Several years ago, I helped out a friend of mine on a short film he was helping to produce. Early on, I had to sign a release basically clearing the use of my likeness as an extra or in any behind the scenes footage. As my friend and his fellow producer, Jon, handed me the form to sign, I looked over it and in a mock-puzzled tone asked:
"Why do you need my home address?" (note: there was no such question on the form.)
My friend rolled his eyes, not understanding why I was being inexplicably difficult. His companion caught on, though, and without missing a beat said, "We like to send out a mailer."
If you're confused, you probably haven't seen National Lampoon's Vacation, or at least, you haven't seen it as many times as I have. That's an exchange that happens between Chevy Chase and Bryan Doyle Murray, who plays a motel owner. I didn't really know Jon at that point, but I knew he was cool. The trading of obscure quotes was like a secret handshake.
Recently I was at a going away party when some friends arrived with one friend who was... shall we say... WAY in the bag. His intoxication was a source of amusement and a bit of tension, as no one seemed to be sure of the best way to engage our gregariously inebriated friend. As you might expect, this lead to some awkward gaps in the conversation. As it turned out, our drunk friend wasn't so drunk that he couldn't break that awkward silence by saying "Oh, big gulps, huh? All right! (long pause) Well, see you later."
We laughed and the tension was broken. For those of you thinking, "Huh?" Just check out the clip below.
I've found over the years that all it takes for a stranger to convince me of their coolness is for them to drop in a random quote from a movie I like. So my question to you is, do you and your friends have a similar kind of short-hand? Are there movie or TV quotes that have earned a special place among your circle of friends?
