Besides writing posts for this site, I also have a side hustle website called My Geek Wisdom. Over there, I try to look at some very famous and influential quotes from movies, television, cartoons and even the Internet and try to put a little spin on them by drawing out a nugget of wisdom from them.

After years of writing stuff for My Geek Wisdom, I have noticed how not all quotes are equal. What I mean by that is that some quotes are super popular while others are not. The weird thing is how some memorable lines actually can come off as very ordinary sounding. What I mean is some of them are not as grand sounding as Obi-Wan Kenobi taunting Darth Vader before they fight to the death or Dr. Ian Malcolm stating how you shouldn’t just do things because you can. Nope, sometimes, there are quotes that just manage to stick in out collective memories despite the fact they should be really dull.

So, let’s go check out just five incredibly mundane lines which, for one reason or another, have become super memorable.

It’s a trap! (from Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi)

Let’s just get the most obvious one out of the way early.

Under normal circumstances, someone yelling out “it’s a trap” during a battle scene would not be at all memorable. You would just forget about it. But not in Return of the Jedi, no sirree! The line itself has lived for so many decades in the brains of boys and girls who watched this movie and it’s probably one of the most quoted lines even if the line itself would be very blase in every other movie.

The biggest reason why “it’s a trap” has become ingrained in our social consciousness is because of who’s saying it: Admiral Ackbar. Admiral Ackbar isn’t human and he’s a, get this, a Mon Calamari. Yes, George Lucas, the man who initially dreamt up all of the Star Wars lore, decided to call the squid looking aliens “Mon Calamari” because, hey! Why not? Still, there is some genius behind this because, if Admiral Ackbar was a human and not some squidfaced creature, I don’t the line would be all that memorable!

Kal-El, no! (from Justice League)

Oh, Gal Gadot… you’re a decent actress but… was that the best take you had in you?

Now, I will preface this part by saying I actually like Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. I was a huge doubter when she was cast in the role but she did win me over… when she got her own solo movie. She didn’t really work for me in her first appearance as the character but she did grow on me. I even liked the accent as Wonder Woman is supposed to be a foreigner from Themyscira. So, having her keep her native accent made a whole lot of sense to me.

Unfortunately, having her keep the accent and, coupled with this rather emotionless reading of what should be a very pivotal scene where she’s pleading for a resurrected Superman to not go berserk, was just bad. Fortunately for us, it did give us one really funny and memorable line.

I’ll be back. (from The Terminator)

Well, he didn’t lie.

Honestly, I could fill this entire list with just Arnold Schwarzenegger quotes, like “I lied” from Commando and “put that cookie down” from Jingle All the Way. But I had to pick just one as that wouldn’t be fair to the other memorable mundane quotes! There is just something about Schwarzenegger’s accent and delivery which makes a lot of his lines so memorable. But, for this list, I picked one of his earliest iconic quotes: I’ll be back.

Despite the phrase itself being something you would hear in everyday life, the way Arnold says the line in a very monotone yet menacing manner makes it worth. Mix in his thick Austrian accent and you got yourself a memorable line!

Too bad you… will die! (from Mortal Kombat Annihilation)

I’m lactose intolerant! I can’t take all this cheese!

Okay, the first Mortal Kombat movie was great. The sequel, Mortal Kombat Annihilation? Not so much. Oh, they tried to be “faithful” to the games by cramming in as many characters and follow the lore but I think most people would have appreciated a much better story, a better script and… acting coaches.

Still, god bless Musetta Vander, who played Sindel in Annihilation! It looked like she was trying to make the most of this really bad script. That incredibly over-the-top delivery of the line, that dramatic pause for emphasis and that cheesy finger point at just the right makes a line that should’ve been so forgettable stick out in all our minds!

I don’t like sand. (from Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones)

Hey, I don’t like sand, too! But do you have to be so creepy about it?

In retrospect, Anakin Skywalker‘s lovey-dovey monologue to Padme Amidala should have been fine. After all, Anakin would have a distaste for sand as he grew up in the harsh desert environment of Tatooine, which was covered with the stuff. So, yeah. He’d probably hate sand a lot. But that’s not the problem of the monologue or the line. It’s everything else!

For one thing, the acting here is terrible, with Anakin coming off as both a lovestruck kid and a creeper. There also the utter feeling of saccharine overdose as, while this list is all about mundane but memorable dialogue, no one talks like this in real life. This makes you fall right in the uncanny valley for how unrealistic it feels! All of this the line incredibly bad. But, like a lot of movies, it’s so bad that it becomes good!

BONUS: Did I do that? (from Family Matters)

Yes! You obviously did, Urkel!

Okay, not a movie but I had to mention this as this is proof positive that, if you repeat something again and again and again, it’ll probably stick in your brain.

What other rather mundane but memorable quotes can you think of? Let me know in the comments section below!