“I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse.”

THE ORIGINAL GODFATHER’S OFFER: “I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse.”        Mario Puzo (1920-1999)        American author and scriptwriter        The catchphrase Puzo created for the Corleone family in his 1969 novel The Godfather        This line gained worldwide fame after the 1972 movie adaptation of the novel became a blockbuster hit. It is first used in the novel by the Mafia “Godfather” Don Vito Corleone. When Italian singer and actor Johnny Fontane tells Don Corleone that a Hollywood movie executive had refused to give him a role he wanted in an upcoming film, Don Corleone tells Johnny he’ll convince the studio executive to change his mind. “He’s a businessman,” the Don explains. “I’ll make him an offer he can't refuse.”        Corleone sends his consigliere, Tom Hagen, to visit the studio exec and make a seemingly polite request to have Johnny reconsidered for the movie role. The studio exec refuses. Soon after that, he finds the severed head of his prized stud racehorse in his bed—and quickly decides to give Johnny the part. Later in the novel, Vito’s son Michael Corleone also says “I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse.”       In the movie adaptation, the famous “offer” line used by Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone is slightly different. Brando says “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.” Later in the film, Al Pacino, as Michael, says “I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse.”        Of course, in the novel and film the “offer” is a veiled threat used with chilling effect. As part of our language, mentions of offers that can’t be refused are now typically used more for humorous effect.        Mario Puzo wrote The Godfather in his spare time while working as a writer for men’s pulp adventure magazines in the 1960s. For more background on this famous quote, see the post about it on my ThisDayinQuotes.com site.

PRESIDENT OBAMA’S SUPREME COURT OFFER: “In the context of the Supreme Court vacancy, President Obama’s choice of Merrick Garland may be the hardest for Republicans to reject...Garland’s nomination comes the closest to making Senate Republicans an offer they can’t afford to refuse. On the merits — and this is no slight to the other finalists; Garland simply has the longevity — he is the best qualified. He is the most moderate nominee Republicans could reasonably expect. His downside, in the view of Democrats, his age, should be a confirmation plus in the eyes of Republicans.”        Ruth Marcus        American political columnist        Commenting in her March 18, 2016 column in the Washington Post about the dilemma Republicans face if they refuse to hold hearings on or reject President Obama’s moderate nominee to replace the late Justice Scalia. If they don’t approve Judge Garland, they face the fact Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders could be elected president in November 2016, and their nominee could be more liberal and less palatable to Republican Conservatives.

THE MOST INTERESTING MAN IN THE WORLD (BEFORE HE RETIRED): “I don’t always make an offer...But when I do, you can't refuse.”         A meme posted on MemeCrunch.com featuring the now retired “Most Interesting Man in the World.” (I miss him already.)

WEIRD AL’S POLKA PLEA: “You can scratch up my records, you can drink my booze... You can make me an offer I can't refuse But darling, please don’t wear those shoes.”        “Weird Al” Yankovic        American musician, satirist and shoe critic        Lyrics from his song “Don’t Wear Those Shoes” on his Polka Party album (1986)

A CRITIC’S VIEW OF “BOJACK HORSEMAN”: “This horse’s head is an offer you can refuse.”        Brian Lowry        TV critic for Variety magazine        In his August 13, 2014 review of the Netflix animated comedy show Bojack Horseman. The main character is a talking horse (voiced by Will Arnett) who once appeared in a popular sitcom but is now forgotten, depressed and bitter. Although most critics seem to agree with Lowry’s assessment, the show has been popular enough with viewers to be continued by Netflix for three seasons.

A CRITIC’S VIEW OF “THE GODFATHER’S REVENGE”: “An offer you might want to refuse.”        Carol Memmott        American book critic and entertainment writer        From her review of Mark Winegardner’s 2004 novel The Godfather’s Revenge, a sequel to Mario Puzo’s Godfather series. The book was a best seller, despite the opinion of Memmott.

THE POLITICALLY INCORRECT SOPRANOS JOKE: “You hear about the Chinese Godfather?  He made them an offer they couldn’t understand.”        The character Uncle Junior (played by Dominic Chianese) in The Sopranos TV series        Uncle Junior told this lame joke to his buddies in Season 1, Episode 4 of the series        Word and phrase maven Barry Popik has noted on his great site, The Big Apple, that there was an earlier version of this joke that poked fun at both gangsters and lawyers: “What do you get when you cross a gangster with an attorney? An offer you can’t understand.”

THE POSSIBLY CORRECT JUNK MAIL SOLUTION: “Here’s what I do to them and every other asshole that sends me an offer I want to refuse. I take all the mail they sent, plus whatever crap is lying around the house (used rubbers, rat shit, gum, those insert cards from other magazines) and I stuff it all into the prepaid reply envelope and send the junk mail right back.”          Josh Saitz        Editor of the Negative Capability online zine        In a post on the zine titled “How to Cope with Assholes”

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“Every day, in every way…”

FAMOUS PSYCHOTHERAPY MANTRA: “Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better.” (“Tous les jours, a tous points de vue, je vais de mieux en mieux.”)         Émile Coué (1857-1926)        French psychologist and pharmacist        Coué was renowned for his theories about the healing power of “conscious autosuggestion” or self-hypnosis, also called Couéism or the Coué method. This famous line was inscribed on the wall of Coué’s sanitarium in Nancy, France in 1910 and promoted in his books, such as De la suggestion et de ses application (“On Suggestion and its Applications”), published in 1915.        Coué claimed that people with mental or physical problems could be cured by saying his catchphrase to themselves 15 to 20 times every day.

UPDATED PSYCHOTHERAPY QUOTE: “It seems to me that psychotherapy, perhaps like so much else in our current culture, has learned to chant a distinctly counter-Coué mantra: ‘Every day, in every way, I get worse and worse.’”        Professor Ernesto Spinelli        British psychotherapist and psychologist        In his book The Mirror and the Hammer (2004)

WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY COUNTERQUOTE: “Every day, in every way, things [in America] are getting worse and worse. It wouldn’t be so bad if, while running through the darkening wood, we knew we were headed toward daylight, but we don’t know any such thing.”        William F. Buckley Jr. (1925-2008)        Conservative political commentator and author        In his column in The National Review, July 2, 1963

SCARY MOTHER TERESA VARIATION: “We think of our own faces as ugly because of the wrinkles and lines and sagging flesh...When you look in the mirror, don't ask yourself whether you look like Marilyn Monroe. Say instead to yourself — every day in every way, I look more like Mother Teresa!”        Dr. Ronda Chervin        American theologist        In her book Seeking Christ in the Crosses & Joys of Aging (2003)

HENRY MILLER’S COSMIC VERSION: “I am living out my share of life and thus abetting the scheme of things. I further the development, the enrichment, the evolution and the devolution of the cosmos, every day in every way. I give all I have to give, voluntarily, and take as much as I can possibly ingest.”        Henry Miller (1891-1980)        American novelist, painter and social commentator        In his book The Wisdom of the Heart (1960)

TRANSFORMERS BEAST WAR VERSION: “EVERY DAY, IN EVERY WAY, I’M GETTING BADDER.”        Hydra        His motto in The Transformers Beast Wars Sourcebook (2008)

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“Go ahead, make my day.”

DIRTY HARRY’S LEGENDARY CATCHPHRASE: “Go ahead, make my day.”        Clint Eastwood        American actor, director and producer        His legendary quote as the tough police officer “Dirty Harry” Callahan, in the film Sudden Impact (1983)         Harry utters these words in an early scene in the movie, during which he thwarts the attempted robbery of a restaurant by four armed thugs. He shoots and kills three of the would-be robbers and wounds another. The wounded thug grabs a waitress and points a gun at her head, thinking it will make Harry back off and let him escape. Harry calmly points his big .44 Magnum pistol at the thug and says: “Go ahead, make my day.” It clearly implies that Harry would enjoy killing him, too, if the thug provided an excuse by continuing to threaten the waitress. After pondering the remark and the steely look on Harry’s face, the thug drops his gun and surrenders.        The huge popularity of Sudden Impact made “Go ahead, make my day” a world famous catchphrase that has been used ever since, usually as a sarcastic taunt. One of the most noted uses was by President Ronald Reagan, who said in a speech on March 13, 1985: “I have my veto pen drawn and ready for any tax increase that Congress might even think of sending up. And I have only one thing to say to the tax increasers: Go ahead, make my day.”        Saying that something “made my/his/her day” — either as expression of true happiness or as a sardonic way of indicating displeasure — predates Sudden Impact. “Go ahead, make my day” was probably also used occasionally before 1983. But the movie made it a common, oft-heard idiom. Many sources attribute the inclusion of the line in Sudden Impact to Charles B. Pierce, who received a “story by” credit in the film. Pierce claimed he adapted it from a warning his father gave him frequently when he was growing up.

A RECENT USE RELATED TO A SUPREME COURT CASE: “Clint Eastwood: Go ahead, make my gay friends happy by allowing them to get married.”        Headline for a story posted on the Conservative website DailyCaller.com on Feb. 28, 2013        This snarky post lamented the fact that Eastwood was one of dozens of prominent Republicans who signed a legal brief urging the US Supreme Court to strike down Prop 8, the California ballot initiative that banned gay marriage, and affirm that marriage is a basic matter of equal rights under the US Constitution. In a landmark decision issued on June 26, 2013, the Supreme Court did just that, making it a banner day for all people who supported marriage equality.          Eastwood eloquently expressed his personal views on same sex marriage and people who opposed it in an interview published in the October 2011 issue of GQ magazine. He told GQ: “These people who are making a big deal out of gay marriage? I don’t give a fuck about who wants to get married to anybody else! Why not?! We’re making a big deal out of things we shouldn't be making a deal out of...They go on and on with all this bullshit about ‘sanctity’— don't give me that sanctity crap! Just give everybody the chance to have the life they want.”

A MOVIE LINE THAT’S READS FUNNIER THAN IT IS ON SCREEN: “Go ahead, make me gay.”        The catchphrase of “Flirty Harry”        Flirty Harry, originally a minor character in The Underground Comedy Movie (1999), was resurrected and made a lead character in the more recent film, InAPPropriate Comedy (2013), both of which were directed by comedian Vince Offer.        Offer played Harry in The Underground Comedy Movie. Actor Adrien Brody is Harry in InAPPropriate Comedy.        Both films were panned by critics and bombed at the box office.

THE HELL’S KITCHEN VARIATION: “Go ahead, make my dinner!”        An icanhascheezburger.com version featuring the world’s toughest chef, Gordon Ramsay.

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