(no subject)

[dreamer_easy]

Where does the line "This is why we can't have nice things!" come from? It's driving me nuts. Although at least Elton John's Song For Guy has displaced Joni Mitchell's Free Man In Paris from my brane.

Comments

[southerndave.livejournal.com]

... in what context? Song lyric?

The closest to a song title I've found after a couple of minutes' Googling is the name of a CD by a current American band I've never heard of.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

I assume it's a line from a movie. But I really dunno.

[peeeeeeet.livejournal.com]

This may not be the first ever occurrence, but Lisa mutters "This is why I can't have nice things!" when Homer feeds beer to her robot Linguo in an episode of The Simpsons possibly titled "Trilogy of Error".

[southerndave.livejournal.com]

That's the only instance of the quote showing up on IMDB so I think you've cracked it.

http://www.us.imdb.com/title/tt0096697/quotes (http://www.us.imdb.com/title/tt0096697/quotes)

Bloody huge page though so I've pinched the scene they quote.

Homer: Here, little fella'.
[Homer pours beer into Linguo's mouth]
Lisa: Dad. No.
Linguo: Error.
Homer: I'm sorry. I thought he was a party robot.
Lisa: Oh. This is why I can't have nice things. Grrr... every time I design a robot, somebody comes along and breaks it.

nice things...

[ruchbah.livejournal.com]

It also reminded me of Edina (Jennifer Saunders in Absolutely Fabulous) screaming, "I don't want lots of choices, I just want nice things!". But I think the Lisa Simpson attribution is the right one!

x

[antikythera.livejournal.com]

It's a classic Mom-ism (up there with things like "Think of the starving children in Africa" when you aren't eating your peas). I don't know if there's one specific media appearance that popularised it, but it's definitely older than The Simpsons.

I remember being at my grandparents' house playing a board game called Taboo, in which the object is to get your teammates to say a secret word by giving them clues. My grandmother gave the clue "We never have these", and I said "Nice things!" and everybody cracked up. I was probably twelve or thirteen, and even if I'd been watching The Simpsons that young (it was on TV, just barely), I know my older relatives wouldn't have been.