Original artwork, not a still
If peeing your pants is cool, consider me Miles Davis.
— Billy Madison · 1995
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
The joke is the collision of two kinds of cool: a child's playground logic about wetting yourself, and an old woman who treats it as a ticket to the jazz pantheon. Billy, who invented the nonsense, is the one who is horrified. Fans use it as the all-purpose comeback when someone makes a bad idea sound fashionable, and as a favourite of the film's dry, odd one-off cameos.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for Billy MadisonShow the scene
Billy has gone back to elementary school, third grade, to earn his diploma. When classmate Ernie wets his pants, Billy steps in to spare him the embarrassment: he declares that everyone his age does it and that you are not cool unless you do. A kid points out that Ernie has done it too, and a nearby elderly woman chimes in with the line, claiming the title of the jazz trumpeter Miles Davis. It is not Billy who says it: the line comes from the old lady, and Billy answers her by shouting that it is the grossest thing he has ever heard, then rushes off. The scene is a beat in Billy winning over his classmates.
Sources (2)
- Wikiquote: Billy MadisonDialogue section, exchange with the 3rd Grader and Old Lady, before the bus driver sceneReference checked
- Wikipedia: Billy MadisonPlot sectionReference checked
Context reviewed
