Waxing Lyrical on Films.
- In 13 Going on 30, Jenna is having a sleepover with some teenagers from the apartment complex. While talking about the struggles of dating, she begins reciting the lyrics to 'Love Is A Battlefield' by Pat Benatar.
- In EuroTrip, Cooper sets the Pope's hat on fire and Scotty tells him "The hat, the hat, the hat is on fire". Cooper immediately starts singing "Oh we don't need no water, let the mother-...".
- In Tropic Thunder, Kirk Lazarus quotes the theme song to The Jeffersons as part of an inspirational speech. He's immediately called out on it."Don't make it any less true."
- Done deliberately throughout Moulin Rouge! as part of the concept. Christian hastily composes a poem for Satine, and even before the music cues, it is clearly Elton John's "Your Song". Zidler tries to convince the Duke to stay with what, before the farce of a song starts, may be the most lascivious recital of lyrics from "Like A Virgin" you've ever heard. And the central theme of the story is simply the final line of Nat King Cole's "Nature Boy".
- In The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, the titular character Clive Candy (actually a General at this point in the movie) is referred to by Spud as "the Wizard". This turns out to be a Shout-Out when Spud tells his men that they have to rush to Candy's HQ "because of the wonderful things he does."
- Mel Gibson's character in Conspiracy Theory uses "Everything you do is magic" lyrics to propose to his Love Interest — crash and burn too.
- From School of Rock:
- Jack Black's character, trying to bluff his way through a conversation with teachers while posing as a substitute, starts reciting snatches from Whitney Houston's "The Greatest Love of All". Someone asks "Isn't that a song?", and he denies it.
- His Rousing Speech concludes "We roll tonight to the guitar bite, and for those about to rock, I salute you", from AC/DC's "For Those About to Rock".
- xXx: State of the Union:Darius Stone: Wars come and go, but my soldiers stay eternal.
Gibbons: I like that. Who said it? Jefferson? Patton?
Darius Stone: Tupac.- Becomes a Brick Joke at the film's dénouement when the President quotes Stone in turn, during a press conference.
- In a sequence of Ocean's Twelve, Ocean and Rusty start talking Thieves' Cant with a contact. Linus tries to join the conversation... by reciting Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir". It translates to calling the contact's niece a cheap whore. Or so they claim; in reality, they're just playing a prank on him.
- Bill & Ted:
- In Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Ted's attempt at 'philosophizing' with Socrates is to recite the line "All we are is dust in the wind". It works.
- In Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, Bill and Ted go to heaven and are asked the meaning of life. They recite the chorus from Poison's "Every Rose Has Its Thorn." Again, it works. Earlier, after beating Death at a variety of games, as he's leading them from Hell to Heaven, Bill says to Ted, "Ted, Don't Fear the Reaper." (referring to the Blue Öyster Cult song) to which Death replies, "I heard that!"
- In The World's End Gary King has the tendency to do this, quoting Happy Mondays ("Twist the melon!") during a fight, The Soup Dragons note when defending his hedonistic lifestyle ("I'm free to do what I want any old time"), and Primal Scream's "Loaded" during the film's climax.
- Spice World: Bus driver played by Meat Loaf: "I love those girls, and I'll do anything for them... but I won't do that."
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: "Good morning, starshine!...The Earth says hello!"
- From Cannibal! The Musical:Alferd Packer: Hey, do you guys think it's true, that she's a trapper horse?
Frank Miller: A horse is a horse.
James Humphrey: Of course.
Alferd Packer: Of course. - Across the Universe (2007) does this multiple times with various Beatles songs, "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" being perhaps the most obvious. One can expect to find this trope in any Jukebox Musical.
- In the made for TV Dinotopia movie, one of the castaway brothers (who really doesn't give a dang about the local ways and culture) uses the opening lyrics of Bohemian Rhapsody to answer an essay question regarding the meaning of a particular section of the Dinotopian philosophy. Afterwards, his teacher and a number of scholars are chattering about how deep it was.
- This.
Peter Sellers meets The Beatles in the land of Richard III. - A running gag in The Other Guys is Captain Mauch accidentally quoting TLC lyrics. Gamble and Hoitz repeatedly attempt to call him out on it but he insists he doesn't know what they're talking about. It's ambiguous whether he's telling the truth.
- In Meet the Parents, when Greg is asked to say grace at dinner, he tries to improvise a prayer, and comes up with the lyrics to Day by Day from the musical Godspell.
- In Roxanne, when asked to say something romantic, Chris quotes the opening lines to "Close to You" by the Carpenters and is immediately called out on this.
- Easy A: Olive receives a greeting card that plays Natasha Bedingfield's "Pocketful Of Sunshine", and then the song becomes a huge Ear Worm for her. Later on, when she's lying to her best friend about having spent the weekend with a college boy, one of the lyrics slips into the conversation:Olive: He's charming... You know, he's a real gentleman. You know, and it feels like - It feels like I got a love and I know that it's all mine.
- In an odd example, all that's left of the "Admiral Boom" song in Mary Poppins is a wax lyrical from Bert.Bert: The whole world gets its time from Greenwich. But Greenwich, they say, gets its time from Admiral Boom.
- The Master of Disguise does this. Lampshaded by Fabbrizio Disguisey immediately performing a Take at what his son said, and lampshaded in the DVD commentary stating they had to pay a lot of money in order to do this gag.
- After the killer in Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th is revealed to be an evil identical cousin.Doughy: Whereas Hardy enjoys a minuet, the ballets russes and crêpes suzette.
Hardy: Doughy likes to rock n roll, a hot dog makes him lose control.
Hagitha: What a wild duet.
Martina: Still they're cousins.
Dawson: Identical cousins.
Martina: They laugh alike.
Dawson: They walk alike.
Martina: At times they even talk alike.
Hagitha: And you can lose your mind.
Hardy: Shut up everybody! For god sakes, how many times do you think we've heard that in our lives? - In Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle the Angels decide to pose as nightclub dancers.Natalie: Do a little dance?
Dylan: Make a little love?
Alex: Get down tonight. - In Wrongfully Accused, Ryan tells off Cass, who's been romancing him but he suspects called the police on him:Ryan: The Beatles said it best. She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, listen, Michelle ma belle, this nowhere man is the walrus, koo koo kachoo!
- The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. Some of Lord John Whorfin's more eccentric pronouncements are actually song lyrics, e.g. "I feel so broke up, I want to go home" from The Beach Boys song "Sloop John B".
- In Horse Feathers, Wagstaff, during his first address as President of Huxley College, briefly lapses into the old vaudeville song "Any Rags?"
- In Glen or Glenda, the weird narration in the Nightmare Sequence is a mangled quotation of the lyrics to "The Green-Eyed Dragon," a reference that will mystify most viewers.
- In Rock of Ages, after Drew sings half of "Don't Stop Believing", he finishes with "And it goes on and on and on." Later on, Lonny exclaims "We built this city on rock and roll!" as part of a protest, just before the protesters begin singing "We Built This City" by Starship.
- Vincent in Twins (1988) does this when flirting with Linda, pretending he's reciting poetry that he wrote. When Linda's sister Marnie tells her they're just old song lyrics, she says she already knows.
- Forrest Gump: When Forrest meets John Lennon on the Dick Cavett Show Forrest claims that in the land of China people hardly got nothing at all. To which Lennon replies: "No possessions?" Gump looks up bewildered, but continues: "They never go to church", to which Lennon again replies: "No religion too?" Whereupon the host says: "Must be hard to imagine", but Lennon reassures him: "It's easy if you try, Dick."
- Avengers: Age of Ultron: Ultron is able to take lines from a Pinocchio song and turn them into a Badass Boast about his status as The Unfettered. Used to especially chilling effect in the trailer, where the song is played hauntingly throughout, only to transition to his voice near the end.I once had strings
But now I'm free
There are no strings on me. - In The Book of Eli, Eli is trying to explain to Solara the concept of faith and relies on Johnny Cash's "Greystone Chapel" for assistance.Eli: It doesn't have to make sense. It's faith, it's faith. It's the flower of light in the field of darkness that's giving me the strength to carry on. You understand?
Solara: Is that from your book?
Eli: No, it's, uh, Johnny Cash, Live at Folsom Prison.
Solara: What? - In Grand Canyon, when Claire and Mack say goodbye to Roberto as he goes off to summer camp (to be a counselor), and Mack sees how sad Claire is, he sings, "(S)He's leaving home, bye-bye".
- The Spirit of '76: When Tommy and Chris are describing Grand Funk Railroad to the time travelers, Tommy says, "They, like, they come into your town, and help you party down." Heinz-57 enters the lyrics into his keyboard.
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit: When R.K. Maroon asks Eddie Valiant what he knows about show business, Eddie replies, "Only that there's no business like it. No business I know." This paraphrases from "There's No Business Like Show Business" from Annie Get Your Gun.
- The Replacements (2000): The players are hanging out in a bar, and Clifford Franklin puts "I Will Survive" on the jukebox, although he claims he had picked something else when everyone complains about it. Shortly after that, they get into a brawl and they all end up in a jail cell. When they come down on Clifford for hiding behind the jukebox during the fight, he retorts "At first, I admit, I was afraid. Shit, I was petrified..." Which segues into them all singing and line-dancing.
- In Ultraman Orb The Movie: Lend Me the Power of Bonds!, the Big Damn Movie of Ultraman Orb released in conjunction with the 50th Anniversary of Ultraseven, when Dan Moroboshi reveals himself as Ultraseven in the final battle, the present Ultramen and Aliens unintentionally quotes the iconic Ultraseven theme. "Seven?" "Seven?" "Seven, Seven?" "Seven, Seven, Seven!"
- In Larger than Life, Jack receives a telegram from Walter that says, "You've only just begun. A kiss for luck, and you're on your way."
- In The House That Jack Built, as Jack is walking through the dark with Verge, he complains that he suddenly has a sour taste in his mouth. Verge dryly replies "You want me to show you the way to the next whiskey bar?"
