The Origin Of Airplane!'s Hilarious "Don't Call Me Shirley" Gag

Screen rant ^ | June 7, 2019 | Padraig Cotter

[JohnEBoy]

To me, one of the very funniest scenes was when 2 black dudes are jive talking to the stewardess and she doesn’t understand. Up jumps none other than June Cleaver (mother in Leave it to Beaver). She says “I speak jive!” and proceeds to translate. It’s a scene I don’t believe would be permitted in today’s “woke” films.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

He tiz;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgm2J0ZEb_U

The Lt. is actor Marc Singer ( Beastmaster. )

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Sorry, wrong link. This should be it;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBRZSD3RgKI

[Mark17]

Mrs Cleaver was funny in that one, and I think you are right, it could not be done in today’s woke climate.

[al baby]

You should look up the interview with her about that scene

[CommerceComet]

It’s a gag from the vaudeville act of Henny Youngman. Milton Berle used it, too. Get it right.

Never heard of that and it's likely they didn't either.........Thanks for the trivia tho......

It's not like comedians don't steal jokes from one another, particularly one-liners. Whether a borrowed joke or not, it was funny every time Leslie Neilson used it because his delivery was so perfect.

[Clay Moore]

I convinced my kids that you had to make the shhh sound to get the automatic doors to open at stores. It didn’t last too long but it was funny.

[sauropod]

.

[DoodleBob]

Maybe once at year, at random, I’ll ask one of the little DoodleBobs to get me a complete file on everyone who’s seen The Sound of Music at least four times.

They just ignore me at this point.

[marktwain]

Just watched Zero Hour!.

Surprisingly good for a "B" movie. The line take from Zero Hour! was "I picked a bad week to give up smoking."

[BradyLS]

After the movie Star Wars: Episode 2: Attack of the Clones came out, I would sometimes walk up just close enough to trip the sensor while doing Obi Wan’s “open door” hand gesture.

No one got it.

[BradyLS]

The look on that kid’s face!

[klgator]

It’s a gag from the vaudeville act of Henny Youngman. Milton Berle used it, too. Get it right.
Never heard of that and it's likely they didn't either.........Thanks for the trivia tho......

It's not like comedians don't steal jokes from one another, particularly one-liners. Whether a borrowed joke or not, it was funny every time Leslie Neilson used it because his delivery was so perfect.

Milton Berle once said, "I know a good joke when I steal one."

[marktwain]

I convinced my kids that you had to make the shhh sound to get the automatic doors to open at stores. It didn’t last too long but it was funny.

For a little while, I used the line: "Open Saysame" as I approached automatic doors with my young children. It worked a few times before they caught on.

[BlueMondaySkipper]

Agreed

I especially liked when they added subtitles for what was being said. At the end, one of the black dudes said “shiiit” and they subtitled it as “golly”.

[al_c]

The Lt. is actor Marc Singer ( Beastmaster. )

Nope. Lt. Pervis is played by Richard Gilliland.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

My favorite “Airplane” inspired moment of quick thinking came when a coworker entered the room and asked, “what’s the deal?” I immediately replied “it’s where you sit down and they put cards in front of you but that’s not important right now.”

[DoodleBob]

Outstanding.

Relatedly, it’s a bad move if someone asks me “what can you make of this?”