Swordfish (password)
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The use of the word "Swordfish" refers to a password which originated in the 1932 Marx Brothers movie Horse Feathers in a scene where Groucho Marx, as Professor Wagstaff, attempts to gain access to a speakeasy guarded by Baravelli (Chico). It was referenced in the movie Swordfish, the Terry Pratchett novel Night Watch, the movie Meet the Applegates, the movie Arena, the computer games Discworld, Return to Zork and Quest for Glory, and a Commodore 64 computer game Impossible Mission. In the premier episode of the television show Sam & Max, a character says "What's the password...? And if you say 'Swordfish' I'll lose it!"[1]
The original dialogue from Horse Feathers was, in part:[2]
- Baravelli: ...you can't come in unless you give the password.
- Professor Wagstaff: Well, what is the password?
- Baravelli: Aw, no. You gotta tell me. Hey, I tell what I do. I give you three guesses. It's the name of a fish.
- [After several unsuccessful guesses]
- Baravelli: Hey, what's-a matter, you no understand English? You can't come in here unless you say, "Swordfish." Now I'll give you one more guess.
- Professor Wagstaff: ...swordfish, swordfish... I think I got it. Is it "swordfish"?
- Baravelli: Hah. That's-a it. You guess it.
- Professor Wagstaff: Pretty good, eh?
The password "Swordfish" was also used in...
"Swordfish" is also used as a name in the P. G. Wodehouse novel, How Right You Are, Jeeves. In the story, a recurring Wodehouse character named Sir Roderick Glossop poses as a butler in order to secretly determine the sanity of another character. The various residents in the pastoral manor take to calling Glossop "Swordfish", most likely a tribute to the movie scene described above.
