For Your Amusement: The Worst Line of Dialogue EVER

Apr 12, 2012

There are many, many posts out there about writing good dialogue. Getting natural, non-cheesy, useful, scintillating dialogue is very important to a good story.


But that's not what I'm going to talk about today. 

Instead, for your amusement, I give you a video that my anime-obsessed husband found recently, exposing one of the worst lines of dialogue ever written. We laugh our heads off every time we watch this short clip. 


So, my friends...don't do this. :) What are some of your favorite bad lines of dialogue-- or good lines of dialogue? 

20 comments:

Chersti Nieveen said...

Wow, worst lines of dialogue are hard. I heard once that in Cheers, they would give the Frasier actor HORRIBLE lines on purpose, just to see what he'd do. But he always ended up making them amazing lines, or hilariously funny, because he was such a talented actor.

Anonymous said...

Ha! That's great. Why would that upset him? :)

50 foot QE said...

This is great!
My first Lit. professor told the class that he loved to go to the theater no matter how good or bad the production because he always learned something.

Same idea for bad dialogue. One can think about what would make it better.

Thanks!

Faith E. Hough said...

Hilarious! I've come across some bad ones, but can't think of them exactly now.
And although I loved the movie North & South, that had a few lines of cringe-worthy info-dump dialogue.

Kittie Howard said...

Thanks for the chuckle! Looks like the grammar also needed help. They left the apostrophe out of 'Lets' - what a hoot!

A.L. Sonnichsen said...

Okay, at first I didn't get why this was so bad. ha ha! But now that I've read the other comments, I do see that it's over-the-top and duh-obvious. But it makes me afraid for my own dialogue. ha ha!

Actually, the worst dialogue I have ever heard is probably on old Care Bear cartoons. Talk about cheesy!

Golden Eagle said...

Wait, she brought up the fact his father threw him off a cliff because he knocked a piece of jewelry out of her hand . . . ? That's some serious overreaction on top of, well, everything else that's wrong with the line. :P

Imagine if characters said things like that more frequently: "I can't believe you ate my cookie! Are you angry because your son dethroned you?"

John Wiswell said...

I think she may be on to something...

Tara Tyler said...

why do these cartoons always seem to portray us as simpletons?

Michelle said...

My favorite piece of run-on dialogue from Star Wars:

"I feel the conflict within you let go of your hate."

Bonus points if you can tell me which movie and who was the talker & receiver of the line.

Rachna Chhabria said...

Thanks, Shallee, I needed the chuckle very badly :)

Angela Cothran said...

I CANNOT believe they have been plagiarizing me--AGAIN!

And just in case you're wondering ...That isn't what he's mad about. Someone secretly gave him hormones through the necklace and now he can't wear shirts with sleeves. He's just trying to save her from the same fate!

Anonymous said...

No, he's upset because he has a hangnail. ;)

Traci Kenworth said...

Lol. So funny.

Aidyl Ewoh said...

Dialogue is such a huge thing. =) I read books and laugh at them sometimes…
~Aidyl
www.aidylewoh.blogspot.com

Jenilyn Collings said...

My favorite line is one from an old Thundercats episode that my sister and I quote at each other a lot. Cheetara said:

"You may mesmerize me with your evil beauty, but I am a woman. You hold no mystery for me."

It's not quite on the same level as this clip, but it makes me laugh.

Ruth Josse said...

I don't know what made me laugh harder, the clip or Angie's comment. Hahaha!

Tanya Reimer said...

This is what happens when you need to work backstory into your dialogue and have a headache. All I gotta say.

David P. King said...

I'm also an anime fan. And believe me, I've heard much worse. Good anime is hard to find. Not just in quality storytelling, but a coherent translation (reading subs usually maintains the context better anyway). :)

Anonymous said...

The Secret Life of the American Teenager has the most atrocious, repetitive dialogue I've seen in a while. They literally say the same thing three times in a row.
"Amy is in love with Ricky. She doesn't love Ven because she loves Ricky. Amy and Ricky are in love." That's pretty much the structure.

 
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