I realized that I’ve been doing this GeekWisdom thing for a while (a year and a half already!) and I’ve been having fun wracking my brain remembering TV, movie and video game quotes and trying to extract some wisdom from them. But, right now, I’m pretty much stretching my memory getting really memorable quotes at this time. Also, it’s also been a problem finding the quotes, especially on YouTube (since a lot of the quotes that I would want to put here are either not there because of copyright issues or they can’t be embedded).
Anyway, if any of you guys and gals reading this have any quotes that I may have missed or would like to get some geek wisdom from, please add them in the comments for this post. I promise I’ll give the proper credits necessary.
The story behind the quote: The Resident Evil series from Capcom popularized horror games and was the basis for the entire “survival horror” genre. Take note that didn’t actually create survival horror as there were horror games like Alone in the Dark or Clock Tower that came before it. However, it does earn the distinction of taking horror games into the mainstream.
While the first game in the series was a breakthrough and did have some genuine scares (remember the jump you got when the dogs jumped through the windows?), that’s not to say that the story and script was very good. In fact, the voice acting is pretty bad, especially if you compare it to today’s standards. But at the time, having any voice acting in a game was pretty phenomenal. However, there is an advantage to having such poor voice acting and awful dialogue: the quotes in the game become extremely memorable… such as the quote in question.
If you play as Jill Valentine, the female in the game, you and one of your squad members, Barry Burton, get separated from the rest of your team members. So, they decide to split up to cover more ground. Barry then remembers that he found a lockpick. Knowing that Jill is “the master of unlocking,” he generously gives it to Jill since it will be much more useful to her.
Geek wisdom: If you’re not really using something and you know that someone will find that item useful, you might as well let that someone have it. We tend to be greedy with our possessions and actually hoard stuff, citing that we “may need it in the future” or there’s some sentimental value with these items. But there may be people that may need these items much more than you.
Try to remember to help other people. It may be difficult to let go but, if it helps other people, you know that the thing that you loved before is being put into good use.
The story behind the quote: We’ve already noted in a previous post that Seinfeld has a lot of memorable quotes. So… here’s another one! The quote comes from the third season episode “The Alternate Side.”
Kramer goes to Jerry Seinfeld’s apartment to announce that he just got a line in the latest Woody Allen movie. George then busts in, severely rattled because of his new job of parking cars across the street (which is apparently not as easy as he thought it would be). Anyway, Elane asks Kramer what the line is and he tells everyone the line he’s going to say is “These pretzels are making me thirsty!” Elaine and Jerry then give their own way of saying the line. Then, George, who is still stressed from his job, gives the line in a very angry tone.
Everyone looks at him funny and George explains that they have no idea what the pretzel guy is feeling that day. Maybe the guy is angry because he took up a job parking cars for a living. He then rushes to the window and yells the line at the people waiting for George to park their cars.
Geek wisdom: We always tell people to use their words when they talk. However, the way they say it is also very important. You can’t just rely on the actual words; you have to listen to the way the words are being said. In fact, the way something is being said can actually be more important than the actual words.
Try to pay attention to the way things are being said and not just the actual thing being said.
Who said it?: Narrator for the Exploring Your Masculinity audio tape
The story behind the quote: In and Out was a film that was pretty much a breakthrough for its time because it used homosexuality not as a punchline. Rather, it uses homosexuality as the main plot point. Not only that, it never used (outright anyway) the gay stereotype.
The story is about Howard Brackett (played by Kevin Kline), a teacher from middle school. One of his former students won the Best Actor award during the Oscars for his portrayal of a gay soldier. During the acceptance speech, the student thanks Howard Brackett for helping him… and tells the entire world Howard is gay.
Howard quickly denies being homosexual. However, after an encounter with reporter Tom Malloy (played by Tom Selleck), where he gets kissed by the gay reporter, he starts to question his manhood. He then rushes home to play a tape to try to reaffirm his heterosexuality… with poor results.
Geek wisdom: People are generally paranoid of what others think of us. So, we try to convince ourselves that we are “normal” people. No, we don’t really like comic book because “comics are for kids.” I “used” to play Dungeons and Dragons but I don’t anymore because, well, that would be ridiculous! We try to act “normal.”
The thing is, we are all normal. Our interests and likes make us what we are. However, the first thing we have to do is tell ourselves that our interests and likes are okay.
Be happy with who you really are deep down inside. In fact, you should be proud of who you are inside. If you wanna dance, go ahead and dance!
The story behind the quote: We’ve already discussed a bunch of Street Fighter II quotes, such as Ryu’s victory quote regarding the “mysterious” Sheng Long and even M. Bison’s quote regarding Tuesday. However, these quotes came from the extremely popular 2nd entry in the series. Most people haven’t even played the original Street Fighter game. Now seems like the perfect time to take a gander at it.
The original Street Fighter game was actually a pretty amazing fighting game… for its time. While there were some games that used different characters like Yie Ar Kung Fu, you normally played as an ordinary guy with no real special skills while your opponents can do amazing things. In Street Fighter, Ryu (or Ken if you’re playing as the 2nd player), you can throw fireballs, perform spinning kicks or a devastating jumping uppercut. While the controls weren’t responsive (you’d be lucky to actually get the fireball motion to register), that was pretty different for its time and did gain a significant following.
Another big innovation would be digitized voices. Ryu and Ken would yell out “Flash Fire” or “Dragon Punch” when they did the fireball and Dragon Punch, respectively. The most memorable use of digitized speech used would have to be the entire quote spouted out by the computer opponent when you beat them. Even though the sound quality was terrible (it was pretty hard to understand it without the subtitles), it was still amazing to actually hear it.
Geek wisdom: You may think that you are the best at a certain thing but you cannot rest on your laurels. You have to constantly practice your craft in order to actually be the best. For example, you may think that you’re the best Street Fighter at your arcade, however, unless you actually go to different arcades and test your skills against new players, you’ll never improve.
Sure there’s a fear of losing, but that fear is also important since the only way you can get better is to try testing yourself against others. If you want to be the best at anything, you have to prove yourself as the best.
The story behind the quote: If you don’t already know, the Austin Powers series is a spoof of James Bond movies of the 60’s and 70’s and spy movies in general. However, while it is the hero that is the main star of the James Bond movies, it is the main antagonist, Dr. Evil that usually steals the spotlight. Not because he’s one of those villains that are just pure evil. Rather, it’s his incompetence on actually being evil.
An example of his incompetence would be his blackmailing the world. In the first movie, after being frozen in the 60’s and being thawed out in the 90’s, he attempted to ask all the world’s leaders for the sum of “one million dollars” and the world leaders got a good laugh out of it. It’s because, while one million dollars was a lot of money in the 60’s, it’s not that big of a deal in the 90’s, especially for the world economy.
When he went to the past, he tried to blackmail the world again, this time, he asked for 100 billion dollars (which is the new amount he asked for in the 90’s). The world leaders in the 60’s laughed at this amount as well since, well, that amount of money didn’t even exist yet!
Geek wisdom: There are always going to be changes around us. These changes will happen whether we accept them or not. So, the best thing to do is to always try to adapt. Without us even trying to know about these changes, we ourselves will never evolve.
We can try to cling to the thoughts of the “good ol’ days” all we want. It doesn’t change the fact that changes will happen. We may not always agree or even like the changes, but we do have to at least learn these changes.
The story behind the quote: The quote comes from the film A Few Good Men. While this may be considered spoilers since it happens pretty much at the end of the film (and is actually “the big thing” of the entire story), a lot of people don’t seem to recognize this fact.
Here’s a quick summary of the scene…
Lt. Jr. Grade Danny Keefe (played by Tom Cruise) has pretty much determined that Col. Nathat Jessup (played by Jack Nicholson) given a “code red” (essentially an order to punish soldiers without any hearing) which led to the death of Officer Santiago. However, Keefe is without any form of proof. He devices a plan to call Col. Jessup to the stand during the trial and get him angry. In this way, he hopes that Col. Jessup will incriminate himself by admitting that he ordered the code red.
Keefe’s finds a flaw in the Col’s initial statement that Santiago should have been safe since there were orders not to harm him. Yet, at the same time, there were orders that he should be transferred for safety reasons. Keefe repeatedly asks the Colonel why would there be a need to transfer Santiago if there were standing orders not to hurt him. He eventually gets Col. Jessup to admit that he ordered the code red. However, the Colonel makes a speech saying that he gave the order to make sure that our freedoms are kept safe.
Geek wisdom: There are actually two pieces of Geek Wisdom we can pull from, not just the quote, but the entire monologue…
Like Col. Jessup said, there are some secrets that you think you want to be privy to, but in reality, the weight of those secrets can be too much to bear. There are going to be things that we believe that we can handle but we really can’t. We will have to rely on others to bear these (sometimes) terrible burdens and perform terrible actions because of them.
However, as Col. Jessup also said, we do have the liberty to condemn others for doing these terrible things, but we don’t know the full story. We may think that there may have been another way to prevent such horrible actions but there may be details that prevented a peaceful resolution. We do have to keep that in mind before we totally rally against something.
The story behind the quote: Family Matters was a sitcom that initially started as show about the Winslow family and how they dealt with family issues. That all changed with the introduction of Steve Urkel. Steve Urkel (portrayed by Jaleel White) was the nerdy next door neighbor who wanted to win the heart of Laura, the teenage daughter of Carl and Harriet Winslow. Although Urkel was only supposed to be a guest character, viewers loved the character so much that he eventually became a regular character and, in fact, became the reason to watch the show since most (if not all) of the stories revolved around him.
A lot of the jokes was due to Urkel’s extreme clumsiness. These clumsy acts would usually cause a ton of damage to the Winslows property. Although he knows that he did destroy the items in question, he would still look around and ask if he was the one who did it. In fact, it happened so frequently, it became one of his catchphrases.
Here’s probably the most disastrous thing that Urkel has actually done:
Geek wisdom: We sometimes do stupid things or have accidents. While they may or may not be intentional, these actions are still ultimately our fault and our responsibility to rectify. A lot of us actually shrink away from taking ownership of the problems that we cause and try to pass it on as the fault of others.
Our life, our choices. We have to live with the repercussions of what we do, no matter if they were good or bad.
The story behind the quote: Kevin Smith is a pretty popular filmmaker now. However, in 1994, he started out as a literal unknown and used up a lot of his personal savings to create his first movie, Clerks. The film tells the story of a day in the life of Dante, a down-on-his-luck clerk at a Quick Stop who was called into work on his rest day.
The quote comes from a specific scene where Dante and his friend (and clerk of a video store) Randall are talking about the construction of the Death Star in the third installment of the original Star Wars trilogy, Return of the Jedi. Randall comments that since the Death Star was still being constructed during the Rebel Alliance’s attach on the station, there must have been some innocent contractors on it when it got blown up.
A roofer who happens to overhear the conversation then interrupts and states that, since he is a contractor himself, his political beliefs actually contributes to his accepting of a job. He then tells the story when he was asked to repair the roof of a certain house and he would be paid much more than what he would usually charge. However, he found out that the house belongs to a dangerous mob boss so he decided to refer another contractor to do the job. Unfortunately for the other contractor, a rival mob decided to attack the house and was killed. The roofer then points to his heart and states that he listens to that when it’s time to select what job to take.
Geek wisdom: A person’s integrity should not have a price. There have to be certain limits to what we will do for material items. If you believe in something, no amount of wealth should be enough to change your mind. If there is a certain amount that will make you throw away what you believe is right, then you didn’t really believe in it in the first place.
The story behind the quote: Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed series is a weird game if you think about it. Although it is set in the present time, the bulk of each game takes place in the past. You take control of Desmond, who uses a machine called the Animus so that he can relive the lives of his ancestors. His ancestors, by the way, just so happen to be a part of a clan of Assassins who used their skills to oppose the Knights Templar. He needs to experience their lives in order to to find an item that can possibly prevent the world from dying.
Anyway, the Assassins follow a Creed (hey, that’s the title of the games!) that is basically the quote in question. Although it is mentioned several times throughout the games. However, some people do not seem to really grasp the gravity and the meaning behind the message of the Creed. In Assassin’s Creed: Revelations (technically the fourth installment in the series), one of Desmond’s ancestors, Ezio Auditore de Firenze, explains it to someone…
Geek wisdom: Since there are two parts to the Creed (and already explained by Ezio very well), let’s just break it down into simpler words…
Saying that “nothing is true” is not actually a negative thing, as Ezio mentioned. All of the rules and laws that we’ve made are just that, they were made by us. And these rules can change for the better and the worse. Before, having a slave was not only acceptable, but gave people a sense of privilege. Thankfully, that time has passed and slavery has been pretty much outlawed all over the world.
However, the best part of the Creed (for me, anyway) is the “everything is permitted” part. We like to think that fate led us to what we have become up to this time. In fact, what we are right now is the culmination of all of our decisions. Even the smallest ones, like if you wanted to eat an apple or a candy bar as a snack, has made you the person that you are. When bad things happen to us, we like to think that “it isn’t my fault.” Well, it is. And we have to own up to our choices, whether the outcome be good or bad.
My Geek Wisdom 