You talkin' to me?

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"You talkin' to me?" is a popular quote said by Travis Bickle, a character played by Robert DeNiro in the 1976 movie Taxi Driver. The quote, and the scene it was featured in, have become a pop culture icon, and made DeNiro a star. The quote is sometimes lengthened to the proper English, "Are you talking to me?" The vernacular shortening, however, is the actual quote as it was said in the movie. The phrase is number ten on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes list.

The line was derived from the classic 1953 western Shane when Shane confronts Chris Calloway (played by Ben Johnson) with "You speaking to me?" Chris replies, "I don't see nobody else standing there."

In the scene, Bickle is looking into a mirror at himself. He says the following line:

"You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talkin' to? You talkin' to me? Well I'm the only one here."

The scene was completely ad-libbed by De Niro. The script originally only had the following words in parenthesis: (Travis looks into the mirror).

[edit] Parodies and homages

• In Mathieu Kassovitz's 1995 film La Haine, one of the chief protagonists, Vinz, re-enacts Bickle's monologue in front of his mirror with a policeman's gun. It should be noted that La Haine was presented in the US by Egg Pictures, the production company founded by Jodie Foster, who starred in Taxi Driver alongside DeNiro.
• In Back to the Future Part III, while using the name "Clint Eastwood," Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) prepares for his 1885 gunfight by looking at himself in a mirror and doing De Niro's line, "You talkin' to me? Are you talkin' to me, Tannen?"
• In The Hard Way, Fox, playing actor Nick Lang, is carjacked by the serial killer known as the Party Crasher (Stephen Lang), and, with a gun pointed to his head, keeps on driving, saying, "Are you talkin' to me?" (He also parodies Dustin Hoffman's line as Ratso Rizzo in Midnight Cowboy, only instead of, "I'm walkin' here, I'm walkin' here!" he says, "I'm drivin' here, I'm drivin' here!")
• In one episode of Hey Arnold!, when Arnold starts to learn self defense, he starts talking into the mirror in the same manner as De Niro. When he says, "Are you talkin' to me?", Grandpa answers, "No, I wasn't talking to you"
• In Wise Guys Danny DeVito as Harry Valentini stands in front of the mirror, while also his son is using the same line.
• In 2005, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) had a Hollywood theme at WrestleMania 21 and the superstars were in parodies of movies. Each movie parody was from a certain famous scene. The Taxi Driver WWE parody had different superstars saying the "Are you talkin' to me?" line.
• In The Simpsons episode "Burns' Heir" Moe, imitating this scene, says the lines and whips a pistol out of his sleeve, but accidentally smashes the mirror he was practicing in front of.
• In "The Fight," a 2005 episode of the American version of The Office, Michael Scott quotes the line to the camera, then badly misattributes it: "Raging Bull. Pacino."
• In The Parent Trap (1998), 11-year-old Annie James (Lindsay Lohan) is asked by her father's fiancée (played by Elaine Hendrix), "Do you know where your father is?" Annie doesn't recognize the woman (only her twin sister [also Lohan] has seen her) and asks, "You talkin' to me?" The fiancée replies, "What are you, Robert De Niro? Yes, I'm talking to you."
• In South Park episode Weight Gain 4000, Mr. Garrison goes to Jimbo's gun store and repeats in front of the mirror the line "You talkin' to me?" while checking guns.
• In Aladdin when the genie is bought up from his lamp he looks at Aladdin as he says are you talkin to me?
• The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, where DeNiro plays Fearless Leader, the head villain. When Boris and Natasha confess they have failed to dispatch the heros, DeNiro responds: "Are you talking to me? Are you talking to me? I don't see anyone else here, so you must be talking to me. And you are lying!"
• In the Seinfeld episode The Soup Nazi Jerry and Kramer confront the two men who stole an armoire and the men alternate speaking lines of the "Are you talkin' to me?" line.
• In a episode of Internet Comedy show Pure Pwnage, Fps_Doug mimics the line but instead speaks "you pming me?"
• In the movie "Torrente, the silly arm of law" (Spain, 1998) of which title is a parody of "Cobra, the strong arm of the law" Rafi (Javier Cámara)is playing in front of the mirror and repeating the line with his fingers as a gun.
• Balto 3, two moose fight as one who sounds like DeNiro asks the question repeatedly for comedic effect.