Month: March 2016

“Get busy living, or get busy dying.”

From: The Shawshank Redemption

Genre: Movies

Who said it?: Andy Dufresne

The story behind the quote: The quote comes from the critically acclaimed film, The Shawshank Redemption. The movie follows Andy Dufrense, who was wrongfully convicted of killing his wife and the man she was having an affair with. He is imprisoned in Shawshank, where he befriends Ellis “Red” Redding, who is serving a life sentence. While not a commercial hit when it was first released, The Shawshank Redemption has become a classic due to near universal approval.

The quote comes after Andy Dufresne (played by Tim Robbins) is released from solitary. He meets up with “Red” Redding (played by Morgan Freeman) and Andy dreams of what he would do if he ever does make it out of prison. Red tells Andy that he shouldn’t keep dreaming about life on the outside. That’s when Andy turns to Red and delivers the quote

Geek wisdom: When in times of deep despair, we can feel that life is hopeless and there is no meaning to living anymore. It can be easy to think that life is all about suffering and pain during these trying times. However, the only time life is actually not worth living is when we give up on the hope that things will never get better.

We should never give up on life and try to move past the hard times. That’s the only way things will actually get better.

“…the points don’t matter.”

From: Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Genre: Television

Who said it?: The various hosts of the show

The story behind the quote: The quote comes from the incredibly long-lived improv comedy show, Whose Line Is It Anyway? The basic premise of the show is that the host gives a panel of four comedians a series of various scenarios to act out improv-style. He may then ask the comedians to perform various other things on the fly, like changing the personality in the middle of the scene. The humor is usually derived from how the comedians react and how they react to each other.

The quote is usually said by the host to explain that, although it’s supposed to be a game show, the points are just arbitrarily on a whim. The original UK show (hosted by Clive Anderson) doesn’t mention this often. However, when the show moved to the US, hosts Drew Carrey (during the show’s intial 1998-2005 run) and Aisha Tyler (who is currently the host of the revival since 2013), make it a point to mention the quote frequently.

Geek wisdom: Social convention will try to tell us what makes us a success. They will try to pound into us there is a series of tick boxes you have to fill in to say that you’ve made it in life. Have a family. Have a high paying job. Own your own house. But these things may not mean anything to others… maybe even you.

We try to compare ourselves to these “points” even though they may not matter to us because society tells us so. We don’t have to follow the normal convention of success as the measure of a man’s success depends on whether or not he met his own personal goals or not.

“Fear can never kill you.”

From: Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins

Genre: Movies

Who said it?: Chiun

The story behind the quote: The movie comes from the little known film, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. The movie was loosely based on The Destroyer, a series of books. The movie and the books all focus around Remo Williams (played by Fred Ward), a former New York police officer forcibly recruited into a secret government organization to fight off evils that ordinary law enforcement can tackle. Remo Williams is trained by Chiun (played by Joel Grey), a Korean martial artist, who trains him in the martial art known as Sinanju, which gives Remo the ability to do extraordinary feats, like dodging bullets.

The quote comes early in the film during the initial stages of Remo’s training. Standing on the ledge of the building, Chiun asks Remo to follow him. When Remo climbs up on the ledge, Chiun immediately runs to the other end of the building and beckons his student to follow him. Remo is hesitant as he’s afraid he may fall off. That is when Chiun tells Remo that fear is just a feeling and delivers the quote.

Geek wisdom: We sometimes let fear control our actions. While fear may be good in telling us we shouldn’t be doing something dangerous or stupid, we do have a lot of irrational fears that stop us from doing actions that may benefit us. It could be speaking in front of large crowds or being rejected. But we do have to get over some of our fears as these irrational fears prevent us from being more than we can be.

“I’ve made a huge mistake.”

From: Arrested Development

Genre: Television

Who said it?: Most of the Bluth Family Members but mostly “Gob”

The story behind the quote: Arrested Development is a sitcom that focuses around the Bluths, a family of rather deviant people. While the sitcom was acclaimed by critics and did get a huge cult following, the show was ultimately cancelled after only three seasons. The show’s fanbase did prove large enough to warrant Netflix to develop a fourth season roughly seven years after the show’s cancellation. The show is known for a lot of Easter Eggs as well as recurring gags like this week’s quote.

The quote is actually exclaimed by the majority of the Bluth family, however, it’s Gob Bluth that says it the most often. It’s usually uttered after one of the characters does something he/she thinks is the right thing to do only to realize a few moments later that it was actually a bonehead move.

Geek wisdom: Everyone makes mistakes and it’s okay to make them most of the time. Mistakes are actually one of the best tools we have to learn new things. However, it’s a huge mistake to keep on making the same errors over and over again, repeating them ad nauseam.