Our generation has a habit of quoting every movie we see. Every Simpsons episode, every Seinfeld, every 30 minutes of Friends and South Park we absorb, we regurgitate at appropriate or inappropriate times.
What's arguably more interesting than this phenomenon are the reactions of our peers. These remarks are almost always considered humorous. It doesn't matter how many times I say, "We're going streaking!" and don't really intend on disrobing -- it's always funny.
Since I haven't noticed people inserting Machiavelli into conversation at quite the same rate, it makes me wonder what about these movies has moved us so much that we commit them to memory better, faster and more frequently than any textbook terms we are supposed to know. Certainly these movies are funny and keep us amused on Sunday afternoon (guess what I did today...), but I don't hear my mom quoting "Diner" quite as much as I try to slip "Boondock Saints" sentences into my own conversations.
Even with the movies from their era, our parents and their contemporaries don't have the grasp on the quoting movement that we do. I recite Bill Murray's "Caddyshack" monologues at the drop of a llama, yet I believe my birth was a good couple years after Chevy Chase stated that he was born to rub me, but I was born to rub him first.
Even when I know people over the age of 30 who try to jump on the quoting bandwagon, something about their delivery is just off. They don't have the timing to impersonate Quagmire quite like any second year I know. It's also a bit more creepy when an actual old man pelvic thrusts and says, "All right."
Since we've all been watching March Madness, I'm sure that we were all eagerly anticipating "Spring Break: Shark Attack" airing at 9 p.m. Sunday night. Might we even begin quoting this movie? Since my deadline will be before I am able to view this piece of, no doubt, cinematic mastery, I cannot answer that. Will Ferrell does not appear in the film, so that makes it less likely, but if Napoleon Dynamite can inspire shirts that say "I love tots," we cannot know what to expect from "Spring Break: Shark Attack."
That said, here we should explore the correlation between Will Ferrell being in feature films and the film being quoted. He has made jazz flute funny, coined the drinking name "Frank the Tank" and for the Kevin Smith fans, showed that even park rangers can be silly.
My brother and I don't have much in common, but I'm the only one at the dinner table who knows what he's talking about when he says, "I caught you a delicious bass," after my mom puts salmon on the table.
"No Joe, this is salmon."
"I know mom, it's from Napoleon Dynamite."
"Oh, tee-hee."
She doesn't get it. I had originally planned on offering some sort of explanation for this trend, but nothing came to mind. No great event has changed our generation so that we understand movies better. There are more movies made and they are more technologically advanced in special effects, but other than that, I can't see any reason why "Dodgeball" lines pop into my mind faster than my parents' anniversary date. Sometimes shows that I watch only infrequently stick longer than anything I read in Clemons. "Legally Blonde" was also on tonight. The bend and snap will stick with me until I pass on to the afterlife.
I'll be 64 and in the post office. My husband has been deceased three years and I'll see a handsome man in pleated pants across the room. What will I think?
Drop the stamps, Clare, then bend slowly, slowly, okay pick them up, and SNAP!
Will I know anything about biology at that point? Very unlikely. But Reese Witherspoon and I are intertwined for all time.
Hans and Franz will pump me up forever, I can reenact any Spartan Cheer and I will always be able to impersonate the Ladies Man even though I'm a white female. Was Saturday Night Live the start of it all? The birth of movie regurgitation? Possibly the short clips eased our minds into the learning of longer films. Maybe they paved the way for Ron Burgundy. And he looks good -- I mean really, really good.
This doesn't appear to be either a good or bad development in modern culture, but who knows how this could affect the future. Will the President of the United States, 40 years from now, be affected by any of these quotes? Will some reminiscent congressman slip in a law allowing anchormen to kill other anchormen with tridents?
I'm trying to make this much more important than I'm sure it is. So we quote movies. Big deal, Clare. Well, nothing too exciting happened over break.
Clare may be reached at ondrey@cavalierdaily.com.
Read More
Students brave the cold for a whirlwind sorority rush
By Mia Tan | YesterdayStudents recount a mix of emotions from rush, with some disappointed after dropping from the recruitment process and others ecstatic to join Greek life.
Top 10 ways to avoid burnout this semester
By Sam Saks | 2 days agoAs you settle into this semester, try implementing these 10 tactics to take care of yourself and wave goodbye to burnout.
Top 10 things I learned the day TikTok went dark
By Elizabeth Parsons | 4 days agoI am poised to bestow newfound pieces of wisdom from my short-lived TikTok detox.
