Benny & Joon-filter: "Sit down, son. You're making me nervous."

March 11, 2010 11:13 PM

In the movie Benny & Joon, Julianne Moore as Ruthie says, "Sit down, son. You're making me nervous." Is that line from another movie? The way she says it sounds like something Humphrey Bogart might say.
posted by chalupa to Media & Arts (11 answers total)

Sounds like a Foghorn Leghorn line to me, but I would need to hear how she delivers it...
posted by crenquis at 11:46 PM on March 11, 2010

It's not an exact match, but it's close in tone and spirit to the old W.C. Fields one-liner "Go away, kid, you bother me," usually delivered while performing or speechifying to some kid who was getting in his space. I can't find a good example of him saying it on YouTube, but it became a common trope, especially in cartoons. You can hear a huckster say something similar at 2:40 in this 1936 cartoon ("Don't lean on the platform, son, you bother me"), and as crequis pointed out it was a favorite of Foghorn Leghorn.
posted by Rhaomi at 12:01 AM on March 12, 2010

W.C. Fields, but I haven't found the quote yet...
posted by biddeford at 12:02 AM on March 12, 2010

Sounds like Foghorn Leghorn to me as well. Haven't seen the movie in ages so can't remember how the line is said.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 12:20 AM on March 12, 2010

She says it about 8:40 in this video:
YouTube - Benny and Joon (Movie) Part 6 of 12

Thanks, guys!
posted by chalupa at 12:46 AM on March 12, 2010

I immediately thought of WC Fields.
posted by OmieWise at 5:08 AM on March 12, 2010

My mom has been saying that exact thing my whole life, and I'm pretty sure she's never seen Benny & Joon.

My mom was raised in Northern Missouri/Southern Illinois, could it be a regional thing?
posted by TooFewShoes at 6:02 AM on March 12, 2010

My mom was raised in Northern Missouri/Southern Illinois, could it be a regional thing?

Whoa, I have a friend who dad says this exact phrase all the time, which is why I clicked through. He grew up in rural Missouri, it must be regional. In fact, "Sit down, you're making me nervous," (sans son) is such a common phrase I assumed everyone said it, I did not know it was a regional thing.
posted by geoff. at 8:05 AM on March 12, 2010

I agree that it sounds like a Bogart quote. Benny and Joon being one of my favorite movies, I too have always wondered where she got that quote. A Google search brings this list, but the closes it gets to that line is from Le notti di Cabiria (1957)
posted by MuChao at 8:58 AM on March 12, 2010

I always took it as an antiquated thing that people say. Like, "Take off your coat and stay a while."
posted by cmoj at 9:53 AM on March 12, 2010

I couldn't find any exact matches, but by eliminating the "son" part, here are some movies that feature some version of the line "Sit down, you're making me nervous."
posted by amyms at 1:47 PM on March 12, 2010