Discussing Jungian archetypes and the Joseph Campbell hero arc might be a fun way for a lot of people to talk about Star Wars. But these broad strokes aren’t all there is to why people love Star Wars so much. One element I always find missing from the “why do we love Star Wars so much?” conversation is humor. When making jokes about dicey material, we’ll often ask the question “too soon?” But if everything was a long time ago in a galaxy, far, far away, then it’s never too soon!
Here are the ten funniest lines in all the Star Wars films, according to me.
10. “How you get so big eating food of this kind?” Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back
This line is great not just because Yoda is putting on a goofy persona to screw with Luke, but also because the basic logic to the sentences is a classic joke of misunderstanding. Small food=small people, right? The joke accepts this premise before it begins, which is why this random assertion from Yoda makes us giggle.
9. “Spring the trap!” Obi-Wan, Revenge of the Sith
The prequels famously are not-as-good as the old movies for a lot of reasons. But one of the biggest is the lack of actual wit. This random line from Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi is an exception, as the humor relies on an inversion of an expectation in conversation. Anakin says, “I sense Count Dooku,” to which Obi-Wan replies, “I sense a trap.” Anakin asks what they should do next and Obi-Wan grins broadly and says, “spring the trap!” He set up his own joke, and then basically asserted he was messing with Anakin. Obi-Wan’s got this, people. And he’s gonna make jokes about it.
8. “Same as always…” Luke, Return of the Jedi
Everyone forgets that the first 25 minutes of Return of the Jedi are chocked full of awesome jokes. It’s hard to pick (Han would get way too many lines) but this one from Luke is up there. The whole exchange is worth repeating:
Han: How we doing?
Luke: Same as always…
Han: That bad, huh?
This reads like a comedy routine and the way Mark Hamill says “same as always” is so wonderfully timed, you can’t imagine it any other way.
7. “You came in that thing? You’re braver than I thought!” Leia, A New Hope
We LOVE Princess Leia for so many reasons, but her ability to throw in a shitty dig right in the middle of danger is at the core of why she’s great. These guys are literally running for their lives, trying to escape a maximum security space prison, and Leia is cracking insulting jokes about Han Solo’s ride.
6. “Who’s scruffy looking?” Han, The Empire Strikes Back
After Leia delivers a fantastic laundry list of insults, Han picks the most superficial diss to protest. He might be stuck up, half-witted, and possibly a nerf-hearder. But calling him “scruffy looking?” Well, you’ve just gone too far.
5. “Let the Wookiee win.” C-3PO, A New Hope
My Mom always laughed the hardest at this one when I was a kid, and for good reason. Playing holographic chess with Chewbacca was probably how it feels for adults to deal with children all the time. If they’re not going to behave, you might as well let them win. Anthony Daniels sets this one up perfectly with, “I suggest a new strategy Artoo…”
4. “The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am.” Vader, Return of the Jedi
You don’t necessarily think of Darth Vader, when you think of funny, but this line is great. Is it dramatic irony because Vader thinks he’s forgiving and we know he’s not? No! Vader knows he’s kidding around, and knows he’s a giant asshole to everyone. What’s funny is the scale of jerkdom Vader creates with this line. He might as well be saying, “Listen man, if you think I’m bad. Well, I’m like basically baking cookies for you in comparison with this guy.” In the Sam Raimi Spider-Man, The Green Goblin puts his arm around Spidey at one point. This is Vader’s version of that.
3. “I don’t know where you get your delusions, laserbrain.” Leia, The Empire Strikes Back
Sometimes a line is funny not because the context is great, or it utilizes great wordplay, but just because the actual noises of the language sounds funny. The words “delusions” and “laserbrain” next to each other just sound funny. The way Carrie Fisher delivers this one is so great that I almost wrote “laser” with a “z.” Lazerbrain!
2. “Shutting up, sir,” C-3PO, A New Hope
This is a subtle one, but this is a classic joke. Uncle Owen tells C-3PO to shut up, and in order to really, really make Uncle Owen think he is listening C-3PO says “shutting up, sir.” C-3PO wants to please his new boss so much, he just—well, you get it. The demonstration that C-3PO is actually really bad at being subservient to anyone is illustrated quietly and hilariously in this moment.
1. “Boring conversation anyway…” Han, A New Hope
Everyone knows Han Solo could fill up a list like this all on his own, but his exchange with a Death Star control room guy in the first film is easily the best. Han does his best to bullshit his way by pretending to actually work on the Death Star. The statement “boring conversation anyway” is so great because Han is delivering the ultimate understatement. They are so screwed! The bad guys are onto them! Like Leia, Han’s ability to make a trite joke in the face of total mayhem is why we love him. A runner-up in this exchange is when Han faux-sweetly asks the guy at the other end of the radio, “How are you?”
Okay, I know you are all furious that I excluded Jar-Jar Binks from this list. Chime in below with your favorite Star Wars lines!
Ryan Britt is a longtime contributor to Tor.com, has delusions of grandeur.
It’s not a line but I always loved in Jedi when Han is trying to open the door into the Empire’s control room. Harrisons face when he locks the secondary doors instead is always a crack up.
*Harrison’s
Sorry if I hurt anyone’s grammar
One of my favorite lines is, not surprisingly, one of Han’s, in this exchange from A New Hope. While aboard the Death Star, 3P0 asks what to do if they are discovered.
Luke: Lock the door.
Han: And hope they don’t have blasters.
“What an incredible smell you’ve discovered”
Always a favorite and used often at my house
Oh, this is a great way to start my morning :)
Also, I’m thrilled that you included Prequel Obi-Wan because he really has some great lines.
In fact, I think one of my favoritse is from Attack of the Clones where, after forcing Zam to crash her ship, they chase her into the bar. Obi-Wan heads to the bar, Anakin asks where he’s going and Obi-Wan replies, “For a drink.” Yeah, he’s got it.
I just love it, and I can’t help think of it when I see Episode IV Obi-Wan at the cantina. For a drink, indeed :)
(Not to mention all the other gems in that scenes, like, “Why do I get the feeling you’re going to be the death of me”, and “You don’t want to sell me death sticks, you want to go home and rethink your life”). On paper they don’t seem that awesome, but I really love his delivery.
Another great one that my husband and I pretty much repeat all the time, because we’re huge dorks, is the scene in AOTC where Obi-Wan and Anakin are outside Padme’s room and Obi-Wan is scolding him for using Padme as bait because his senses aren’t that attuned. When Anakin asks if his are, he just pauses a beat before a terse, “Possibly.” So, whenever one of us asks the other a question that could be reasonably answered with the word ‘possibly’, 9 times out of 10 we’ll imitate that line, laugh, and cause the other people in the room to think we’re total weirdos.
Even Episode I Obi-Wan gets to snark to Qui-Gon about the short negotiations after everything has gone to hell :) (“You were right about one thing, Master – the negotiations WERE short”)
Honestly, while I certainly liked Obi-Wan, the prequels actually made him one of my top five favorite characters, and I think a lot of that is due to Ewan’s performance.
My two favorite characters are Luke and the Emperor. I can’t think off hand of extremely funny Luke moments (sorry, Luke) off handbut I just LOVED the Emperor as soon as he appeared on screen in Return of the Jedi. I thought his whole “Oh, I’m afraid the deflector shield will be quite operational when your friends arrive” scene was pretty much one of the best parts of the movie. I loved Ian McDiarmid in that role, and he was another one of the best things about the prequels (probably one of my very favorite moments in TPM was “And you, young Skywalker – we will watch your career with great interest!”).
As for Han – how could you leave out “Sorry sweetheart, but we haven’t got time for anything else!” Classic!
@1 – as for expressions, my favorite was always his expression in A New Hope when he runs after the stormtroopers with a blaster, only to turn a corner and see a huge group, turn around and run back. :)
Oh, yeah, and the great thing about your (Ryan’s) number 1 is that I am pretty sure that scene was mostly ad libbed because Harrison refused to learn his lines. I think George Lucas wasn’t too happy about it, but since the performance went so well he kept it in (maybe I’m making that up, has anybody else heard that)?
Also, your delusions of grandeur line made me think of Threepio’s “I’m standing here in pieces and you’re suffering from delusions of grandeur!” (as you intended, I’m sure!) Which, is really quite hysterical because Artoo’s whole JOB is to fix ships, and their fleeing for their lives and Threepio’s pissing and moaning about being in pieces. The’re all going to be in pieces!
Speaking of pieces…in the novelization of Revenge of the Sith, I think Vader kind of gets one – when he kills Nute Gunray on Mustafar he protests that the war is over and that they were to be left in peace. Vader says something like, the transmission was garbled, you’re going to be left in pieces. *rimshot* It’s corny, but it cracks me up to think of Anakin saying that, given the setting and imagining that in his voice.
Now I feel challenged to come up with a funny Jar Jar line. How about when he suggests ceding emergency power to Palpatine. Ha! Ha! Ha! (I actually kind of have a bit of a soft spot for clumsy, earnest Jar Jar. Yes, he is annoying but I still have one).
Actually, I did find his panicked rant to Qui-Gon about not being in trouble in the bongo to be kind of amusing. :)
Sorry for comment bombing. But I’m having too much fun with this, and that’s what Star Wars should be, right?
This is spot on! One of the biggest reasons I love Star Wars (and why IV-VI are so, so much better) is the witty dialogue, and all 10 of these are great picks (esp. no. 1).
A few other favourites (among many):
Han: Over my dead body.
Greedo: That’s the general idea. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.
Han: Yeah, I bet you have {shoots him}
Leia: I’d just as soon kiss a Wookie!
Han: I can arrange that!
Any of the one-way conversations between C-3P0 and R2-D2 in A New Hope.
Han: I thought they smelled bad…on the outside!
I also love the line “You Rebel scum” from RotJ for the level of disdain that the Imperial officer manages to inject – it is just dripping with it…cracks me up every time.
@5 (Lisamarie): Regarding the lack of funny Luke moments: One of my favorite dialogues in IV goes like this:
Leia: Your friend is quite the mercenary. I wonder if he really cares about anything. Or anybody.
Luke (calling after her): *I* care.
Hamill just cracks me up with that delivery. It’s so sweet and childish, and the message “Pick me! Pick me! I’m better than him!” is barely subtext at all.
And of course there’s “But I was going into Tosche Station to pick up some pooowwwer converters!”
OK, it’s a Star Wars post, so be warned – WOT approaching!
I realize that paring the list down to only 10 is gonna leave a LOT of great lines out, but I was definitely expecting some line out of the exchanges Han has with and about Lando to make the list. “It’s not MY fault,” being used well in numerous occasions as a running joke, but there’s also the darker humor of “What’s going on, BUDDY?” My favorite, though, is probably this exchange:
Leia: “I thought you knew this person!”
Chewie growls.
Han: “Well, that was a long time ago. I’m sure he’s forgotten about that!”
It’s great for so many reasons. On the surface, he could just be responding to Leia’s question, implying that he blustered his way to Bespin and didn’t really know Lando that well. However, if you know the whole backstory, it’s obvious that Chewie reminds Han that the last few times he saw Lando, he won his beloved ship from him gambling, and tricked him and left him in a terrible spot (don’t remember the details from AC Crispin’s series, but Lando has good reason to be pissed at Han). All delivered perfectly.
This article really makes me realize 2 things:
1) You really should have left Han entirely out of this list and made a separate list of the 1o funniest Han Solo lines, because, as you mentioned, he could really have his own list. Leia, too, for that matter, but most of their humor comes at the expense of each other.
2) We tend to always forget that one of the biggest reasons why the original Star Wars trilogy are such great movies is that they have tremendous humor throughout. Everyone always talks about the underlying archetypal myth, the special effects, the sound and music, etc., but we forget that these movies were also hilarious. And I think it’s exactly that combination of a serious setting (they are certainly not trying to be tongue-in-cheek or break down the 4th wall at all) and great snarky, sarcastic characters that makes Star Wars so excellent and memorable. Though there are notable exceptions (Ian McDiarmid as Palpatine and Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan being the two obvious examples), I think this is one of the biggest areas where the Prequels fail to live up to the SW standard. Whether it’s dialog, or acting, or directing, or some combination of all of those, the characters in the PT just don’t have that great snarky, sarcastic “we’ve been through stuff way worse than this and we’re gonna joke about it even though we’re probably gonna die” dynamic. Hayden just fails miserably on this in all attempts (the best exchange I think was in RoTS after the opening sequence when Obi-Wan and Anakin argue about having to talk with the politicians, but really, Obi-Wan comes off much funnier there than Anakin), and Natalie Portman is just not given ANYTHING to work with on this account. She clearly can do humor, so I blame this one on writing, and it really is the place where the PT suffers the most. The OT has many strong foundations, but one of them is definitely Leia – she’s not only the hot princess in distress that she appears, but a fully-formed, hilarious woman who is powerful in her own right (without NEEDING a man like Han – she can actually CHOOSE to fall in love with him). Padme in the prequels? Emotionless in TPM, not spunky enough or believable in her falling in love with Anakin in AoTC, and borderline unbearable in RoTS. Without a good female character at it’s core, the PT just founders.
“Laugh it up, furball!”
Vader might be a major douchenozzle to everyone he encounters, BUT the fact is, he IS more forgiving than the Emperor. I’m not sure if that makes that line funnier or not.
YOU are in command now, Admiral Piett :)
Although he does seem to have a soft spot for Piett…he seriously looks like he’s about to wet his pants when the Falcon jumps into Hyperspace at the end of ESB!
Oh, I love Irvin Kershner. I was so happy we got to see him at Celebration IV before he passed.
I always got the impression that after the Falcon escapes at the end of ESB Vader was thinking he should order to shoot R2 on sight before anybody else.
While I don´t really hate Jar Jar as a well meant clumsy guy (moviewise, because Clone Wars changed him to very dangerous idiot), I don´t think he has any funny lines. Even the few funny moments he has are more Qui Gon´s at Jar Jar´s expense.
Actually, Tabbyfl55, I think it was “Laugh it up, fuzzball!” I *think* the time he uses “furball” is in Jedi at the entrance to the shield generator: “Not bad for a little furball, there’s only one left.”
While I’m thinking of it:
3PO in Empire: “It’s a fate worse than death to be strapped to a Wookie!”
And no one’s mentioned “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for,” yet. I think the scene’s especially funny because of Alex Guiness’ straight, matter-of-fact delivery. Talk about Space Gandalf.
Han has so many great lines but I have always liked this exchange:
Han Solo: I think my eyes are getting better. Instead of a big dark blur, I see a big light blur.
Luke: There’s nothing to see. I used to live here, you know.
[color=rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px”> Han Solo: You’re going to die here, you know. Convenient.: A Jedi Knight? Jeez, I’m out of it for a little while, everyone gets delusions of grandeur!
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” You’d think for as many times as the characters say this line they’d start recognizing the humor in it instead of taking it completely serious. I suppose that’s what makes it funny to all of us.
Also, there’s nothing funny about Jar-Jar. At least not about a live Jar-Jar. Fix that and I’m sure we can find some humor.
In RotJ, as he’s negotiating with the Ewoks (after the storytelling), as Han keeps telling him to say things, then interrupting him, 3P0 finally pulls an annoyed “are you finished?” double-take.
Some quick Stormtrooper humour from ANH; as they chase the heroes, one of the troopers can be heard yelling “Close the blast-doors! Close the blast-doors!” As Han leaps through the closing blast-door, the same trooper yells “Open the blast-doors! Open the blast-doors!”
ESB, Han and Leia are attempting to escape the Empire, but the Falcon won’t start…
Leia: Should I get out and push?
I mentioned this at a work meeting, and one of my colleagues said to make sure “Aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper?” was on the list :)
Kind of smacking myself for forgetting that – love that Leia has some sass even as she is (as she probably thinks) being led to her execution!
Which then makes me think of her marvellous quips to Tarkin!
Thanks for the reminders of some of Luke’s lines :) I love the ‘I care!’ line, haha. I love that whole scene, especially how Han is clearly baiting him after Luke says, “Good!” (regarding Han not thinking about her). And in fact, when I wrote a letter to my son (named Luke) when he was born, I did in fact mention ‘I care!’ as one of the qualities I hope he picks up from his namesake :)
I always liked when Leia offered, “Would it help if I got out & pushed?” when the Millenium Falcon was acting up & Han replied, “It might.”
A little prequel love, from episode II:
Obi Wan: “What took you so long?”
Anakin: “Well you know Master, I couldn’t find a speeder I really liked.”
That line always cracked me up.
Ewan MacGregor tried soooo valiantly to bring the comic relief in the second two prequels, and for that I’m eternally grateful. He made those two movies so much less painful.
I loved his fight with Jango Fett in Clones, particularly when he says, “Oh, no,” right before going over the rails.
HAN SOLO: “One things for sure. After this, we’re all going to be a lot thinner!”[/i] (as the walls of the trash compactor are closing in)
got the above from a quote site. I love that line. And how many times does the ‘delusions of grandeur’ line get used anyway?
Yes indeed, Han had most of the funny lines in the original films which points up how much the prequels would have benefitted from a similar character. A cynical every-man to punch through the over serious tone of the Jedi and all the political double talk.
“When nine hundred years old YOU reach, look as good YOU will not. Hmm?”
I still say this sometimes, on days when I’m feeling particularly creaky and not-young. ;-)
The Yoda line I took differently. I took it to mean that because the food was so disgusting that he doesn’t understand how humans could eat it and grow so big.
My Han line to add to the list:
Han: Uh, everything’s under control. Situation normal.
Intercom: What happened?
Han: Uh, we had a slight weapons malfunction, but uh… everything’s perfectly all right now. We’re fine. We’re all fine here now, thank you. How are you?
Great list, but it needs more C3PO:
“Don’t call me a mindless philosopher, you overweight glob of grease”
“Listen to them, they’re dying, R2! Curse my metal body, I wasn’t fast enough, it’s all my fault”
“I really don’t see how that is going to help! Surrender is a perfectly acceptable alternative in extreme circumstances! The Empire may be gracious enough to…”(shut down by Leia)
“Oh, oh, that’s much better. Wait… wait. Oh, my! What have you done? I’m BACKWARDS. You flea-bitten furball! Only an overgrown mop-head like you would be stupid enough to…”(shut down by Chewie)
Half his humor comes from how the other characters interact with him, from R2’s bickering to Han’s belittlement. And the obligatory forced shut down or physical dismemberment always adds to the humor.
2 more from Han —
“And I thought these things smelled bad on the outside!” (When he slices open the TomTom.)
“I don’t care what you smell! Get in there!” (When Chewy complains about going into the garbage.)
My favorite has to be in Empire, when the Falcon is clamped onto the Star Destroyer and Han tells Leia his plan for getting away – that if they follow standard protocol, they’ll dump their trash before making the jump to lightspeed.
I don’t remember the exact lines, but Leia responds with something like, “And we’ll just float away with the rest of the garbage.”
Just love that subtle dig at the Falcon (and/or Han, depending on how you look at it) while simultaneously signalling approval of his plan.
@HeWhoComesWithTheNoon (great name!) – I took that line the same way.
Also, my son always thought Yoda’s “Mine! Mine! Mine!” routine while trying to take the lamp was hilarious. It was actually one of his first favorite movie scenes :) We’d watch that part of the DVD over and over and over again…
3P0 introduces himself to Lando.
Lando ignores him.
“Well really!”
Okay, I GOTTA go against the flow with respect to the anti Jar-Jar Binks rhetoric, if only because he was my youngest son’s favorite character. Of course, my youngest son was six years old when Phantom Menace came out, and Jar-Jar is pitched to a six year old level of humor.
(TOTALLY unlike the rest of Star Wars, which is pitched to adult nerds and geeks. (You had that coming, so just accept it and continue the mission.))
“Exqueeze me?” I liked that one.
And then confessing that he was a little bit clumsy, and maybe a return to his home city wasn’t such a good idea after all.
And as mentioned, in the undersea thingie, when he says it’s the PERFECT time to panic.
Some quick Stormtrooper humour from ANH; as they chase the heroes, one of the troopers can be heard yelling “Close the blast-doors! Close the blast-doors!” As Han leaps through the closing blast-door, the same trooper yells “Open the blast-doors! Open the blast-doors!”
I think this is a special edition mutation. In the original, there was no command to close the blast doors. It was meant to be inferred that one of the troopers had shot out the door controls causing the doors to close. A squib goes off just as the doors begin to close. Maybe Lucas thought not enough people got what was happening.
Of course, the stormtrooper terrible aim is legendary, though probably unintentionally funny.
@Lisamarie
Hahaha, ok, my friend and I always say ‘possibly’ like that too. I thought we were the only ones.
And I don’t think anybody has mentioned: “I don’t know. Fly casual.”
Ben’s “Only Imperial stormtroopers are so precise” probably wins for unintentional comedy.
My favorite part about Han’s intercom conversation in the detention block is how he winces after coming out with “How are you?” As if to say “I can’t believe I just said that.” The story is that Ford intentionally didn’t learn those lines well so it would sound like Han was making them up on the spot.
Luke: Look, if you save her, the reward would be…
Han: Would be what?
Luke: Well, more wealth than you can imagine!
Han: I dunno, I can imagine quite a bit.
(I always mentally juxtapose this response with Ben’s “…I shall become more powerful than you can imagine.”)
Qui-Gon has some good lines.
QG: You almost got us killed. Are you brainless?
Jar-Jar: I speak!
QG: The ability to speak does not make you intelligent.
(Amen to that.)
Padme: The queen would not approve.
QG: The queen trusts my judgment, young handmaiden. You should, too.
Padme: Well, I don’t approve.
(You can tell he knows and is just taking the opportunity to mess with her.)
Threepio: If any of you would like to beg for mercy, the mighty Jabba will now listen to your pleas.
Han: Threepio! You tell that slimey piece of worm-ridden filth he’ll get no such pleasure from us! [to the others] Right?
Han: Sorry, Princess, no time to discuss this in a committee!
Leia: I am NOT a committee!
(This is extra hilarious with Amidala’s line to the Senate, “I was not elected to watch my people suffer and die while you discuss this invasion in a committee!” Like mother, like daughter?)
The “would it help if I got out and pushed?” exchange has already been mentioned, but what makes it so funny is Han glaring at Leia for half a beat before he says “it might.” It’s perfect comic timing and Harrison makes it so clear that at this moment, the thing Han wants most in the universe is for her to be outside the ship.
From just before that scene, when the door is shut in C-3PO’s face:
“How typical.”
He finally tells us what he really thinks of the humans he so enthusiastically serves. Literally tells us, as this is the only moment in the series in which the 4th wall is broken.
Skinless C3PO: What do you mean, I’m naked?
R2D2: *burbly-beep*
C3PO: My parts are showing?! Oh my!
Anakin: Any attempt to escape, and they blow you up!
Jar Jar: How wude!
Droid: Curuscant…uh…that doesn’t compute…uh…you’re under arrest! (Sorry if I misspelled it)
Jar Jar: Meesa cause maybe one or two-ey little bitty accidenties. Boom da gasser, den crash da boss’s heylibber, den banished.
Qi-Gon or Obi-Wan: There’s always a bigger fish.
“It’s against my programming to impersonate a deity.” — C3PO
Wish I could remember more lines from the Tatooine segment of RoTJ and the space-slug scene in TESB, my favorite parts of Episodes IV-VI.
@33, I seem to remember that from the orginial star wars, and I was already much older when the special edition came out… I could be wrong, I guess, but I don’t think so.
“Will somebody get this walking carpet out of my way?” I think that was the line, it may be paraphrased, but I always crack up at the description of Chewie as a walking carpet
In the prequels, I always got a chuckle from the lines uttered by Anakin as he was romancing Padme. And it wasn’t the lines themselves, it was all in how they were delivered. Now, THAT is comic genius…
This doesn’t actually appear in the first movie, but I saw some of its lines rendered into Scottish vernacular, the best one being when Darth Vader is trying to get target lock on Luke, before he can launch his torpedoes and destroy the Death Star. “The Force is strong with this one” translates as “Stop shooglin aboot, ya wee bastard”. The thought of Vader as a Glaswegian hard man always cracks me up.
@17 “Close the blast-doors! Close the blast-doors!” is disqualified. It’s one of the changes in the 8 million special editions
@6, LisaMarie, I’ve seen Ford talk about how frustrated Lucas was with him, but he states it’s because “George doesn’t understand acting. It’s a process, but George just wants you to ‘do it’. It’s in his head, he’s put it on paper, just do it.” So that may be related.
@35, Best part about that Han line, in the novelization, is that he’s facing the wrong way.
I always appreciated the lines where 3PO was playing off of R2, or Han was playing off of Chewie. Only getting one side of the back and forth, but so perfectly knowing exactly what the non-speaking character was saying is just really good dialouge, and works well with the jokes.
I especially liked Han saying “I don’t care what you smell!”
Also, from Return of the Jedi, mostly for context:
Han to Lando: “Not a scratch! I’ve got your word on that?”
Then of course, they almost completely get through the Death Star after blowing the reactor when the deflector array gets knocked off the Falcon.
“I love you.”
“I know.”
@46, I love that EU calls that moment out too.
Obi-Wan must account for at least half the snark in the PT.
“I hate it when he does that.”
@40
Leia called Chewie a “big blocking carpet”
No, it’s “walking carpet”
From the Empire Strikes Back the BEST film in the series when the bog monster on Dagobah spits Artoo out and Luke rights his little droid; ‘You’re lucky you don’t taste very good”. Which was changed in the special edition to the lacklustre; “You were lucky to get out of there.” The original line was better.
I liked the Prequel line said by Obi Wan to anakin
“Why do I get this feeling that you’ll be the death of me?” . definitely a bit of Star wars fan humour.
Nck31 has a good one “I got a bad feeling about this.” Which on the surface isn’t really funny, but in the pop culture a era it’s become something else a la “You”re gonna need a bigger boat.” Both have taken on a life of their own to mean we’re pretty much hosed but let’s do it anyway. Again not a funny ha ha line, but a great line in its own right.
@13 I have long thought that Vader’s reaction at the end of Empire had/has more to do with the confortation he had with Luke and the final exchange they have just before the Falcon jumped to hyperspace. Made more so by the 2nd confortation in Jedi when Luke says he has felt the conflict in Vader. And even though the PT have not been well received giving new context to everything (the lies and twisted turths the Emporer has told him) it really makes me think that Vader had way more on his mind right then than just the Falcon getting away again.
Yeah, like the fact that Padme survived long enough to give birth, after Palpatine told him she died(IMO, she did die, Obi-Wan brought her back, as he did Luke in the New Hope novelization, after the attack by Sand People. Which of course makes the prequels even more tragic, because that skill that Anakin turned for, Obi Wan HAD!!!!)
Vader:
“Apology accepted, Captain Needa.”
Well, what I take from it is back in the day Vader was the greatest villain in the universe. And while he still is (post PT) my view of why has changed. Simply put he figured he had done the most unspeakable evil he could on Mustafar by killing his wife and unborn children. And really what could be worse than that? So, Vader just said the hell with it. Plus, in his scared mind the rebels are the same thing he’s been fighting all his life.
I love Jar Jar Binks! “Wesa going home!” So funny! My dad uses it all the time, though he’s not as funny.
Also,
Anakin: “We lost something.”
Obi Wan: “Not to worry, we are still flying half a ship.”
What can I say, I was growing up while the prequel movies were coming up :)
@58, Don’t feel bad, I grew up with the originals, and I STILL really enjoy the prequels.
They don’t hit the same notes as the OT, but they were never supposed to. The OT has a positive outcome, whereas the PT is tragedy.
Everyone is forgetting:
“You said you wanted to be around when I made a mistake, well this could be it, sweetheart.”
@58, you just made me remember another one (I enjoy the prequels too) – also Obi-Wan :)
“Another happy landing!” from Revenge of the Sith – my little sister and I (she was about 9 when RotS came out) used to repeat that to each other a lot. My dad got in a car accident a few years ago, when when my sister and I talked about it, she said the first thing she thought was “Another happy landing!”. Ha!
She also used to be REALLY into reenacting the scene where Jar Jar tries to slurp the fruit off of Shmi’s table, and Qui-Gon grabs his tongue with a stern, “Don’t do that again!” I guess she only would have been about 4 or so when that came out!
You’ve left out all of R2-D2’s lines from Episode IV. He quickly stopped being funny in Episode V, but if you consider what he had to have said to prompt each of C-3PO’s reaction lines, he’s easily the funniest character in that movie.
@43: No, it was in the original cut, but lost in the transfer to VHS. Restoring the line was one of the few changes I actually liked in the Episode IV special edition.
I also like http://www.starwarsfunny.com too!
Vader to bounty hunters in Ep. V:
“I want them alive,”
Then to Boba Fett specifically (while wagging finger),
“no disintegrations.”
personally i love the scene in AOTC when Obi-Wan and Anakin are chasing Zam. After losing her, Anakin jumps out of the speeder and Obi-Wan says something along the lines of “I hate it when he does that.” I just find this funny because it would imply Anakin does it a lot. I also love Han’s dialogue about the weapon malfunction… “How are you?”
In Return of the Jedi, C-3PO said to Han Solo, ” I’m rather embarrassed, General Solo, but it appears that you are to be the main course at a banquet in my honor.” This is the second-funniest C-3PO line in the movies. I love him!
I am rewatching the saga with my fella, who has never seen it, and a little throwaway line in ANH that I never caught before made me giggle, and keep giggling, and honestly I love it so much that I use it at every opportunity, belongs to C3P0:
“Oh, curse my metal body!”