Wednesday, December 30, 2009

He Fixes The Cable?

There's an article in today's New York Times about a new book of essays inspired by The Big Lebowski. You should read it. It's pretty interesting, as articles about books go.

Anyhow, in order to flesh out this post, what do you think would be on the top of the list for the most obscure Lebowski quotes? And what would be the context in which you'd use them. Like a totally unobscure one would be going "Way to go, Donnie!" whenever something good happens. Or perhaps slightly more obscure, but perhaps not depending on the delivery would be going, "Phone's ringing, Dude," when the phone is ringing (that must be available as a ringtone, no?).

One of the best moments in my life (hyperbole? you decide) was when a whole bunch of you people who are reading this right now were over at my house on what must have been my birthday last year because that's the only time you gies are in my house in the daytime and I was telling everyone about the kids' show, Yo Gabba Gabba, which was created by someone who has a great drug dealer. We happened to have an episode on DVR so I put on the first couple minutes and then said "You can imagine where it goes from here," while hitting the fast forward button. Of course a couple of you immediately said, "He fixes the cable?", which just warmed my heart. And on my birthday, no less.

Incidentally, I think the most underrated character in Lebowski is Maude Lebowski. She's got quite a few quotable lines. And it's really fun to say, "He's a good man. And thorough," whenever the appropriate context boils up.

As the for the most obscure, the one that seems to never get recognized when I do it, almost certainly because of the delivery, is from when Maude is on the phone speaking in Italian and then she goes, "Que ridicolo, ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha". No one ever seems to get that one. It's one of my favorite parts of the movie.

A really good one was the title of Open Bar's former blog, Calmer Than You Are. It's really subtle. You almost have to be watching the movie in order to make the connection.

Any others?

PS - I love how Brand says, "Inner city children of promise, but without the necessary means for a, necessary means for a higher education". Where he repeats the "necessary means" part. I'd love to see a letterhead for the Little Lebowski Urban Achievers in which the phrase is written exactly like that. Someone with Photoshop skills should get on that.

8 comments:

Open Bar said...

"Fuckin' A man, I got a rash."

No one ever seems to take that the right way when I say it. I'm AGREEING with you, cumface!

The Notorious LJT said...

"Separate incidents."

"Well. I guess we can close the file on that one."

"Racially, he's pretty cool?"

"Obviously you're not a golfer."

"Say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it's an ethos."

"Look, just stay away from my fucking lady friend."

"Fucking Germans. Nothing changes. Fucking Nazis. "

"Uh, I'm just gonna go find a cash machine. "

Open Bar said...

"What are you, a fuckin' park ranger now?" works well both when someone mentions anything about animals or if they're just talking out of their ass about something.

Open Bar said...

And I could seriously do this all day.

"You mean...coitus?"

The Notorious LJT said...

My fucking whites.

The Notorious LJT said...

He treats objects like women, man.

Anonymous said...

In response to some new high-tech thing that people were discussing, "I still jerk off manually" (and I got some funny stares).

I've definitely dropped the "So, racially, he's pretty cool" line and gotten crickets in response.

My favorite, though, is yelling "Am I the only one who gives a shit about the rules?!?" I've done this at work when people talk about bending the rules.

Is it safe to say that Lebowski is the all-time most quotable movie? I feel like almost every line is quotable. I can't think of a more quotable movie.

ChuckJerry said...

GoodFellas is also pretty quotable. Maybe slightly less than Lebowski.

"What do you want? I'm a good shot."

According to your brother and you, Major League is apparently pretty quotable.