Riddle Me This! More Quotable: Ghostbusters or Princess Bride?
Who’d win in a fight between Superman and Spawn? How the f*ck old is Cable? And what in the holy hell is a Megatron? When the tough questions arise, Panels on Pages will gather the facts, but it’s up to the PoP!ulation to draw its own conclusions. So come on… Riddle Me This!
“We’ve been going about this all wrong. This Mr. Stay Puft’s okay! He’s a sailor, he’s in New York; we get this guy laid, we won’t have any trouble!”
What movie is the most quotable? From a historical standpoint, it’s probably something like Gone With the Wind or The Wizard of Oz; something that’s been around for almost a century. Although, for children of the Eighties and later, two films stand out as being the most quotable of all time. I’m talking of course about Ghostbusters and The Princess Bride. These two films have saturated our subconscious to the point that lines from them flow freely from our mouths and with the right conversation participants huge swaths of dialogue can be exchanged verbatim. If you haven’t seen one of these films, stop reading this right now and watch them. I’m serious. I’m also very disappointed in you, but that’s another matter.
I’m not going to dignify any non-viewers with recapping their premises or plots. You should already know both of them almost by heart at this point. Instead, I’m going to give you a list of situations that have occurred to me in everyday life wherein I’ve made use of quotes from the two films. First off, Ghostbusters.
After I or someone else has made a mistake: “What did you do, Ray?”
If the mistake is compounded: “Ray, when someone asks if you’re a god, say ‘YES!’”
When clearing a table: “And the flowers are still standing!”
When something goes wrong: “Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!”
When something goes wrong with technology: “Generally you don’t see that kind of behavior in a major appliance.”
Upon being surprised or experiencing sudden pain: “Mother pus bucket!”
When asked if something is true: “Yes it’s true. This man has no dick.”
Being impressed/astonished: “That’s a big Twinkie.”
When I need to be intimating: “Back off, man. I’m a scientist.”
When a customer comes to the pharmacy walk-up window: “Picking up or dropping off?”
“I’ve hired you to help me start a war. It’s an prestigious line of work, with a long and glorious tradition.”
Now some Princess Bride action.
When someone recommends a book to me: “Is this a kissing book?”
When a woman I’m flirting with asks me to do something: “As you wish.”
When offering a peanut: “Anybody want a peanut?”
When I have to make a customer I’m on friendly terms with wait for something: “You rush a miracle man, you get rotten miracles.”
When someone is wrong: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
When I’m too busy to hang out with friends: “Tyrone, you know how much I love watching you work, but I’ve got my country’s 500th anniversary to plan, my wedding to arrange, my wife to murder and Guilder to frame for it; I’m swamped.”
When I impress someone: “I am not left-handed either.”
When something happens as I assumed it would: “Ha ha! You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders – The most famous of which is ‘never get involved in a land war in Asia’ – but only slightly less well-known is this: ‘Never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line!’”
When someone expects me to be surprised and I’m not: “I spent the last few years building up an immunity to iocane powder.”
As a goodbye: “Have fun stormin’ da castle.”
At a wedding: “Mawage. Mawage is wot bwings us togeder tooday.”
When someone says there’s only one thing to do: “Go through his clothes and look for loose change.”
Nearly any occasion: “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”
As you can see, I’m well versed in both. Just ask my friends. Yet, I’ve only scratched the surface. These are mostly one-liners. If I’m with the right person, we can do large chunks of dialogue, but now I’m going to throw it to you. Vote down below and make yourself heard in the comments. Tell your friends to vote. I really want to know the results.
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Filed Under: Columns • Riddle Me This
You forgot my favorite of all favorites, “INCONCEIVABLE!”
I guess I quote Princess Bride more than Ghostbusters. It’s about 4 or 5 PB quotes to Ghostbusters’ one: “What did you DO, Ray???”
I love both of these, but I hear Ghostbusters more than anything throughout the day.
Love both movies, but I gotta give it to Princess Bride.
Both are excellent. But “inconceivable” is probably the biggest quote of the 2 movies. “As you wish” gets used a lot as well.
I’m curious what would be the most quoted ever. I don’t really think “Gone with the Wind” or “Wizard of Oz” would be up there. Would make for an interesting article…
i’ve finally made my decision, the princess bride catches my vote. mostly because, while both movies are just plain awesome, PB gets it for one line, that can be used for almost any occasion: “GENTLY”
Gotta be Ghostbusters. Whole scenes of that movie are quotable. Like when I bought a beat up old Cadillac and brought it home. Or when I tried to talk my wife into taking out a 2nd mortgage to finance my stupid business idea. “You’re NOT gonna lose the house, Ray. EVERYBODY has three mortgages nowadays!”
This is like trying to pick between your children, but you know, about something you actually care about..
D-Rock, with the variation of my favorite line: “This is a like Sophie’s Choice except, y’know… actually difficult”
My answer here is that I feel Ghostbusters is more useful and therefore gets my vote.
“Inconceivable!” and “You keep using that word…” are probably the only two quotes I EVER use from Princess Bride. “What did you do, Ray?” “Ray, when someone asks…,” “human sacrifice…” and “It’s true…” are all pretty useful quotes that I bust out or here often.
This is a virtual dead-heat. Obviously, since I am on the Ghostbusters “scene,” I am going to give it the nod. But, PB has just as many lines that are quotable, like the “Hello. My name is Inego Montoya..”, etc.