"Bill & Ted's" Quotations

[Jonathan Lighter]

B & T use "triumphant" as well. This is unique in my experience.

JL

Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Benjamin Zimmer
Subject: Re: "Bill & Ted's" Quotations
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On Wed, 19 Oct 2005 22:30:16 -0700, Dave Wilton wrote:

[I wrote:]
>> Just had a chance to refamiliarize myself with _B&T_. Interjectional
>> "excellent" is used near the beginning of the film, uttered in unison by
>> Bill and Ted and accompanied by an air-guitar flourish:
>
>Yes, but the simple exclamation "excellent!" is neither original to, nor
>especially emblematic of the film. "Excellent!" was in my vocabulary during
>high school in the late 70s.

True, it wasn't original to the movie, but to many fans it was indeed
emblematic. See, e.g.:

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=excellent-air-guitar


--Ben Zimmer


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