The use of the word "Swordfish" refers to a password which originated in the 1932 Marx Brothers movie Horse Feathers. The password has since been used in films, TV series, books and videogames.
The password "Swordfish" was first used 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). The original dialogue occurred as follows:[1]
Harpo Marx ("Pinky"), whose characters operated only in pantomime, is still able to get into the speakeasy by pulling a fish and a small sword out of his trench coat and showing them to the doorman.
It was referenced in the movie Swordfish, the Robot Chicken Episode Password: Swordfish, the Terry Pratchett novel Night Watch[2], The Mad Men episode "Six Month Leave", the book The Sword of the Samurai Cat, the movie Meet the Applegates, the movie Arena, the computer games Discworld, Return to Zork and Quest for Glory, a Commodore 64 computer game Impossible Mission, and the online game Kingdom of Loathing as part of the quest for the Holy Macguffin. In the premiere episode of the television show Sam & Max, a character says "What's the password...? And if you say 'Swordfish' I'll lose it!"[3], and in the later video game Sam & Max Season One, in a scene during the third episode where the player is given a dialogue selection to guess random passwords, one of the passwords guessed is swordfish.
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".
In the TV sitcom Night Court, judge Harry, disillusioned about his life, goes into an It's a Wonderful Life dream and in the secret club in the courthouse basement, Moose gains entrance by saying "Swordfish".
In the TV sitcom "Too Close for Comfort" the Marx Bros film and password "Swordfish" is mentioned.
This reference was also used in the Disney Show Recess, as a password to get into a performing arts club.
In the ninth episode of the second season of the AMC show Mad Men, Roger Sterling jokes about the password for an illegal casino in New York being "swordfish".
In the second season episode "That Old Gang of Mine" of the TV series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Lois Lane and Clark Kent enter a secret gambling parlor. Lois tries naming several passwords, including "Swordfish" to the parlor's doorman, but none worked. The doorman said he had seen the Marx Brother's movie and sarcastically said it was a nice try. Clark interjects and says, "the fat lady sings", the correct password which he overheard when a previous person tried to get in.