09-06-2005 10:56									#1
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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????

	09-06-2005 10:58									#2
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clearly it originated here

	09-06-2005 18:08									#3
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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.

	09-06-2005 18:42									#4
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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..

	09-06-2005 18:45									#5
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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.)

Last edited by Tattila the Hun on 09-06-2005 at 18:53

	09-06-2005 19:04									#6
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could work...but it also might be from 51st...when sam L. explains about POS51

	09-06-2005 19:50									#7
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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!!!

	09-06-2005 19:51									#8
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damn... this one is a brain teaser.

	09-06-2005 20:44									#9
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quote: Originally posted by Kuciwalker clearly it originated here

nope, it originated here

	09-06-2005 22:04									#10
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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.

	09-06-2005 22:06									#11
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It's the real expensive machine that goes bing!

	09-06-2005 22:08									#12
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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.

	09-06-2005 22:17									#13
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The Red Herring!

	09-06-2005 22:21									#14
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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.

	09-06-2005 22:25									#15
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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.

	09-06-2005 22:26									#16
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A common answer is the lamp scene from A Christmas Story. Wrong, but common.

	09-06-2005 22:28									#17
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I think it's EVERYWHERE!

	09-06-2005 22:30									#18
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It's so tough that Jaguar is denying that such a quote even exists.

	09-06-2005 22:33									#19
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quote: Originally posted by Jaguar Ender's game. It's Ender's game. I think it has something really close to that, anyway.

I'm pretty sure that's incorrect. What specifically would it be referring to?

	09-06-2005 22:33									#20
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It was me. Someone asked me about my co-worker.

	09-06-2005 22:33									#21
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You may or may not find it verbatim somewhere, but the reason everyone thinks he has heard it before is that he heard dozens of things like it.

	09-06-2005 22:34									#22
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Damn, two posts in this thread in the time it took the computer to post and load the thread

	09-06-2005 22:36									#23
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Im going to kill JohnT. People are saying it comes from any number of movies, tv series, books, and its been an internet mystery for a while now it seems.

edit: and my head hurts.