A grinning man leans on a muscle car in a 1970s parking lot as two teenage girls in bell-bottoms walk past.

Original artwork, not a still

Wooderson

That's what I like about them high school girls...I keep getting older and they stay the same age.

— Dazed and Confused ‧ 1993

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

It is the most quotable red flag in American cinema: a creepy, cheerful rationalisation delivered with such lazy charm that audiences laughed first and winced later. The film itself frames Wooderson as a man who never left high school, and the line is the proof. Fans still quote it as a joke, usually with the drawl, while the popular wording ("them high school girls", "I keep getting older") differs slightly from the script.

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In context

Spoilers for Dazed and ConfusedShow the scene

Dazed and Confused follows a crowd of Texas teenagers through the last day of school in 1976. David Wooderson, a man in his early twenties who still hangs around with high schoolers, says the line while talking with his friend Dawson about the new freshman girls. Dawson warns that Wood is going to jail very soon; Wooderson waves it off and delivers his philosophy, and Dawson agrees. Richard Linklater's 1993 film gave the role little script, and much of it was improvised or written on the spot, which is why Matthew McConaughey's screen time grew.

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