Film Quote of the Day: The 1988 Comedy That Delivered One of Cinema's Funniest Intellectual Put-Downs

You probably know a guy just like Otto. He thinks he's the smartest person in the room and isn't afraid to condescend to others to prove it, even if beneath it all he's just a mean idiot.

The Otto in this case is a character from acclaimed British comedy A Fish Called Wanda, and he's played by Kevin Kline, who nabbed a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the role. He's the guy who quotes Nietzsche to win an argument, doesn't follow the argument he's quoting, and is offended if anyone notices.

Comedy loves this person. The confident idiot is one of the oldest characters we have, and few films have written one better than A Fish Called Wanda.

For many cinephiles, this is one that's slipped through the cracks, despite starring Jamie Lee Curtis, John Cleese, and Michael Palin. The film is about a London jewel heist. Charles Crichton directed and co-developed the story, and Cleese wrote the screenplay. The film was also nominated for Original Screenplay and Best Director.

After the robbery, the gang turns on itself. Wanda (Curtis) and her "brother," Otto (Kline), her lover, double-cross their boss. Wanda then sets out to seduce the boss' lawyer, Archie Leach (Cleese), to find out where the diamonds are hidden. Palin plays Ken, the stammering animal lover.

One insult in the film still zings years later, and it reveals a ton about these characters. Check out the moment below.

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The Scene

Otto has one defining rule. He can't stand being called stupid. He reads philosophy to prove he isn't, and he reminds everyone of it constantly.

At this point, Wanda has been working Archie for the location of the loot. Otto, jealous and impatient, shows up and dangles Archie out a fifth-floor window. Wanda gets him alone, and she is furious. The key line comes in the middle of her tirade, and seeing the whole scene shows why it hits so hard.

Wanda marches down an alleyway as Otto trails after.

"You said you weren't gonna see him!"

"Because I knew you'd come along and fuck it up!" Wanda says. "I was dealing with something delicate. I'm setting up a guy who's important to us, who'll tell me where the loot is and if you'll be arrested, and you come loping in like Rambo, and you dangle him out a fifth-floor window! Now, was that smart?!"

"Okay—" Otto says.

"Was it shrewd? Was it good tactics? Or was it stupid?!"

He bristles. "Don't call me stupid."

"Oh, right! To call you stupid would be an insult to stupid people! I've known sheep that could outwit you. I've worn dresses with higher IQs. But you think you're an intellectual, don't you, ape?"

Otto thinks he has her here. "Apes don't read philosophy."

"Yes, they do, Otto. They just don't understand it."

Wanda sets a trap. She lists flattering options (smart, shrewd, good tactics) so the last one stings. Otto's comeback is the only defense he has, his reading, and Wanda turns it into more evidence against him. She grants his premise, then flips it.

Wanda doesn't stop at the insult. She switches from mockery to fact-checking, which is somehow worse.

"Now let me correct you on a couple of things, okay? Aristotle was not Belgian. The central message of Buddhism is not every man for himself. The London Underground is not a political movement. Those are all mistakes. I looked 'em up."

This is the second comic triple of the scene, with a topper. She points out that Otto has just assaulted the one man who can keep him out of jail and make him rich. The scene's last beat returns to the heist, so the comedy is serving the story and not stalling it.

Credit: MGM/United Artists

Building a Villain Who Thinks He's a Genius

Otto is funny because of what he believes about himself, not because he's dumb. And he's one of the funniest villains ever.

Cleese traced Otto to an L.A. magazine ad for a guru, according to Mental Floss.

"I got the real key to the character out of Los Angeles Magazine," Cleese explained in an interview. "I found a double-page spread for a guru, and I'm pretty sure his name was Zen Master Rama, and he looked about 32 and very unsure of himself, and he had a funny sort of hairstyle like a dandelion at the end of September. But the key thing was the line across the top of this two-page advertisement for the seminars he ran at weekends, which was 'Buddhism gives you the competitive edge.' And I thought this was unbelievably funny."

PBS said of Cleese's writing, "He made Otto a man not smart enough to realize how stupid he was."

Kline and Cleese spent 10 days talking and improvising in Jamaica while the character took shape, per the 1988 New York Times making-of.

Kline said, "He's trying so desperately to create an image, and fails so miserably, he's almost endearing. You can't help appreciating his energy and his extraordinary commitment to himself. I ended by finding myself both repelled and drawn to him."

Kline said he initially felt he was cast against type in this one and asked Cleese about it.

"I mean, I was the sociopath, the person who gets in terrible rages with people, the one who's fun to perform, while he was relegated to the romantic lead. I told him, you've written the John Cleese part for me."

'A Fish Called Wanda' Credit: MGM/United Artists

Playing the Idiot Straight

The ape line only works if Otto is offended in earnest. Kline plays the hurt with total sincerity. He really does not like being accused of stupidity. And that was perhaps one of the only handholds Kline got to play the character.

He told Vanity Fair in 2018:

I never understood the character. I kept saying, "Who is this guy?" John actually had a T-shirt printed that said, "Who is this guy?" Because he was such an amalgam of contradictions. He seemed to be a buffoon and idiot, but he’s a good shot and he’s got some physical strength.

But I learned something from it: that, actually, not understanding the character is sort of all right. I realized it was a tribute to John’s writing. Because well-written characters are inconsistent, are contradictory, and trying to reconcile the contradictions is maybe a fool’s errand at the end of the day.