Open Forum Friday: What Movie Characters Are You Sick of Hearing Quoted?
A big part of what can make a movie an instant cult classic is the quotability of the dialogue and characters. When funny one-liners are easy to remember, they may start to enter into every day conversations. This is when you know a movie has a contagious element to it, and has been planted firmly into the public consciousness. It’s a marketer’s dream, but it can become a nightmare for the rest of us.
While I’m a fan of funny dialogue just as much as the next guy, there often comes a point where the omnipresence of a character or movie in pop culture just becomes too much. Eventually, the quoted dialogue and impersonations start to turn you against that character, until you never want to see him again. The viral nature of the internet only seems to be speeding up the process nowadays, as Borat quotes are already painfully unfunny and the Juno backlash arrived even before the movie had managed to get a wide release. Perhaps Tom Cruise is also a victim of this.
So my question is this… what are the characters and/or movies that are you absolutely sick of hearing quotes from right now? Has the spread of a witty catch phrase ever ruined a movie for you after the fact? And what classic movies and characters (if any) will simply never get old? Give us your thoughts here on Open Forum Friday.
Comments (19)
I gotta be honest. I can’t really vote for any of those choices because none of them are particularly on my nerves right now. I think that by now all of those movies/characters are old enough that nobody really quotes them too often anymore. The exception would be Juno I guess, but I don’t recall anyone quoting that movie to begin with. Borat was pretty annoying when that was out, as was Napolean Dynamite, but they are pretty much things of the past at this point, I think. The only real quote I ever hear from Schwarzenegger anymore seems to be “Get to the choppa’!”, but that one never really seems to get old. I guess I hear “It’s not a tooma” occasionally too.
Posted by Rian on February 8th, 2008Simpsons doesn’t belong on the list because there’s about 8 years of quotable episodes (that’s 96 hours) and they are usually apt and appropriate. Classic Simpsons quotes are insightful as well as funny.
Borat on the other hand is kind of one dimension (niiiice, high five!).
Also great “it’s not a toomah”. It’s useful because of the high rates of cancer in our society. So doctors can use it.
Posted by Rusty James on February 8th, 2008I never get sick of quoting these guys. I’m the one you all hate for still quoting Borat, lol. I haven’t seen Juno yet, though.
Posted by joe on February 9th, 2008I hate people who constantly quote and reference the Simpsons, because that show is lame. South Park on the other hand… Gold. I don’t have a circle of friends where people quote stuff to the point of being obnoxious though – other than idiots quoting Homer, I’ve got no beef.
Posted by Henrik on February 9th, 2008“I hate people who constantly quote and reference the Simpsons, because that show is lame.”
But Henrik, in my defense you do take pride in being a humorless dolt.
Posted by Rusty James on February 9th, 2008Not only am I not a humorless dolt, if I was one I would not be proud of it.
Posted by Henrik on February 9th, 2008Those damned monty python films. I mean I work in IT so am surround by a lot of geeks, but the Monty Python quotes just don’t stop repeating themselves .. Gets on my nerves!
I dont mind the odd Simpsons quote, but there are plent of people out there that quote Simpsons in response to just about anything, even if irrelevant & then (since I’m not a huge Simpsons fan) they look at me plainly, surprised that I’m not humoured or seeing the reference. Maybe I’m supposed to feel ashamed of not having seen every Simpsons ever, I dunno. *shrugs*
The same to an extent holds for Southpark, but it is funnier .. Cartman beats Homer down in my books
Posted by _ram-jaane' on February 9th, 2008I’m not really annoyed by the quotes from those characters now. I too, still hear “Billy Go!, Get to the choppa!” For me it works because they say Billy Go!, so I’m not too annoyed with that. Although not from movies, Chappelle’s “I’m Rick James” is still said quite a bit.
Posted by Primal on February 9th, 2008“No, you’re a towel!” — Towelie from South Park
Posted by Baychuk on February 9th, 2008“South Park on the other hand… Gold.”
get out of my life.
Theres like, half a dozen episodes of South Park that are rewatchable, at best.
Posted by Goon on February 9th, 2008If you go get one, I’ll make sure to stay out of it.
Posted by Henrik on February 9th, 2008
Posted by Goon on February 9th, 2008One word – “Not”. Whenever I hear people using that Wayne’s World quote it makes me cringe.
IT’S OVER, PEOPLE! LET IT DIE A DEATH.
Posted by Edmundo Dupont on February 10th, 2008I have to say, “Schwing” is still pretty damn hip though.
Another one that is starting to get out of hand is the “I Drink Your Milkshake” line from There Will Be Blood.
Posted by Sean on February 10th, 2008Definitely Austin Powers
Posted by Julien on February 10th, 2008“Yeeeeeeah baby!” and “Oh be-haaaave!” just annoys the heck out of me. But that might be because I’ve grown to dislike those movies more than anything else, as I don’t recall people using those quotes often. On my side, you can mostly hear me quoting TV shows à la Chappelle’s show (started with Half-Baked as a fact) and Ali G, which then makes me guilty of quoting the Borat movie. Borat has the credit of bringing back the “Not” joke in my book. That is gold
“Another one that is starting to get out of hand is the “I Drink Your Milkshake†line from There Will Be Blood.”
seriously? my friends and I have said it to each other a couple times mixed among some other Plainview quotes, and theres some youtube videos, but I’d hardly say “out of hand”
There Will Be Blood is well liked, but its by no means a large movie, and could never get Borat or Austin Powers level circulation with its quotes… at most is a “you’re the man now dog” level phenomenon, pretty much restricted to the internet and fans of the movie who have to seek each other out.
Posted by Goon on February 10th, 2008No way man, it’s gone viral! They had a post on /Film about the studio sending out promotional coupons for a free milkshakes with a card that says “I Drink Your Milkshake… I Drink It Up”.
Posted by Sean on February 11th, 2008i dont know, including the quote in their press kit doesnt really equal viral to me – the studios do that sort of thing for all their movies when shilling to reporters/reviewers. i should dig up the Onion article of their favorite movie press freebies.
i just dont think that quote comes near to passing my viral test yet… theres only like 3 mediocre youtube videos on it and the YTMND of the quote has like a 3.6 out of 5, and theres no meme remixes or other versions of it there either…. the quote is certainly circulating, but I can’t call it viral.
Posted by Goon on February 11th, 2008Ouch. I don’t hate SOUTHPARK or anything, but The Simpsons did it first, did it better, and while it’s probably stretched out a bit a 18 years worth of shows (or whatever). The Simpsons has it’s own language of references as dense as any technical jargon out there.
To say the show isn’t funny….sheesh. There is so much content there, it’s hard to begin to even generalize.
Posted by Kurt on February 11th, 2008Leave a Reply