Top 25 TV put-downs

February 28th, 2008 at 11:46 am by David Farrar

The BBC has a list of the top 25 put-downs on TV.  Some I have not heard of, but the ones I can recall are:

  • Basil Fawlty – Fawlty Towers. To Sybil: “Oh dear, what happened? Did you get entangled in the eiderdown again? Not enough cream in your eclair? Hmm? Or did you have to talk to all your friends for so long that you didn’t have time to perm your ears?”
  • Edmund Blackadder – Blackadder II. To Lord Percy: “The eyes are open, the mouth moves, but Mr Brain has long since departed, hasn’t he, Percy?”
  • Roseanne Conner – Roseanne. To husband Dan: “Your idea of romance is popping the can away from my face.”
  • Carla – Cheers. Cliff: “I’m ashamed God made me a man.” Carla: “I don’t think God’s doing a lot of bragging about it either.”
  • Statler and Waldorf – The Muppet Show. Statler: “Wake up, you old fool, you slept through the show.” Waldorf: “Who’s a fool? You watched it.”
  • JR Ewing – Dallas. “Ray never was comfortable eating with the family – we do use knives and forks.”
  • Dr Perry Cox – Scrubs. Dr Elliot Reid: “I don’t think you understand the severity of the situation here. I am dangerously close to giving up men altogether.” Dr Cox: “Then on behalf of men everywhere – and I do mean everywhere, including the ones in little mud huts – let me be the first to say thanks and hallelujah.”
  • Dr Gregory House – House. “You can think I’m wrong, but that’s no reason to stop thinking.”
  • Captain Mainwaring – Dad’s Army. “You stupid boy!”

One could do a post just on the top 25 put-downs in Blackadder!

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17 Responses to “Top 25 TV put-downs”

  1. kiwi in america (1,895) Says:

    Best put down by a politician – aside from Winston Churchill’s numerous well reported classics was one reported from Sir Robert Menzies, Australia’s Liberal PM in the 50′s and 60′s. Apparently at an election meeting in his Melbourne electorate in the early 1950′s a woman yelled “I wouldn’t vote for you if you were the angel Gabriel himself” to which Menzies retorted “Madame – if I were, you wouldn’t be in MY constituency”

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  2. poneke (280) Says:

    This one reminds me to get some AbFab on DVD:

    Patsy Stone – Absolutely Fabulous. “One more facelift on this one and she’ll have a beard.”

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  3. philu (13,393) Says:

    best put down of fox news..(live-on-air)..so far..

    http://whoar.co.nz/2008/comedian-goes-on-fox-newsand-ridicules-fox-news/

    phil(whoar.co.nz)

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  4. Right of way is Way of Right (1,040) Says:

    Is “Rich prick” in that list anywhere, perchance?

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  5. llew (1,532) Says:

    Best political putdown I’ve heard of (but I don’t know the pollies in question, maybe someone else does?) was two Australian MPs in the house, one finished his speech with the words

    “…because I’m a country member”

    a voice from across the house piped up

    “We remember”.

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  6. dad4justice (7,339) Says:

    Achtung baby. No sense of humour ? But ve Germans invented ze silly walk.

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  7. monsta (8) Says:

    What? No Stewie Griffin quotes?
    “Damn you, vile woman! You’ve impeded my work since the day I escaped from your wretched womb.” is one of the tamer ones :)

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  8. RRM (7,207) Says:

    It sure beats reading “You half-educated socialist fuckwits” over and over again… 8)

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  9. Ghostwhowalksnz (128) Says:

    What about Churchills more famous put down ( but not on TV)

    nancy astor : If you (Churchill) were my husband Id poison your coffee
    Churchill : If you were my wife Id drink it.

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  10. sean (392) Says:

    One could do a post just on the top 25 put-downs in Blackadder!

    I was thinking exactly the same!

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  11. Rex Widerstrom (4,965) Says:

    Llew, as far as I remember (boom boom!) that was Gough Whitlam’s riposte to Doug Antony.

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  12. philu (13,393) Says:

    stewie griffin is the king/master of the nasty/vitriolic..yet accurate.. put down..

    i bend the knee to those scriptwriters..

    phil(whoar.co.nz)

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  13. aucklandabbey (37) Says:

    yeah they are good arent they phil

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  14. aucklandabbey (37) Says:

    as least some of us try and make a fun time out of the latest stories on here it cant be all doom and gloom ay fellow debaters.

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  15. aucklandabbey (37) Says:

    and anyway what happend to the General debate section? people behind the scenes i seem to be alone on here yet again

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  16. Lance (1,926) Says:

    I hope I have this right.. memory being what it is)

    My favorite (non TV) put down was Golda Maier to some US senator. “You are not important enough to be that humble”.

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  17. dansemacarbe(1) Says:

    Here’s one I like. It was from a nameless show I saw at 2am one time. It was a rip off of Married With Children, but with the benefit of an animatronic talking dog. Go figure. Anyhoo, the Peggy character says to the Al character:

    Peggy: Oh Al, when did the romance leave our marriage?

    Al: I remember it well. It was our wedding night. That was when I realised that everything you do, say or think makes me sick.

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