Original artwork, not a still
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit smoking.
— Airplane! · 1980
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
The joke is a perfect piece of deadpan escalation: a man who is meant to be the calm voice of authority keeps announcing worse and worse timing for his own self-improvement. Because it works for any bad habit and any crisis, it became everyday speech for bad luck, from a missed deadline to a power cut, and the template is still being rewritten with whatever the moment calls for.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for Airplane!Show the scene
In Airplane!, Chicago tower supervisor Steve McCroskey, played by Lloyd Bridges, is trying to talk Ted Striker through landing a jet whose crew has been struck down by food poisoning. McCroskey lights up in the control tower and delivers the line as a dry aside. The gag then repeats with a worse habit each time: he later says he picked the wrong week to quit drinking, then amphetamines, then sniffing glue. The 1980 spoof was written and directed by Jim Abrahams and brothers David and Jerry Zucker, borrowing its plot from the 1957 film Zero Hour!
Sources (2)
- Wikiquote: Airplane!Steve McCroskey sectionReference checked
- Wikipedia: Airplane!Cast and PlotReference checked
Context reviewed
