Stinking badges
"Badges? We don't need no stinkin' badges!" is a well-known and widely (mis)quoted line from cinematic history.[1] In 2005, it was chosen as #36 on the American Film Institute list, AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes.[2] It comes from a line of dialogue from a 1927 novel, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and first appeared in film 21 years later in a movie of the same name. The line was parodied in a 1967 episode of the Monkees TV show called "It's a Nice Place to Visit" as well as in the Mel Brooks film Blazing Saddles in 1974 and was cited in many movies after that.
History
The original version of the line appeared in B. Traven's 1927 novel The Treasure of the Sierra Madre:
"All right," Curtin shouted back. "If you are the police, where are your badges? Let's see them."
"Badges, to god-damned hell with badges! We have no badges. In fact, we don't need badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges, you god-damned cabrón and chinga tu madre!"
The line was popularized by the 1948 film adaptation of the novel.[3] In one scene, a Mexican bandit leader named "Gold Hat"[4] (portrayed by Alfonso Bedoya) tries to convince Fred C. Dobbs (Humphrey Bogart)[2] that he and his company are Federales:
- Dobbs: "If you're the police where are your badges?"
- Gold Hat: "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinkin' badges!"
In popular culture
- In the TV show The Monkees episode 33 "A Nice Place To Visit" (1967), Micky Dolenz misquoted the line as "Badges? We don't need no stinking badges".
- In Mel Brooks' 1974 Western Blazing Saddles, the line was delivered as "Badges? We don't need no stinking badges."
- In the 1983 TV series Wizards and Warriors, the character Marko (played by Walter Olkewicz) delivers a spoof of the line as "Badgers? We don't need no stinkin' badgers."
- In the 1986 Stephen King novel It, character Richie Tozier repeatedly says in a poor imitation of a Mexican accent, "Batches? We don't need no steeking batches."
- In the 1980s TV series "Sledge Hammer" episode "Sledge in Toyland"(SE02EP11) Sledge and his partnner arrive at the office of the murdered toy tycoon and the security guard sticks a visitor's badge on his chest. Sledge throws it on the counter saying: "Heeeey, I don't need no sticking badges."
- Early 1980s rock band The Minutemen's song Badges included the line "We don't need no badges, we don't need no stinkin' badges"
- The 1987 Luis Valdez play I Don't Have to Show You No Stinkin' Badges draws its title from this quote, and makes a specific reference to Sierra Madre.
- In the 1989 "Weird Al" Yankovic film UHF, when Raul (Trinidad Silva) is asked to take a consignment of badgers, he says "Badgers? We don't need no stinking badgers!"
- Julian Cope's semi-eponymous song Julian H Cope from his 1992 album Jehovahkill featured the line "Badges? Badges? We don't need no stinkin' badges! So sissified, civilised, I want to be a savage".
- In the 2002 Friends Season 8 episode "The One with the Baby Shower", the quote is mentioned as one of Joey's training questions for the show Bamboozled.
- In the 2005 book Eldest, the second novel in Christopher Paolini's The Inheritance Cycle series, a cobbler named Loring eschews the use of barges as a means of human transportation, saying "Barges? We don't want no stinking barges."[5]
- In the 2008 film "Zombie Strippers", when Paco (Joey Medina) is told to obtain some wild animals to dispose of the bodies, he says "Badgers? Badgers? We don't need no stinking badgers".
References
- ↑ Hal Erickson (2010). "Alfonso Bedoya Movies". Blockbuster. Retrieved 2010-04-27.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes". USA Today. 2010. Retrieved 2010-04-27.
- ↑ "Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The (1948)". www.classicfilmguide.com. 2010. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
- ↑ Hal Erickson (2010). "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)". Blockbuster. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
- ↑ Paolini, Christopher (2005). Eldest. Knopf Books for Young Readers. p. 413. ISBN 037582670X.