PAUL These tests were conducted over a six month period using a double-blind format of eight over-lapping demographic groups. Every region of the country was sampled, the focus testing showed a solid base in the 9 to 11-year old bracket, with a possible carry-over into the 12-year olds. When you consider that Nobots and Transformers pull over 37 percent market share, and that we are targeting the same area, I think that we should see one quarter of that and that is one fifth of the total revenue from all of last year. Any questions? Yes? Yes?
JOSH I don't get it.
PAUL What exactly don't you get?
JOSH It turns from a building into a robot, right?
PAUL Precisely.
JOSH Well, what's fun about that?
PAUL Well, if you had read your industry breakdown, you would see that our success in the action figure area has climbed from 27 percent to 45 percent in the last two years. There, that might help.
JOSH Oh.
PAUL Yes?
JOSH I still don't get it.
PAUL What?!
MR. M What don't you get Josh?
JOSH Well, there's a million robots that turn into something. And this is a building that turns into a robot. So what's so fun about playing with a building? That's not any fun!
PAUL This is a skyscraper.
JOSH Well, couldn't it be like a robot that turns into something like a bug or something?
PAUL A bug?
JOSH Yeah! Like a big prehistoric insect with maybe like giant claws that could pick up a car and crush it like that!
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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If nothing else, this thread has given us a good excuse to revisit some of our favorite movies. Posts: 1592 | Registered: May 2000
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if I actually watched Sienfeld I would go with that...but...but...it just doesn't gratify a non-Sienfeld watcher who is driven insane by it...
Posts: 1158 | Registered: Feb 2004
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anyone read the 5th book in the trilogy of 4? Oriphus AfterDawn Addict 12 December 2003 07:28 Its confirmed. Rewinded the DVD and played it again. A straight quote from that film.
posted
Once and for all, I'd like to shoot down the Seinfeld, Simpsons, and H2G2 guesses. I have every Seinfeld(the episodes in which Kramer invents are called "The Opposite" and "The Cigar Store Indian) and Simpsons episode, and it's not there. I've checked.
And I have the book, radio, and BBC miniseries of the Hitchhiker's Guide, and it's not in any of them.
posted
I don't think it's a quote from any particular place. It's just a common idiom in the English language to say "That's the beauty of it" about something useless.
But check out what you get when you Google the quote:
A million forums having this same debate. Plus a Hentai site that has the quote in its random search-engine-cheating string. I guess it's just that popular a phrase ...
Posts: 1907 | Registered: Feb 2000
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If we cannot find this phrase in pop culture, can we find the first appearance of this phrase (or close variant of it) in a work of literature.
Posts: 1592 | Registered: May 2000
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I'm willing to serve as Chief Debunker for all the "I'm sure it's in" theories. I don't think it's ever ben said, not that precise quote. No one has yet been able to provide an exact quote, in context, for verification.
Similar quotes that could contribute to the familiarity of this one:
Moe: What's yer watch say? Curly: It don't say nuthin', you gotta look at it. any number of Three Stooges movies
Charlie: What's it do? Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, said in several different ways, but never with an answer resembling our puzzle
Colin Pillock: So, which of them is it, Mr. Perrin? A social venture for the benefit of mankind? Purely a commercial venture? Or a con trick? Reginald Perrin: Yes. It's all three of them. That's the beauty of it. The Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin
Mrs. Peacock: What does your husband do? Mrs. White: Nothing. Mrs. Peacock: Nothing? Mrs. White: Well, he just lies around on his back all day. Miss Scarlet: Sounds like hard work to me. Clue
Homer: What does it do? Marge: It doesn't do anything. Homer: No really, come on. Marge: If it does anything, it's doing it right now. The Simpsons
Janet: What have you done to Brad! Frank: Nothing. Why, do you think I should? Rocky Horror Picture Show
Spock: Weren't those a gift from Dr. McCoy? Kirk: And they will be again. That's the beauty of it. Star Trek IV, The Voyage Home
It invokes the kind of internally-consistent, bizarre-from-the-outside logic we're familiar with these sources and from Hitchhiker's Guide, The Animaniacs, Cheers, Monty Python, and a zillion other places. But I don't think that quote, as it's listed, has been said.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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I'm pretty sure Thalia's hatrack thread was the first incarnation of this question on the web. The imdb thread by ssywak seems to have spawned many others through the continuing interest in this question =)
Posts: 1892 | Registered: Mar 2002
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posted
Thanks for dragging me into this conundrum! I'm just glad I haven't spent the entire last year dwelling on this.
Here's a couple of items I've found through Google:
quote:It is most definitely from "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy". I've been watching it and it came up when someone was using a machine. The alien fella says (after being asked 'What does it do') "It doesnt do anything, thats the beauty of it".
When asked if he was sure:
quote:Its confirmed. Rewinded the DVD and played it again. A straight quote from that film.
Louisville Scene says:
quote:Name......: (Anonymous) Question..: "What does it do?" "It doesn't DO anything. That's the beauty of it!" It's from The Simpsons in the episode where Homer's half brother (I think, maybe step brother) Herb Powell is explaining his invention. He is talking about the 'drinking' bird and Homer asks, "What does it do?"
Thank you for answering that question for our readers. Judith Egerton
I don't own either of these, so I can't confirm or deny, but there's too many Hitchhiker fans on here for that first one to be right, aren't there?
Posts: 159 | Registered: Jun 2004
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posted
At this point I'll believe an answer when someone gives the position of the quote by minutes-into-the-film and puts a clip on the web. Until then, all answers are suspect.
Dagonee *It wasn't in Bubba Hotep, though. We can cross that off the list. Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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I still say this can easily be added to the Ender's Game script, which would close the loop nicely.
All over the country, people will cheer at that line, and 95% of the people in the theater will have no clue why.
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And it should totally get inserted into EG (or the new Hitchhiker's would work). Confuse the heck out of all those crazy internet people.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Cool site, Trevor. I think I went there years ago but forgot about it. It's a trivia lover's dreamsite. I liked this node: definition of normal number , which also explains the Infinite Monkeys Theorem.
Posts: 6316 | Registered: Jun 2003
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posted
Better than inserting this quote into some movie in the future, if I ever write a screenplay I will insert quotes that are very very similar but not quite it interspersed throughout several different scenes, to frustrate everyone further. Maybe have the actual quote as a stinger at the end of the credits.
"What does it do?" "Do? I don't know."
"What does it do?" "Do? It's just sort of beautiful."
"What does it do?" "Do? It doesn't DO anything. That's the-" *car crashes through room, speaker is shot, or other sudden violent interruption.*
posted
Back to the original question of "What does it do? It doesn't do anything, that's the beauty of it." It's from the movie Our Man Flint. An American version of James Bond.
Posts: 250 | Registered: Aug 2005
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LOL. Ok, I just checked the date on THIS thread and it preceeds the others! Duh.
Well, someone better put the line in a movie soon. Seems like I *did* hear it in the new version of Willy Wonka...
Posts: 1209 | Registered: Dec 2003
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I have asked the 100 hour board (http://theboard.byu.edu/index.php?area=about) and if they turn up stumped then I am willing to give up.
Posts: 250 | Registered: Aug 2005
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I too could've sworn I heard it in the new Willy Wonka, but I'm also thinking Red Dwarf or a Mel Brooks film.
Posts: 1215 | Registered: Apr 2005
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There is a line in the simpsons that sounds familier, this one:
Homer: What does it do? Marge: It doesn't do anything. Homer: No really, come on. Marge: If it does anything, it's doing it right now.
It also sounds like it could've came from Third Rock from the Sun, or Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy though...
Posts: 879 | Registered: Apr 2005
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The person who bumped this thread should be shot. Jonathan Howard, you are on my list. And I don't mean Christmas.
Posts: 2064 | Registered: Dec 2003
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I would have to say...the line comes from nowhere. Surely the IMDb would have the quote somewhere, you know they have all the clever and memorable quotes from every movie you could think of. And don't you think at least ONE person in the world would be able to recall EXACTLY where it came from? Once more, for all to hear, THE LINE DOES NOT EXIST outside of the crazed search for its origin.
Posts: 4 | Registered: Dec 2005
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