Roughly six months ago, I pinned a pin on Pintrest of the Ghostbusters on the cover of Time Magazine. Now if you don't know what a pin is or didn't really enjoy Ghostbusters then you should probably stop reading now because…well... NOT FOR YOU. The aforementioned pin was re-pinned by random members of the social media collective nearly 200 times and counting. A good portion of that, I might add, was months before Harold Ramis tragically died and there was a momentary spike in popularity (sad). It occurred to me as the picture made its way around the webiverse, that Ghostbusters has, thirty years later, remained a relatively prevalent part of my life. As a matter of fact, I quoted it just this weekend at a party and got a nice, heartfelt round of laughter as my reward. "If someone asks you if you're a God…you say YES!" never, ever gets old. It's a genius line in a genius movie. And clearly it's still resonating out there too. What a happy, happy surprise!
Something similar happened to me earlier in the year on a much smaller scale. My hubby and I were on a plane ride that was so short there was no movie, so we were watching television instead. Austin Powers in Goldmember was on VH1 and we were happy for the distraction. About halfway in, and after laughing so loudly from beneath my Bose headphones, the gentleman on my right also flipped over to the movie to join in the revelry, I turned to my husband and said, "I had forgotten how much of this movie has snuck into our everyday vernacular". I can often be found regurgitating such memorable lines as "I am your fahza", "freaky deaky Dutch people", "Shmoke and a pancake? Bong and a blintz?", "Moley, moley, moley…", and "Easy peasy lemon squeezey…" on a pretty regular basis. I could also say any of these lines at any random moment and my friends and family would know exactly what I was referencing and often launch into a fifteen/twenty bit diatribe of their own. That's just how we roll.
It's so amazing to me that these random words, strung together in a certain fashion, or delivered in a particular way have actually changed lives. It ain't curing cancer, or traveling into space, or even achieving world peace (although I could probably make a pretty compelling argument for that if given the time), but it sure does have a way of bringing people together. When you quote a movie, or a book, or a TV show, or a comedian with someone you're practically handing them, and anyone else within earshot, your autobiography. This is our own modern day Greek chorus, our resume, the world's most accurate personal ad. I don't care if you're spurting out Seinfield or Shakespeare -- this is our new way of communicating, of sharing…of making a connection. And I'm not ashamed to admit, I love it. I'm at a place in my life where I'm really greedy with my free time and this has become my shorthand, my succinct internal interview process for all brave new recruits. If, right off the bat, you can quote Weird Science, know what an oily bow hunk is and can finish this sentence, "Froggy Went A Courtin' He Did Ride It…" you're pretty much in. Jennie approved. Thanks for playing. One of Us.
So, in conclusion, I'll try to be brief since I have to run over to Toshi Station and pick up some power converters --These bleads? Up this nose? Do you have a flag? Red pill or blue pill? Fifty dollar bill! Winter is coming. It's either sadness or euphoria. Bow ties are cool. The goggles, they do nothing. Ray has gone bye-bye Egon, so what've you got left?
How'd you do? Shall we meet for schawarma? I know a great place...