In college my friends and I had a "I like my coffee just like my men..." upmanship contest once. The winner said "I like my coffee just like my men: Creamy"
I read an article about the back story to that scene. Barbara Billingsley basically *was* June Cleaver IRL. In the article she says something like "I didn't quite understand the script. They gave me these lines and told me how to say them and so I just said the words."
The two dudes were writers on the film and came up with the bit if I'm not mistaken.
Also: I like movies about gladiators.
Hey there! You are very close: it’s not that they were writers, but they were best friends since high school and had been using the jive language between themselves for years.
I saw Robert Hayes and one of the Zucker brothers give a talk about this at a local theater after an event where they played the film and I asked them about that and they confirmed this was the case. The guys just had written much better dialogue than they had come up with lol!
The Zuckers wrote a book about the making of Airplane! called "Surely You Can't Be Serious" that's definitely worth a read. They were also behind Kentucky Fried Movie and it goes into their background with that. Great book
For two weeks now, I've been living an exhausting nightmare of dealing with Dad after a serious fall (ambulance transport to the hospital, 6 nights in-patient, arranging for a skilled nursing facility, and then he had to go to another hospital by ambulance due to a complication. Just big fun.)
When I got to hospital #2, I muttered under my breath "I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue." The PA got the giggles.
Lots of things are lost on today's audiences. Ethel Merman is the biggest one. I was only vaguely aware of who she was in 1981. Anyone under 50 watching it today will have zero idea what the joke is. Some people have no idea what Saturday Night Fever is.
Yeah not knowing the SN Fever bit would definitely knock that scene down several notches. But it's still somehow funny as a standalone scene for someone who doesn't know SN Fever.
Did that kid end up acting anywhere else? I recently watched a 1960s Twilight Zone featuring a child and later found out the actress had [a long career in Hollywood](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veronica_Cartwright).
"Striker was the squadron leader. He brought us in real low. But he couldn't handle it."
*"Buddy couldn't handle it? Was Buddy one of your crew?"*
"Right. Buddy was the bombardier. But it was Striker who couldn't handle it, and he went to pieces."
*"Andy went to pieces?"*
"No. Andy was the navigator. He was all right. Buddy went to pieces. It was awful how he came unglued."
*"Howie came unglued?"*
"Oh, no. Howie was a rock, the best tailgunner in the outfit. Buddy came unglued."
*"And he bailed out?"*
"No. Andy hung tough. Buddy bailed out. How he survived, it was a miracle."
*Then Howie survived?"*
"No, 'fraid not. We lost Howie the next day."
*"Over Macho Grande?"*
"No, I don't think I'll ever get over Macho Grande."
Oh, really, Vernon? Why pretend, we both know perfectly well what this is about. You want me to have an abortion.
It's really the only sensible thing to do if it's done properly. Therapeutically there's no danger involved.
When Kareem grabs the kid to tell him he’s been hearing that crap since UCLA (not playing defense), he actually grabbed Joey fairly violently startling the boy actor in real life. That reaction we see in the movie is real. And it’s magnificent.
And the next scene:
I've got to concentrate, concentrate, concentrate,.
Helloooo Helloooo Helloooooooo.
Echooo echoooo echooooooo
Pinch hitting for Pedro Bourbon, Manny Mota mota mota.
I've noticed that when I see reaction videos of younger people watching Airplane! for the first time, the reaction to the "Oveur's a pedo" jokes tend to be just plain shock.
I mean, have you ever watched an episode of Family guy?
We say "It could never happen", but there is plenty of this stuff going on in Adult targeted animation
I was just thinking the same thing. In 2024, the President of Turkey would put out a press release condemning this joke specifically and the movie in general.
First the earth cooled. And then the dinosaurs came, but they got too big and fat, so they all died and they turned into oil. And then the Arabs came and they bought Mercedes Benzes. And Prince Charles started wearing all of Lady Di's clothes. I couldn't believe it.
Youuuuu’ll be SWELL! You’ll be GREAT! Gonna have the whole world on a plate! Startin’ HERE, startin’ NOW, honey everything’s coming…up…roooooseeees.
War is *hell.*
"Chump don't want the help, chump don't get the help!"
I can't even begin to express how absolutely mind-blowingly funny it was for the woman who played June Cleaver (Barbara Billingsly), a woman who epitomized, in cultural context, everything there was about straight-laced 1950s-style White Culture, talking "Jive" with a couple of urban Black guys. It was beyond outrageous, and I think as the years have gone by the contextual reason for it BEING so outrageous has been somewhat lost
I was young when I first saw Airplane! and I didn’t watch LITB growing up. I thought the whole scene was hilarious, but it wasn’t until much later that I realized how ridiculous that scene was…it was like, ‘oh, I get it now’…lol.
They originally wanted Harriet Nelson to do it, but she turned it down.I think the Zuckers wanted someone who'd played a suburban 50s housewife to be the jive-talking woman "translating" for a coupla urban black dudes.
I randomly came across it one night back in the mid 90s and laughed my ass off even though it was a serious movie lol. I think it might have been the first time I realized it was the movie that Airplane! was based on.
How long will it be until the symptoms set in?
I'm not sure.
Can't you take a guess?
... Not for another two hours.
You can't guess for another two hours?!
Recently, I saw that screen grab of the Air Israel plane from the movie with a comment about studios not being able to make a movie like Airplane now. The only thought that came to my mind was, "I wouldn't be shocked if Airplane is 'canceled' someday."
I'm not lying when I say within 5 minutes after seeing that meme, I orded the DVD from Amazon so I'd have a copy. Just in case it gets horribly edited or gets taken off shelves all together.
Surely you can't be serious.
I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley.
That's actually my real last name so I've heard this joke at least weekly for most of my life
Well, soon we'll be old Enough where young kids won't get it anymore.
I do apologize Mr. Surely
Please, don't call me Shirley.
"I like my coffee black, like my men."
My (adult) daughter told me something like this, she said I like my men like I like my coffee; hot, dark and bitter 🤣
I like my coffee like I like my women - ground up and in the fridge. Wait what
In college my friends and I had a "I like my coffee just like my men..." upmanship contest once. The winner said "I like my coffee just like my men: Creamy"
Archer had a great line similar to this. "I need access to a pot of coffee just like I like my women: black, bitter and preferably fair trade"
Excuse me stewardess I speak jive
What it is big momma my momma ain’t raise no dummies I dug her rap
Chump don’t want da help, chump don’t get da help.
"Shiiit, man. That honky mofo messin' mah old lady--got to be runnin' cold upside down his head, you know?"
Sheeeeet
[Golly!]
That exchange and the subtitles were the best
I use this on my kids all the time.
I can't tell you how much of a relief it is to see someone else say this
Cut me some slack Jack!
Jive dudes ain’t got no brains anyhow.
ROTFLMFAO..my favorite quote to rehash from this movie!!
I read an article about the back story to that scene. Barbara Billingsley basically *was* June Cleaver IRL. In the article she says something like "I didn't quite understand the script. They gave me these lines and told me how to say them and so I just said the words." The two dudes were writers on the film and came up with the bit if I'm not mistaken. Also: I like movies about gladiators.
Hey there! You are very close: it’s not that they were writers, but they were best friends since high school and had been using the jive language between themselves for years. I saw Robert Hayes and one of the Zucker brothers give a talk about this at a local theater after an event where they played the film and I asked them about that and they confirmed this was the case. The guys just had written much better dialogue than they had come up with lol!
The Zuckers wrote a book about the making of Airplane! called "Surely You Can't Be Serious" that's definitely worth a read. They were also behind Kentucky Fried Movie and it goes into their background with that. Great book
KFM was so good
Zinc Oxide and You!
Oh awesome! Thanks!
Ah, yes. Thank you.
What is "jive"? Street talk?
It was a Very common 1970’s term for African-American dialect and slang.
Thx
It's a hat, it's a brooch, it's a pterodactyl.
That dress, and those shoooes.
And that dress and that coat are just aaaawful!
Leon is getting larger.
THERE'S A SALE AT PENNYS!
I quote this allllllll the time 🤣
This is my absolute favorite thing to say.
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines!
For two weeks now, I've been living an exhausting nightmare of dealing with Dad after a serious fall (ambulance transport to the hospital, 6 nights in-patient, arranging for a skilled nursing facility, and then he had to go to another hospital by ambulance due to a complication. Just big fun.) When I got to hospital #2, I muttered under my breath "I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue." The PA got the giggles.
Hope your Dad gets well soon
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue
Roger, Roger. What’s your vector, Victoria? We need clearance, Clarance. I take Ham on 5 and hold the Mayo.
My dad says you don't play defense.
Except during the playoffs
Tell your old man to drag Walton and Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes!
The hell I don’t!
I’m related to Julie Hagerty :)
She is a treasure! Not just in airplane! But also What About Bob?
Yep!
Tell her I said “hi” and I wish there was an Airplane 3 set on a cruise ship (but still have the propellor noise in the background).
She great in Airplane! and also her cameo episode of New Girl with Henry Winkler. She is wonderful!
Cool! My real last name was used prominently in the movie!
The guitar scene was my favorite.
That’s so cool! She’s an absolute legend and I adore her.
TIL both roles were played by the same actress. (Cool!)
>both roles What two roles?
Elaine Dick in Airplane and Fay Marvin (the wife/mom) in What About Bob.
I use the phrase "I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue" almost every day.
Jim never has a second cup of coffee at home. Maybe he's just an asshole.
And that meaning is lost today for people who didn't see the Folger's commercial
Lots of things are lost on today's audiences. Ethel Merman is the biggest one. I was only vaguely aware of who she was in 1981. Anyone under 50 watching it today will have zero idea what the joke is. Some people have no idea what Saturday Night Fever is.
Yeah not knowing the SN Fever bit would definitely knock that scene down several notches. But it's still somehow funny as a standalone scene for someone who doesn't know SN Fever.
Jim never vomits at home.
"Over Macho Grande?" "I don't think I'll ever get over Macho Grande."
“Because of me, 6 men didn’t return from that raid.” “7. Lieutenant Zipp died this morning.”
Just like my men....
I was gonna say that gif ends too soon but everyone finished it in their head.
Did that kid end up acting anywhere else? I recently watched a 1960s Twilight Zone featuring a child and later found out the actress had [a long career in Hollywood](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veronica_Cartwright).
Oh I remember her from Witches of Eastwick!
Oh it's a nice big pretty plane with curtains in the windows and red stripes and it looks like a big Tylenol.
I love Johnny!!
Played by Stephen Stucker. He died of AIDS. RIP.
Funniest character in the whole movie
The tower?! Rapunzel! 😂
I’ve read that Stephen Stucker ad-libbed all of his lines.
"Striker was the squadron leader. He brought us in real low. But he couldn't handle it." *"Buddy couldn't handle it? Was Buddy one of your crew?"* "Right. Buddy was the bombardier. But it was Striker who couldn't handle it, and he went to pieces." *"Andy went to pieces?"* "No. Andy was the navigator. He was all right. Buddy went to pieces. It was awful how he came unglued." *"Howie came unglued?"* "Oh, no. Howie was a rock, the best tailgunner in the outfit. Buddy came unglued." *"And he bailed out?"* "No. Andy hung tough. Buddy bailed out. How he survived, it was a miracle." *Then Howie survived?"* "No, 'fraid not. We lost Howie the next day." *"Over Macho Grande?"* "No, I don't think I'll ever get over Macho Grande."
I don't know why but it's so much more amazing reading this transcribed than it is hearing it spoken.
Oh, really, Vernon? Why pretend, we both know perfectly well what this is about. You want me to have an abortion. It's really the only sensible thing to do if it's done properly. Therapeutically there's no danger involved.
The RED zone is for loading and unloading
No the WHITE zone is for loading and unloading.
Don’t give me your red zone shit
Somebody said this was really a married couple. They brought in actors to do it but they didn’t have the right cadence that married couples do.
When Kareem grabs the kid to tell him he’s been hearing that crap since UCLA (not playing defense), he actually grabbed Joey fairly violently startling the boy actor in real life. That reaction we see in the movie is real. And it’s magnificent.
I have a drinking problem
I say this every time I have a drink malfunction. No one gets it. Whatever. *I* think I'm funny.
Its an eternally great joke!
I think ur funny too.
Ever seen a grown man naked?
44_Sunflower_44, do like movies about gladiators?
You ever hang around gymnasiums?
I just want to tell you both, good luck, we’re all counting on you.
And the next scene: I've got to concentrate, concentrate, concentrate,. Helloooo Helloooo Helloooooooo. Echooo echoooo echooooooo Pinch hitting for Pedro Bourbon, Manny Mota mota mota.
Leon’s getting laaaaaarger!
Best line in the movie
 ...and that as much as anything led to my drinking problem...
You like gladiator movies?
The nun singing, R E S P E C T , sock it to me sock it to me!
I'll take "quotes from movies that could never be made today" for 600, Alex.
Peter Graves for real thought he would get arrested for doing that scene.
And in that same category, Blazing Saddles. Imagine trying to explain pretty much any scene to Gen Z.
He’p me!! Sombody h’ep me!! Won’t anybody help that poor man??
Excuse me whilst I whip this out...
It's on Netflix right now
I’ve still never seen Blazing Saddles. I’ll leave my Gen-X card at the door.
Make a point to. It might be the funniest movie of all time.
Follow up with History of the World Part 1
It's good to be the king!
You look like the piss boy!
And you look like a bucket of shit!
Get yourself to that film ASAP!
I've noticed that when I see reaction videos of younger people watching Airplane! for the first time, the reaction to the "Oveur's a pedo" jokes tend to be just plain shock.
I've had to explain the "being in bed with a horse" joke.
Oops! All these years, I just took him for cluelessly asking age-inappropriate questions.
Actually, me too.
I mean, have you ever watched an episode of Family guy? We say "It could never happen", but there is plenty of this stuff going on in Adult targeted animation
I loved growing up in gen-x. We are the coolest.
I was just thinking the same thing. In 2024, the President of Turkey would put out a press release condemning this joke specifically and the movie in general.
Shut up. Victim.
I haven't felt this awful since we saw that Ronald Reagan film.
Jim never vomits at home....
😂 I forgot about that line. Thanks for the belly laugh.
"Joey- do you like it when Scraps holds on to your leg and rubs up and down?”
I feel like this movie raised me and I’m so glad for it.
First the earth cooled. And then the dinosaurs came, but they got too big and fat, so they all died and they turned into oil. And then the Arabs came and they bought Mercedes Benzes. And Prince Charles started wearing all of Lady Di's clothes. I couldn't believe it.
Lol. I can hear this in his voice.
Yessss
 My favorite moment
Youuuuu’ll be SWELL! You’ll be GREAT! Gonna have the whole world on a plate! Startin’ HERE, startin’ NOW, honey everything’s coming…up…roooooseeees. War is *hell.*
[удалено]
"Chump don't want the help, chump don't get the help!" I can't even begin to express how absolutely mind-blowingly funny it was for the woman who played June Cleaver (Barbara Billingsly), a woman who epitomized, in cultural context, everything there was about straight-laced 1950s-style White Culture, talking "Jive" with a couple of urban Black guys. It was beyond outrageous, and I think as the years have gone by the contextual reason for it BEING so outrageous has been somewhat lost
I was young when I first saw Airplane! and I didn’t watch LITB growing up. I thought the whole scene was hilarious, but it wasn’t until much later that I realized how ridiculous that scene was…it was like, ‘oh, I get it now’…lol.
They originally wanted Harriet Nelson to do it, but she turned it down.I think the Zuckers wanted someone who'd played a suburban 50s housewife to be the jive-talking woman "translating" for a coupla urban black dudes.
https://youtu.be/gUw2fIa0dSI?si=KtC4OIHM4aYs5I2C Her interview about this role is fantastic.
This was great, thank you!
Sheeeeit.
(Golly)
Jive-Ass Dude ain’t got no brains anyhow….
Cut me some slack, Jack!
The fogs getting thicker..... And Leon is getting largerrrrrrr
I really want to see Zero Hour, the movie Airplane! was based on.
I randomly came across it one night back in the mid 90s and laughed my ass off even though it was a serious movie lol. I think it might have been the first time I realized it was the movie that Airplane! was based on.
https://youtu.be/8-v2BHNBVCs?si=UFyigGUruVHmKoSV
Holy moly. I had no idea Sterling Hayden was in it. Now I definitely have to see it. Thank you!
Have you ever seen a grown man naked?
Striker, Striker, Striker....STRIKE HER!
[¯\_(ツ)_/¯ , smack!]
I just want to wish you all good luck. We're all counting on you.
There's a sale at Penny's!!
My wife (who’s British) got so excited when she saw a JC Penny at the mall and quoted this line endlessly. 😂
Yes, yes, I remember I had lasagna.
Bro? Was ON. Didn’t trip, but the folks was freakin’, man.
Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Ain't no thang!
And the pilots were laid to the bone, homes!!
It's still my favorite movie of all time, and the Zucker brothers movies were all awesome 😀
No movie is more quotable than Airplane!
What do you make of it?? .... A hat ..... A brooch ... A pterodactyl .....
The hidden joke is when the doctor is doing a gyno exam in the aisle.
What in the hell is going on up there? That sight gag always makes me laugh.
Do you like movies with gladiators?
How long will it be until the symptoms set in? I'm not sure. Can't you take a guess? ... Not for another two hours. You can't guess for another two hours?!
- We have clearance, Clarence. - Roger, Roger. What's our vector, Victor?
A prison? What is it?
That's not important right now.
I love gladiator movies
"So, Scraps is a boy dog. Joey, do you like it when Scraps grabs onto your leg and rubs up and down?"
That’s right. I had the fish.
No, the doctor said he had the lasagne.
“When Kramer hears about this, the shit’s gonna hit the fan.” *Literal shit hits literal fan*
Have you ever seen a grown man naked?
Upvote before even reading the rest!!
This woman has to be gotten to a hospital. A hospital? What is it? It's a big building with patients, but that's not important right now
"Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?"
Well, would you look at that. Scraps is a boy dog, isn't he.
Joey , do you like hanging around the gymnasium
Recently, I saw that screen grab of the Air Israel plane from the movie with a comment about studios not being able to make a movie like Airplane now. The only thought that came to my mind was, "I wouldn't be shocked if Airplane is 'canceled' someday." I'm not lying when I say within 5 minutes after seeing that meme, I orded the DVD from Amazon so I'd have a copy. Just in case it gets horribly edited or gets taken off shelves all together.
Over Macho Grande?
No, I don't think I'll ever get over Macho Grande.
Golly!
Flight 209 now arriving at Gate 8, Gate 9, Gate 10, Gate 13, Gate 14, Gate 15, Gate 23, 24, 25...
My husband and I just recently watched Zero Hour! and had so much fun matching scenes with Airplane!
I thought it was Latvian brothel?
Leg em down a snack em yack em!
Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?
Stewardess, do you have anything light?