"Now, watch this Jenga."
That's one of my favorite Daily Show lines of all time, and one that I've quoted with a fair amount of regularity. But I was discussing it with my brother the other day and realized that couldn't remember who had said it. My first instinct was Ed Helms, but then I thought maybe it was Steve Carell (and my brother was pretty sure I'd told him in the past that it was Stephen Colbert). So I did a quick Google search for "Now watch this Jenga," and was startled -- nay, shocked -- to discover that there was a grand total of one reference to that line on the entire Internet. And it's in some bizarre comic strip from 2004; unless you remembered that specific Daily Show episode, you wouldn't even know it was a quote. So now I'm flummoxed. Was I inventing the whole thing? I'd been quoting it for years; perhaps it'd morphed in my head? Thank God for the folks at Comedy Central.
I tracked down the classic Bush quote on which the Daily Show quip was based.
His business out of the way, Bush barely paused for breath before saying, "Thank you. Now watch this drive."Date of the quote: August 4, 2002.*
So I clicked over to the Daily Show archives, and skipped to the show from August 5, 2002 (which, by some mercy, exists online). Lo and behold: the line does exist, it was Ed Helms, and it's just as hilarious as I remember it.
So anyway, there you go. I am providing this post as a public service. The next time someone Googles, "Now watch this Jenga," they won't have to start doubting their memory. You're welcome, world.
* - I even found an article about the Daily Show from the Toronto Globe & Mail that mentions the Daily Show's use of that particular Bush quote, and quotes Jon Stewart, "That was the best clip we've ever gotten of [Bush]." And even that article didn't contain a reference to "Now watch this Jenga."
1 comment:
thanks for this.
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