Is it safe? - A Clerks animated reference question (1 Viewer)

[Bjorn Olav Nyberg]

Hello

A very short and probably stupid question

A friend of mine is kind of bugging me with this line. I've got him to admit it is a Clerks animated thing, but nothing more. What kind of response could he possible be hoping for?

 

[Brad Porter]

"Is it safe?" is the question that Dr. Szell (Laurence Olivier) repeatedly asks Babe Levy (Dustin Hoffman) while performing dental torture on him in Marathon Man. If it was mentioned in Clerks, it was a reference to this scene.
Brad

 

[Allan Petersen]

Creepy scene (in Marathon Man).

It's been used in quite a few movies over the years. Off the top of my head I can recall Hot Shots and Gremlins 2 as having direct references.

 

[Josh Lowe]

LOTR:Fellowship postdates Clerks, but the one early preview there was back then showed Gandalf popping out of the shadows, wild-eyed, asking "Is it secret?! Is it safe?!"

But I think it was a Marathon Man ref.. that's a great movie. My favorite scene is the shot of the sinister Asian guy playing pinball while staring across the street.

 

[Agee Bassett]

"Is it safe?"
An appropriate response, per Dustin Hoffman, would be "Yes, it's safe, it's very safe, it's so safe you wouldn't believe it."

 

[Allan Petersen]

Josh, I think you may be right about the LotR reference. Although I loved the movie (and the EE) I never made that connection, myself.

Silly me, I guess.

 

[Mark R O]

ding!ding!ding! Bonus Round.
For 50 HTF points, What's in the bottle Sir Ollie his holding?

 

[Dave Simpson]

Per Goldman's book (to which I thrilled more than 25 years ago; ouch!! :b ), the elixir offered by Szell in his left hand is Oil of Cloves, to offset the pain inflicted by the dental implement in his right. "Is it safe?", indeed!! Cheers, gang!

DS.

 

[HenrikTull]

Is it safe?

 

[Bjorn Olav Nyberg]

Aaargh! Are you gonna start up here as well? Wasn't it enough to drive me up the walls on ICQ?

 

[HenrikTull]

Is it safe?

 

[Bjorn Olav Nyberg]

No "oil of cloves" for you

 

[HenrikTull]

Is it safe?

 

[HenrikTull]

Is it safe?

 

[Mark C Sherman]

Quick someone hit Henrikhull His needle is stuck

 

[Lew Crippen]

Personally I think that I’ll keep as many as I can swallow.

 

[HenrikTull]

Is it safe?

 

[Scott McGillivray]

No, it's not safe, it's very dangerous, be careful.

 

[HenrikTull]

Is it safe?

 

[HenrikTull]

Is it safe?