Funny moments in The Silence of the Lambs.
- "Precious? Are you up there you little shit?" [trying desperately to make a kissy-face]
- Of the darkly comic variety, the wit of Hannibal Lecter:
- His gleeful assessment of Chilton: "Gruesome, isn't he? He fumbles at your head, like a freshman pulling at a panty girdle."
- When Clarice questions him about one of his former patients.Starling: If you didn't kill him, then who did, sir?
Lecter: Who can say? Best thing for him, really. His therapy was going nowhere. - "Oh, and Senator just one more thing! [Beat] Love your suit."
- "I'm having an old friend for dinner."
- And earlier, when questioned about feeding Raspail to his dinner guests. "Haven't you had company coming and no time to shop? You have to make do with what's in the fridge." Literal Fridge Horror, there.
- In the film, Lecter gives the Senator Bill's name as "Louis Friend," which Clarice figures out is an anagram for Iron Sulfide, or Fool's Gold. In the book, the name he gives is Billy Rubin. It's revealed later in the book that "bilirubin" is a pigment produced in the bile ducts, and gives shit its colour. It's also the colour of Chilton's hair. Hand it to Lecter to go to the most roundabout possible way of calling Chilton a shithead.
- In the book when Lecter writes his clue in the case file he tells Clarice he hasn't written anywhere else in the file and not to bother looking. Clarice, who had hoped she wouldn't have to look through the file and all of its photos again, had to spend twenty minutes going over every single page of the file just to be sure that he hadn't written anything else. Meaning, Lecter tricked Starling into tormenting herself.
- There's just something funny about one of the inmates shouting "MIGGS, YOU STUPID FUCK!" after Multiple Miggs flings his semen at Clarice as she's about to leave, especially after he gave her a pervy-sounding "hiiiii..." at the beginning of the scene.
- From the scene where Buffalo Bill has Catherine trapped in his well:Buffalo Bill: It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again!(Precious barks)Buffalo Bill: (In a cooing, baby-voice) Yes she will, Precious! She will get da hose!
- This:Lecter: Anthrax Island? That was an especially nice touch, Clarice....yours?Starling: (sheepishly) Yes...Lecter: Yeah...that was GOOD...!
- Crossed with Heartwarming:Lecter: (has his back turned) Or did Jack Crawford send you for one last pow-wow before you're both booted off the case?Starling: No, I came because I wanted to.Lecter: (looks at her coyly) People will say we're in love.
- Near the end of the film, after Clarice tells Catherine she's safe, then runs off to find Buffalo Bill.Starling: Where is he?
Catherine: How the fuck should I know?
(Starling looks over the rim of the hole, then backs away to keep looking for Bill)
Catherine: Don't you leave me here, you fuckin' bitch! NOOOOOO!- Mood Whiplash, though, as Catherine's fear and exhaustion creep back into her voice.
- When Starling brings the moth cocoon to the Smithsonian in the film, Dr. Pilcher gets comfortable quickly.Pilcher: What do you do when you're not detecting, Agent Starling?
Starling: I try to be a student, Dr. Pilcher.
Pilcher: Ever go out for cheeseburgers and beer? Or the amusing house wine?
Starling: (coquettishly) Are you hitting on me, Doctor?
Pilcher: Yes.- Added bonus: at the end of the novel, Clarice and Pilcher actually do hook up!
- The two entomologists playing chess with live insects earlier in the scene.
- From the novel:Jack Crawford: You think nuts don't apply to the FBI? We get 'em all the time. A man in a Moe hairpiece applied in St. Louis last week. He had a bazooka, two rockets, and a bearskin shako in his golf bag.
Dr. Danielson: Did you hire him? - In the book, Clarice has a scene with Barney, where they discuss Lecter just before Clarice takes the doctor's drawings. Barney gets a good line in before they part ways.When you get Buffalo Bill, don't bring him to me just because I've got an opening, okay?
- Also in the book, upon the discovery of the body in the storage, Lecter is questioned by the senior officer of Baltimore County. His response?He had refused to speak, but responded by folding for them an origami chicken that pecked when the tail was manipulated up and down. The senior officer, furious, had crushed the chicken in the lobby ashtray as he gestured for Starling to go in.
- In the film, when Starling rings Buffalo Bill's bell and he stumbles upstairs, muttering, "All right! I'm coming!" There's something vaguely amusing about seeing this psycho just as annoyed as anyone else about an incessant knock at the door.
- Gumb's attempt at acting casual zooms quickly into Acting Unnatural when asked about Catherine.
Jame Gumb: ...oh wait. Was she a great big fat person?Clarice: [beat] Yes, she was a big girl, sir.- Also, the little maneuver he does when he escapes to the kitchen.
- Following Lecter's escape, Starling tells Ardelia Mapp he won't come for her. When she asks why, Starling chuckles and says, "I can't explain it...he'd consider it rude."
- During a discussion with Lecter about about Buffalo Bill, Clarice gives a rather darkly amusing reply.
- Clarice: Most serial killers keep some kind of a trophy.Lecter: I didn’t.Clarice: No, you ate yours.
