Identify this quote!

[JohnT]

And I need actual source material - not "Oh, I think it was in... "

Here goes:



"What does it do?"
"That's the beauty of it. It doesn't do anything!"



Finding the source to this quote has become a minor mania over the past two years, first hitting the IMDB, then becoming fodder for blogs, and then slowly creeping its way across the message board circuit (landing on the Straight Dope where I found it), and even making it into Snopes.

This is your chance for Internet Immortality! What are you waiting for????

[Kuciwalker]

clearly it originated here

[DAVOUT]

This quote looks like a story often repeated in my family.

It is a discussion between my father and the Director of my school.
My father: What does he do?
The Director: He does not do anything.
Myself (motivated by an absolute lack of desire to work): That's the beauty of it.

I cant imagine how JohnT has been made aware of that very personal incident which is tentatively disguised by changing He by IT in the first two phrases.

[DeathByTheSword]

i know it is from a movie...and when someone comes up with the right name is will say oh ofcourse...but right now i am drawing a blank..

[Tattila the Hun]

My brother recals it being from The Pretender, a TV-show.

Jarod, captive in the Center, has buid something. Miss Parker ask, "What does it do?" to which Broots, who is also present, answers, "That's the beauty of it, it doesn't do anything."

Kinda hard to verify....

Personally, I thought it would be an answer to Jarod about some trinket he gets fixated to, as he usually does, like Mr. Potato Head or Pez dispenser. (He has live all of his life cooped up in an institute... Coz he is a genious.)

[DeathByTheSword]

could work...but it also might be from 51st...when sam L. explains about POS51

[Tattila the Hun]

Sounds like something that could be said between O'Neill and Carter in Stargåte, SG1... But then it would be, "That's the beauty of it, sir..."


This will surely ruin the civilization!!!

[Japher]

damn... this one is a brain teaser.

[Flandrien]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
clearly it originated here

nope, it originated here

[mrmitchell]

Funnily enough I at first guessed the same thing as the people in your Snopes thread: it's either from a Simpsons episode or I seemed to hear it in the HHGTTG movie.

Oh well. I'm not losing sleep over it.

[Japher]

It's the real expensive machine that goes bing!

[Jaguar]

Ender's game. It's Ender's game. I think it has something really close to that, anyway.


Really, we've seen variations of this quote for ages, and everyone has heard something like it somewhere.

[Pax]

The Red Herring!

[Jaguar]

It's a cliche bit of dialogue used to show that a character is eccentric. Having a machine that doesn't do anything is wonderfully absurd, which is why lots of writers use variations on that line when they want to make a goofy, eccentric character.

[Space05us]

Damnit. That bothers me, I know Ive seen/heard that somewhere before.

The first thing that popped into my head was Q from a james bond movie. But he never made anything useless.