Because most philosophies that frown on reproduction don't survive.

Monday, December 29, 2008

Is that absolutely necessary?

Phrases often achieve a sort of iconic status within family culture. In ours, one of the standard exchanges is:

"Is that absolutely necessary?"
"Yes, 'e's afraid it is."

These days, this is usually said within the context of young master Jack doing something -- like spitting cheese all over someone's new outfit or overflowing a diaper in a particularly disgusting fashion.

The context is an exchange from Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits, the first of his trilogy which also included Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. And as you can see, it covers the inexplicable rather well:

Time Bandits was a movie that I watched dozens of times when I was eight or nine -- which may explain rather much about me...

4 comments:

Kate said...

That may have to go on my Netflix list.

My husband and I have our own 'iconic' phrase, lifted from the Branagh film, "How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog."

(relevant clip here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvQ48Ushs5w&feature=related )

Our three year old will run up and say something to us in typical unintelligible excited fashion, and one of us will say, "nope, didn't get a thing out of that."

Anonymous said...

Jolly good scene. Jolly good.

TS said...

I've never seen it...just requested it from the library.

John Farrell said...

I always loved Time Bandits. Munchausen, I think, remains Gilliams' unappreciated masterpiece.