30 Days of TV - Day Twenty Four
May. 25th, 2010 04:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
caz963Today’s post is about my favourite quote.
Yeah. Another Mission Impossible. As any self-respecting West Wing fan knows, there is a WW quote for practically every occasion, so it’s going to be impossible to choose ONE favourite.
Also, I divide favourite quotes into two kinds. The first are the ones that you manage to work into everyday conversation from time to time – my favourite there is usually I believe the professional term is ‘wanker’ or sometimes we had jackets made.
The second category are those which aren’t really suitable for that, but are the ones you wish you’d thought of saying.
You wanna tempt the wrath of the whatever from high atop the thing? Is definitely one of those. It’s not something I could work into every day conversation – but oh, how I wish I could. Also – I turned, I spat, it froze.
There’s missing my boys, meetings of the ignorant tight-ass club, babies coming with hats, guys who fall down holes, not stopping for red lights, egos the size of Montana, being the guy the guy counts on, these people don’t vote, do they? – and countless others and I can’t possibly choose between them. So I’m not going to.
On a possibly related tangent – I wonder if Steven Moffat is a WW/Sorkin fan due to his use of the word “thing”. I know it’s a common enough word, but any WW fan will understand what I’m getting at.
Yeah, listen, listen... got to dash, things happening. Well. Four things. Well. Four things… and a lizard.
Plus
It’s a thing in progress. Respect the thing.
Are both very Sorkinesque. And both have on occasion found their way into conversation ;-)
I am also fond of It goes ding when there’s stuff.
I can’t talk about quotes and not mention The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy though. I know it started on radio, but it did transfer (not all that successfully, IMO) to TV, so I’m going to include some quotes from that.
Besides, it’s TowelDay, in honour of Douglas Adams, so no excuse is needed!
It’s filled with gems, such as -
This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
- It’s unpleasantly like being drunk.
- What’s so unpleasant about being drunk?
- You ask a glass of water.
Time is an illusion. Lunchtime, doubly so.
If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.
…there's an infinite number of monkeys outside who want to talk to us about this script for Hamlet they've worked out.
I love this one – a conversation between Arthur Dent and Mr Prosser, the local planning official who wants to bulldoze Arthur’s house to make way for a new bypass.
- You hadn't exactly gone out of your way to call attention to the building plans had you? I mean like actually telling anyone or anything.'
- But the plans were on display.'
- On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.'
- That's the display department.'
- With a torch.'
- Ah, well the lights had probably gone.'
- So had the stairs.'
- But look you found the notice didn't you?'
- Yes. Yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying "Beware of The Leopard".
I could – and often do – go on at length with these. But my absolute favourite quote from HHG is this one.
The best argument for the non-existence of God I’ve ever come across. *g* I heard it when I was about sixteen for the first time, and have never forgotten it.
Forget the movie and the TV series – get hold of the original radio series and/or books. You won’t regret it.
Yeah. Another Mission Impossible. As any self-respecting West Wing fan knows, there is a WW quote for practically every occasion, so it’s going to be impossible to choose ONE favourite.
Also, I divide favourite quotes into two kinds. The first are the ones that you manage to work into everyday conversation from time to time – my favourite there is usually I believe the professional term is ‘wanker’ or sometimes we had jackets made.
The second category are those which aren’t really suitable for that, but are the ones you wish you’d thought of saying.
You wanna tempt the wrath of the whatever from high atop the thing? Is definitely one of those. It’s not something I could work into every day conversation – but oh, how I wish I could. Also – I turned, I spat, it froze.
There’s missing my boys, meetings of the ignorant tight-ass club, babies coming with hats, guys who fall down holes, not stopping for red lights, egos the size of Montana, being the guy the guy counts on, these people don’t vote, do they? – and countless others and I can’t possibly choose between them. So I’m not going to.
On a possibly related tangent – I wonder if Steven Moffat is a WW/Sorkin fan due to his use of the word “thing”. I know it’s a common enough word, but any WW fan will understand what I’m getting at.
Yeah, listen, listen... got to dash, things happening. Well. Four things. Well. Four things… and a lizard.
Plus
It’s a thing in progress. Respect the thing.
Are both very Sorkinesque. And both have on occasion found their way into conversation ;-)
I am also fond of It goes ding when there’s stuff.
I can’t talk about quotes and not mention The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy though. I know it started on radio, but it did transfer (not all that successfully, IMO) to TV, so I’m going to include some quotes from that.
Besides, it’s TowelDay, in honour of Douglas Adams, so no excuse is needed!
It’s filled with gems, such as -
This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
- It’s unpleasantly like being drunk.
- What’s so unpleasant about being drunk?
- You ask a glass of water.
Time is an illusion. Lunchtime, doubly so.
If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.
…there's an infinite number of monkeys outside who want to talk to us about this script for Hamlet they've worked out.
I love this one – a conversation between Arthur Dent and Mr Prosser, the local planning official who wants to bulldoze Arthur’s house to make way for a new bypass.
- You hadn't exactly gone out of your way to call attention to the building plans had you? I mean like actually telling anyone or anything.'
- But the plans were on display.'
- On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.'
- That's the display department.'
- With a torch.'
- Ah, well the lights had probably gone.'
- So had the stairs.'
- But look you found the notice didn't you?'
- Yes. Yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying "Beware of The Leopard".
I could – and often do – go on at length with these. But my absolute favourite quote from HHG is this one.
The best argument for the non-existence of God I’ve ever come across. *g* I heard it when I was about sixteen for the first time, and have never forgotten it.
I refuse to prove I exist, says God, for proof denies faith and without faith, I am nothing..
But the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn’t it? says Man. It proves you exist, therefore by your own arguments, you don’t. QED
Oh, dear, says God. I hadn’t thought of that and promply vanishes in a puff of logic.
That was easy, says Man and for an encore, he goes on to prove that black is white and gets killed on the next zebra crossing.
Forget the movie and the TV series – get hold of the original radio series and/or books. You won’t regret it.
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no subject
Date: 2010-05-25 04:57 pm (UTC)another great Sam quote :
GINGER
You ate a moose?
SAM
No, I don't like eating things where the cartoon character can talk, and
you know,
hatch a plan.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-25 07:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-25 08:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-26 02:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-28 05:14 am (UTC)My favorite West Wing quote has always been:
MANDY: You guys are idiots. Did you know that?
C.J.: In our own defense, we actually do know that.
I use variations of it all the time.