Airplane! - Television Tropes & Idioms

alt title(s): Airplane; Flying High

"Surely you can't be serious!"
"I am serious, and don't call me Shirley."

Describe Airplane! here.
It's a big white thing with wings, but that's not important right now.

To many people, Airplane! is the quintessential Affectionate Parody. Forget Scary Movie and the rest of that franchise — especially the rest of that franchise — which is a bit ironic, since the Zucker brothers produced some of those, but wrote and produced Airplane!

Airplane! is a comedic remake of an old disaster film Zero Hour, where Ted Stryker, an ex-military pilot, has to get over his personal traumas to pilot a commercial plane after the crew is stricken by food poisoning, and reconcile with his estranged girlfriend at the same time. Take that basic plot, and have a silly joke every ~~thirty~~ three seconds. In fact, that is partly what makes the film work: if a joke falls flat, move on to the next one. Of course, further analysis of the jokes will just hurt the humor of it all. Just see the film for yourself.

It was followed by a sequel called Airplane II: The Sequel. Your Mileage May Vary on whether it's even half as good as the first, but it's still a lot of fun for some.

This film provides examples of:

Adam Westing: Leslie Nielsen, Peter Graves
- In Nielsen's case, this movie basically led to a career change.
Affectionate Parody: Airplane disaster movies and disaster movies in general.
All Part Of The Show: While dancing, a guy is stabbed in the back. His partner confuses his pointing at the knife for dance moves.
A Worldwide Punomenon: The page quote, Ted's drinking problem, smoking section tickets, etc.
Bad Guy Bar: The Magumba bar in Drambuie, featuring fighting Girl Scouts and disco dancing.
Bar Brawl: Between card-playing Girl Scouts, no less.
Better Than It Sounds Film: "Food poisoning leads Shell Shocked Veteran to pilot a passenger jet."
Billions Of Buttons: A slow pan across an endless panorama of buttons, knobs and switches.
The Cameo: The directors (Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker) all have minor roles; the "Jive Lady" is Barbara Billingsley (June Cleaver of Leave It To Beaver); Ethel Merman plays a hospitalized war veteran who thinks he is Ethel Merman; the guy stuck waiting in the cab is Howard Jarvis (creator of California's Proposition 13).
Celebrity Paradox: The co-pilot is recognized as being basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Character As Himself: Otto the Autopilot.
Closest Thing We Got: Ted Striker himself.
Cloud Cuckoolander: Johnny, who always has a... different... take on the action than the people around him.
The Coconut Effect: Ted Stryker's echoing Inner Monologue.
Companion Cube: Otto the automatic pilot, who's a blow-up doll.
Crash Course Landing: Even though Ted was a pilot, it was as a fighter pilot, so he still needed help with a commercial airliner.
Ted: It's an entirely different kind of flying, altogether!
All Characters Present (except Ted): It's an entirely different kind of flying.
Credits Gag
- Author of A Tale of Two Cities ... Charles Dickens
- Foreez ... A Jolly Good Fellow
- Thirteenth President of the United States...... Millard Fillmore
- Following the "best boy" (a genuine crew position): Worst Boy..... Adolf Hitler
- The copyright notice ends with, "So there!"
Crew Of One: Ted Stryker flies (and lands) a modern jet airliner by himself.
Crosses The Line Twice: Several gags, but particularly the "hysterical woman gets slapped" one.
Deconstructor Fleet: The whole movie.
Disaster Movie: It's a Deconstruction of the genre, but is heavily based on one that plays it straight.
Dressed To Heal: When Dr. Rumack is introduced wearing a stethoscope for no reason, first shown right after he's asked if he's a doctor.
Driven To Suicide: Three people commit suicide rather than listen to Ted Stryker's reminiscing.
Driving A Desk: Rex Kramer's drive to the airport, from traffic accidents to raiding Indians.
Epiphany Therapy: Ted Stryker is cured of his fear of flying and saves the day after a Rousing Speech.
Executive Meddling: The studio wouldn't let the producers use a propeller plane as the airliner, so the producers gave the jet a propeller plane sound instead.
Face Cam: Elaine and Ted Stryker during the dance scene in the bar.
Falling Into The Cockpit: Ted Stryker must pilot a multi-engine jet airliner even though he has only flown single engine fighters.
Flashback: Ted and Elaine (meeting in the bar, in the Peace Corps, in the hospital, rolling on the beach), Ted's war memories.
Flashback Stares
Follow The Leader: So many films after this, it rivals Jaws and Star Wars for getting ripped off.
Funny Aneurysm Moment: The tag line "...and able to hit tall buildings at a single bound", and the plane running into and destroying a radio tower on a building... do we even need to say it?
Funny Background Event: ...where do I even begin?
- You could begin with the white zone/red zone argument over the PA, coupled with that baggage behind the cars that nobody actually gives a damn about. Yeah, many jokes are really that hard to catch.
Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: When everyone lines up to slap/punch/hit/shoot a hysterical woman.
Getting Crap Past The Radar: Fellatio, bestiality, paedophilia, a young girl who takes her coffee black (like her men), and repeated drug use, and it gets a PG rating?
- Not to mention a couple of brief shots of topless women in the sequel. Apparently, US censors were a little looser back in the day. This alone would garner any current movie an R.
  - There's a shot of a topless woman for about two seconds in the original, as well.
  - It's not really a "shot", so much as the breasts of a woman (and pretty much only that) getting in the way of most of the rest of the shot and jiggling around. There are two possible explanations: the censors were looser back then or they were really, really drunk that day.
  - The censors picked the wrong day to stop sniffing glue.
Girl Scouts Are Evil: During the Bar Brawl.
Glasses Pull: Captain Rex Kramer and his glasses.
Henway: "Surely you can't be serious."
Hurricane Of Puns: The entire film.
I Like My X Like I Like My Y: The young girl and her coffee.
I Need A Freaking Drink: "Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit smoking" (and drinking, and amphetamines, and sniffing glue)
Inner Monologue: "Pinch hitting for Pedro Borbon — Manny Mota!"
Jerk Ass: "Shana, they bought their tickets. They knew what they were getting into. I say, let 'em crash!"
Jive Turkey: The two black men and the white woman who interprets for them.
Just Plane Wrong: The jet airliner has the sound of prop-driven engines.
Littlest Cancer Patient: The little girl who needs a heart transplant.
Mixed Metaphors: "I guess the foot's on the other hand now!"
Money Dear Boy: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's salary paid for an expensive rug he wished to purchase.
No Fourth Wall: Elaine tells Ted she can't see him anymore. He turns to the camera and says, "What a pisser."
Offhand Backhand: Stryker does this to one of the religious donation-seekers in the airport.
Offscreen Crash: The stewardess' accident after leaving the cockpit, and the ambulance at the end.
Pardon Me Stewardess I Speak Iambic Pentameter: The Trope Namer, but doesn't occur in the movie.
Parental Bonus: One of the greatest things about this movie is that kids and parents can both watch it, but they laugh in, shall we say, different places.
Pet Homosexual: Stephen Stucker as "Johnny".
Pinch Me: Ted Stryker to a sailor in the Magumba Bar, when he first met Elaine.
Playing Against Type: Leslie Nielsen, Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack and Peter Graves (all serious dramatic actors), doing comedy.
- In the case of Nielson, this role redefined his career, and has been his default shtick ever since.
Prison Rape: "Joey, have you ever been in a Turkish prison?"
Proportional Article Importance: "There's a sale at Penney's!"
Rapid Fire Comedy: Considered one of the best uses of this trope by many film critics.
The Remake: The plot and much of the "straight" dialogue were taken from Zero Hour!.
- Here's the dialog script of ''Zero Hour'', so you can see for yourself. The lines that also appear in Airplane! are in boldface.
Right On Queue: The Get A Hold Of Yourself Man scene.
Rousing Speech: Played sort of straight in the first one, except that it was almost entirely cribbed from the famous "Win one for the Gipper" speech".
Rule Of Three: "I just want to tell you both good luck. We're all counting on you."
Running Gag: The page quote, Ted's drinking problem, "but that's not important right now", "Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit (drinking, smoking, sniffing glue, amphetamines)," "The red zone is for the loading and unloading...". There are so many threads of repeating gag loops, fading in and out throughout the film, that it's like a comedy movie written as techno music.
- "I just want to tell you both good luck. We're all counting on you."
Seinfeld Is Unfunny: With the line, "And don't call me Shirley!" Yet otherwise, the film is largely an aversion to this.
Shallow Parody: Of a famous scene from From Here to Eternity that the writers didn't even watch.
Shell Shocked Senior: Ted Stryker's experiences during the war.
Smoking Hot Sex: Elaine and Otto, the inflatable copilot.
Somebody Elses Problem: The passengers are oblivious to the unconscious bodies of the pilots being dragged through the aisle, among other things.
Spinning Paper
Spit Take: In the hospital flashback.
The Stinger: The guy left in Ted Stryker's cab at the very beginning of the movie says, "I'll give him another twenty minutes!"
Stock Footage: Ted Stryker's memories of ~~WW2~~ The War.
Stock Sound Effects: Castle Thunder when lightning flashes.
- Scenes of the jet in the air are accompanied by the drone of an old-fashioned prop plane.
Straight Man: Every actor (except for Johnny) acts as they are not speaking hilarious lines, which is one of the main reasons why this movie is so great.
Swiss Moment: So, so many. Try watching it as a kid and then later as an adult.
Ten Minute Retirement: Ted Stryker comes out of it after a Rousing Speech provides Epiphany Therapy.
This Is Your Premise On Drugs: Monty Python plus Mel Brooks on speed.
Tom Hanks Syndrome: Inverted by Leslie Nielsen.
Train Station Goodbye: Parodied as the plane takes off.
- Complete with an All on-board call.
Unfunny: Leslie Nielsen as Dr. Rumack, Robert Stack as Rex Kramer.
Unfortunate Implications: An El Al plane has a yarmulke and a beard, implied extreme violence against a hysterical woman, black Africans excelling as basketball players.
- Although this could also be considered Dead Baby Comedy, depending on the intent.
Video Credits
Visual Pun: "The shit's going to hit the fan," "Okay, boys, let's take some pictures," and "They're on instruments!", among others.
- The "check the radar range" pun hasn't aged well, though — RadarRange used to be Amana's brand name for its line of microwave ovens.
Weird Al Effect: Zero Hour, the movie it was based on.
Whos On First: The flight crew's names.
"We have clearance, Clarence." "Roger, Roger; what's our vector, Victor?"
"Now we're in radio clearance, over." "That's Clarence Oveur, over."
"Roger, over."
"Huh?" "What?" "Who?!"
You Get Me Coffee
McCroskey: "How 'bout some coffee, Johnny?"
Johnny: "No thanks!'
(in a later scene)
Steve McCroskey: "Johnny, how 'bout some more coffee?"
Johnny: "No, thanks!"

Airplane II: the Sequel provides examples of:

Adam Westing: see William Shatner below.
AI Is A Crapshoot: Complete with Shout Out to 2001: A Space Odyssey — "What are you doing, Dave?"
Arson Murder And Jaywalking: "That's why we're worried. This clown is impotent, suicidal, and incredibly stupid!"
Asteroid Thicket: Including a donut-shaped asteroid that the shuttle flies through.
Billions Of Buttons: Again, a slow pan across an endless panorama of buttons, knobs and switches.
- Oh, cut the bleeding heart crap! We all have our buttons, knobs and switches to deal with!
Celebrity Paradox: When we see McCroskey in the Old Folk's Home (for senility), the nurse mentions that he "...thinks he's Lloyd Bridges."
- Shout Out: He's hiding under his blankets with a snorkel sticking out of the top.
Chekhovs Gun: Joe Seluchi's bomb.
Closest Thing We Got: Brought up, then intentionally subverted, as this time Striker does know exactly what he's doing, but it's the shuttle that's malfunctioning.
Cow Tools: The machine in Alpha Beta Base.
Dirty Coward: Simon
Electric Boogaloo
Faster Than Light Travel: "Point Five Worp." Well, close enough.
Flashback: A woman is testifying in court and has flashbacks to when everyone lined up to slap her out of her hysterics in the first movie. This memory sends her into hysterics...
Funny Aneurysm Moment: A Roman Catholic priest reading a magazine called Altar Boy.
Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: see Flashback above.
Just Ignore It: Provides the page quote.
Kangaroo Court: Stryker was transparently framed for the crash of the prototype lunar shuttle to cover up the faulty wiring.
Mile High Club: A woman twice propositions men to have sex with her. The second time, we see a line of men waiting to take their turn.
Woman: "I don't mean to sound forward. I mean, I know I don't know you, but I don't think we're going to live through this, and I've never been with a man before. I know this isn't the right place..."
Mr Exposition: McCroskey tries to get Johnny to do this, to his regret.
McCroskey: "I want you to tell me everything that's happened up until now."
Johnny: "Well, let's see. First the earth cooled. And then the dinosaurs came, but they got too big and fat, so they all died and they turned into oil. And then the Arabs came and they bought Mercedes Benzes. And Prince Charles started wearing all of Lady Di's clothes. I couldn't believe it. He just took her best summer dress out of the closet and put it on..."
Must Have Caffeine: The passengers panic when they learn there's no more coffee.
Rant Inducing Slight: When the passengers learn there's no more coffee.
Oveur: "Damn, if I told them once, I've told them a hundred times — load more coffee!!"
Recycled In Space
Right On Queue: See Mile High Club above.
Rousing Speech: Subverted. McCroskey tries giving one to Stryker like in the previous film, only for Ted to point out that he's fine; it's the ship that's screwed up.
Running Gag: "No, why don't you take care of it?"; "No, not a 'bu-', a bomb," and many more.
Sci Fi Writers Have No Sense Of Scale: It's a lunar shuttle. Going to the Moon. That goes off course, through the asteroid belt, on the way to the Sun. In a few hours. Riiiiiight...
- Although the spacecraft is described as a "prototype lunar shuttle", it's clearly just the NASA Space Shuttle (STS) orbiter. Which, even with a gigantic fuel tank and 2 solid rocket boosters strapped to it, isn't capable of getting beyond low Earth orbit.
- It was just a tad off course.
  Passenger: "Stewardess, what exactly is a 'tad'?"
  Elaine: "Several million miles."
Sequelitis: Neither Jim Abrahams nor the Zuckers were involved; most of the jokes and plot were recycled.
Slipknot Ponytail: Elaine takes out her bobby pin and throws her hair from side to side.
Smoking Hot Sex: A woman and a donkey.
Somebody Elses Problem: The passengers are freakishly calm when told that they are off course and asteroids are smashing into the ship. The coffee shortage, though...
Take That: A brilliant one at Ronald Reagan.
Airport officer 1: "We could get McCroskey."
Airport officer 2: "I don't know. Ever since Reagan fired the controllers, he's been completely senile."
Airport officer 1: "Yeah, but what about McCroskey?"
Terrorists Without A Cause: Joe Seluchi tries to blow up the shuttle so his family can receive his ~~flight~~ auto insurance money.
FBI Man: "That's right. This man is suicidal — and extremely stupid."
There Will Be Toilet Paper: The man shaving himself in the shuttle bathroom... while it's crash landing.
This Is No Time To Panic: During a riot a sign flashes "DON'T PANIC", then changes to "OK, PANIC".
Visual Pun: Simon's turned to jelly!
Whos On First: The pilots' names, and the courtroom testimony.
Unger: "Dunn, weren't you under Oveur in the Air Force?"
(...)
Oveur: "Dunn was over Unger, and I was over Dunn."
Witness: "But then, Stryker said to go down into that fog, and our squadron went in too low."
Prosecuting attorney: "And he went to pieces?"
Witness: "Naw, Andy was a rock! Stryker went to pieces."
William Shatner: Commander Buck Murdoch of Alpha Beta Base.