The Duke. What did the Duke do?
- Uh, the Duke do?
- Yes. And what about the Doge?
- Oh, the Doge!
- Uh. Well what did the Doge do?
- The Doge do?
- Yes, the Doge do.
- Well, uh, the Doge did what the Doge does. Uh, when the Doge does his duty
to the Duke, that is.
- What? What's that?
- Oh, it's very simple, sire. When the Doge did his duty and the Duke didn't,
that's when the Duchess did the dirt to the Duke with the Doge.
- Who did what to what?
- Oh, they all did, sire. There they were in the dark; the Duke with his dagger,
the Doge with his dart, and the Duchess with her dirk.
- Duchess with her dirk?
- Yes! The Duchess dove at the Duke just when the Duke dove at the Doge. Now
the Duke ducked, the Doge dodged, and the Duchess didn't. So the Duke got the
Duchess, the Duchess got the Doge, and the Doge got the Duke!
- the fake court
jester Hubert Hawkins/Giacomo was under the hypnotic spell of ambitious
court witch Griselda (Mildred Natwick); the
spell cast on the jester by Griselda could hilariously be undone
- and reinstated - by just a snap of the fingers, with comic results;
it was employed in the scene in which he was hypnotized (to believe
he was a dashing lover) and he snuck into the chambers of the King's
daughter, Princess Gwendolyn (Angela Lansbury), to woo her: ("What
manner of man is Giacomo? Ha ha! I shall tell you what manner of
man is he. He lives for a sigh, he dies for a kiss, he lusts for
the laugh, ha! He never walks when he can leap! He never flees
when he can fight (thud), Oop! He swoons at the beauty of a rose.
And I offer myself to you, all of me. My heart. My lips. My legs.
My calves. Do what you will - my love endures. Beat me. Kick me.
(kiss, kiss) I am yours")
- Hubert Hawkins/Giacomo and witch Griselda (Mildred
Natwick) had a discussion about a riddle, with instructions
on how to avoid a poisoned drink; specifically, it was about his
having to remember the cup location for a pre-joust toast with
a drink that was poisoned, but then -- there was much confusion
with a change in the directions, with hilarious results:
- "I've
got it! I've got it! The pellet with the poison's in the vessel
with the pestle. The chalice from the palace has the brew that
is true! Right?"
- "Right. But there's been a change. They broke the chalice from the palace!"
- "They broke the chalice from the palace?"
- "And replaced it with a flagon."
- "A flagon...?"
- "With the figure of a dragon."
- "Flagon with a dragon."
- "Right."
- "But did you put the pellet with the poison in the vessel with the pestle?"
- "No! The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon! The vessel
with the pestle has the brew that is true!"
- "The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon; the vessel
with the pestle has the brew that is true."
- "Just remember that..."
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"Crocodile" Dundee
(1986)
- the scene in which Australian Outback ranger
Michael (Mick) J. 'Crocodile' Dundee (Paul Hogan, co-nominated
for Best Original Screenplay) rescued American reporter Sue Charlton
(Hogan's real-life wife Linda Kozlowski) from a crocodile in
the wild as she was going for a swim (and a croc lunged out of
the water, grabbed her necklace, and threatened to pull her in);
he twisted a knife into the crocodile's head, and when she asked: "Is
it dead?" he replied: "Well, if it isn't, I'm goin'
to have a hell of a job skinnin' the bastard"; afterwards,
he roasted it like a giant shish kabob
- the fish-out-of-water sequences in New York City,
including the memorable scene in which the leader of a street gang
with a small switch-blade knife attempted to mug Dundee - the unflappable
and chuckling 'Crocodile' man responded as he pulled out his large
bushwhacker Bowie knife -- "THAT's a knife!", and then
slashed the tough's jacket; after the gang fled, he said amiably
to Sue: "Just kids having fun!"
- the final scene set in a crowded subway station
in which messages were relayed from Sue to Mick from bystander
to bystander: (Sue: "Tell him not to leave. I'm not going
to marry Richard...Tell him I love him"), and then Mick climbed
up to the girders to gain height and walked to Sue on the heads
and raised hands of the onlookers: ("I'll tell her meself.
I'm coming through") - to tell her of his love and to kiss
her - before a freeze-frame and the ending credits
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