Stinking badges
{{short description|Phrase popularized in literature and cinema}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2020}}
File:Gold Hat portrayed by Alfonso Bedoya.jpg) tries to convince Fred C. Dobbs (Humphrey Bogart) that he and his men are Federales.]]
"Stinkin' badges" is a paraphrase of a line of dialogue from the 1948 film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.{{Cite web |last=Erickson |first=Hal |year=2010 |title=Alfonso Bedoya Movies |url=http://www.blockbuster.com/browse/catalog/personDetails/4404 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120315050117/http://www.blockbuster.com/browse/catalog/personDetails/4404 |archive-date=2012-03-15 |access-date=2010-04-27 |publisher=Blockbuster}} That line was in turn derived from dialogue in the 1927 novel of the same name, which was the basis for the film.
In 2005, the full quote from the film was chosen as #36 on the American Film Institute list, AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes.{{Cite web |year=2010 |title=AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes |url=https://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2005-06-21-top-movie-quotes_x.htm |access-date=2010-04-27 |website=USA Today}} The shorter, better-known version of the quote was first{{Cite web |title=Article |url=http://www.thisdayinquotes.com/2010/01/we-don-need-no-stinking-badges-misquote.html |website=This Day in Quotes}} heard in the 1967 episode of the TV series The Monkees "It's a Nice Place to Visit". It was also included in the 1974 Mel Brooks film Blazing Saddles, and has since been included in many other films and television shows.
History
The original version of the line appeared in B. Traven's novel The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1927):
{{quote|"All right," Curtin shouted back. "If you are the police, where are your badges? Let's see them."
"Badges, to god-damned hell with badges! We have no badges. In fact, we don't need badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges, you god-damned cabrón and chinga tu madre! Come out there from that shit-hole of yours. I have to speak to you."}}
The line was popularized by John Huston's 1948 film adaptation of the novel, which was altered from its content in the novel to meet the Motion Picture Production Code regulations severely limiting profanity in film.{{Cite web |year=2010 |title=Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The (1948) |url=http://www.classicfilmguide.com/indexa620.html |access-date=2010-04-21 |publisher=classicfilmguide.com}} In one scene, a Mexican bandit leader named "Gold Hat"{{Cite web |last=Erickson |first=Hal |year=2010 |title=The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) |url=http://www.blockbuster.com/browse/catalog/movieDetails/35991 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110905131156/http://www.blockbuster.com/browse/catalog/movieDetails/35991 |archive-date=2011-09-05 |access-date=2010-04-21 |publisher=Blockbuster}} (portrayed by Alfonso Bedoya) tries to convince Fred C. Dobbs (Humphrey Bogart){{Cite web |year=2010 |title=The Treasure of the Sierra Madre |url=http://bogartfilms.warnerbros.com/hb.movie.totsm.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061117075349/http://bogartfilms.warnerbros.com/hb.movie.totsm.html |archive-date=2006-11-17 |access-date=2010-04-21 |publisher=Warner Bros.}} that he and his company are Federales:
{{Quote|Dobbs: "If you're the police, where are your badges?"
Gold Hat: "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinkin' badges!"}}
Appearances in media
= Film =
- In The Dirties, the characters Matt and Owen make a student film in which they play cops and constantly make pop culture references. In one scene, their teacher playing the police chief shouts, "That's it, give me your badges!", and Matt responds "Badges? Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!"{{Citation |last=Matt Johnson |title=The Dirties |date=2013 |url=https://archive.org/details/the-dirties-2013 |access-date=2025-03-22}}
=Comics=
- In one issue of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Archie comics, the Malignoid drones Scul and Bean meet with the nihilistic industrian Null to discuss the contract between him and the Malignoid queen Maligna. When Null insists on consolidating the contract through his lawyers, either Scul or Bean yells out: "Lawyers?! We don't need no stinkin' lawyers!!""The Man Who Sold the World". Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures #19 (April 1991)
- In the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series from Image Comics, Donatello paraphrases a variation of that sentence ("Plans?! I don't need no stinking plans!") whilst using his cyborg systems to restore a stripped-down aircar.Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol.3 #10 (Juli 1997, Image Comics)
=Games=
- In the game Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out! (1993), the main protagonist has the line of dialogue, "Badges? Ve don' need no steenkin' badges!" to Cavaricchi, the aerobics instructor.{{Cite web |title=The Leisure Suit Larry 6 Script |url=http://larrylaffer.net/scripts/larry6.pdf}}
=Literature=
- The Luis Valdez play I Don't Have to Show You No Stinkin' Badges (1987) draws its title from this quote, and makes a specific reference to Sierra Madre.{{Cite web |last=OLMO |first=FRANK del |date=20 February 1986 |title=Needled by 'Stinking Badges' |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-02-20-me-9883-story.html |access-date=12 January 2019 |via=LA Times}}
- In Eldest (2005), the second novel in Christopher Paolini's The Inheritance Cycle series, a cobbler named Loring eschews the use of barges as a means of human transportation, saying, "Barges? We don't want no stinking barges."{{Cite book |last=Paolini |first=Christopher |title=Eldest |publisher=Knopf Books for Young Readers |year=2005 |isbn=037582670X |page=413}}
- In William S. Burroughs' report on the 1968 Democratic Convention for Esquire magazine, Burroughs has a cop demand to see the permit of the candidate's entourage. The response is: "Permits? We don't have any permits. We don't have to show you any stinking permits. You are talking suh to the future President of America."{{Cite book |title=Penguin Portable Sixties Reader |year=2003 |editor-last=Ann Charters}}
References
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}
External links
- {{YouTube|id=4OcM23Hbs5U|title=No Stinking Badges}}