Let me apologize in advance. I already used this for a previous One-Liner Wednesday prompt from Linda G. Hill. But since this is the last One-Liner Wednesday post before Christmas, I’m recycling it.
“Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! You can’t fool me. There ain’t no Sanity Clause.”
That line came from the classic and hilarious 1935 Marx Brothers movie, “A Night at the Opera.”
It’s a typical Marx Brothers movie about a silly business manager, Otis P. Driftwood, played by Grouch Marx, and his two wacky pals, Fiorello and Tomasso, played by Chico and Harpo Marx, respectively. They are friends with two opera singers and help them achieve success while humiliating their stuffy and snobbish enemies.
There is one scene, quite possibly my favorite in the whole movie, in which Driftwood (Groucho) attempts to explain the intricacies of a business contract to Fiorello (Chico). The dialogue goes like this:
Fiorello: Hey, wait, wait. What does this say here, this thing here?
Driftwood: Oh, that? Oh, that’s the usual clause that’s in every contract. That just says, uh, it says, uh, if any of the parties participating in this contract are shown not to be in their right mind, the entire agreement is automatically nullified.
Fiorello: Well, I don’t know…
Driftwood: It’s all right. That’s, that’s in every contract. That’s, that’s what they call a sanity clause.
Fiorello: Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! You can’t fool me. There ain’t no Sanity Clause!
And, for your viewing pleasure, here is a video clip of that scene.
This, That, and the Other 