Hoges: The true meaning behind THAT’S a knife
Aussie comedy great Paul Hogan revealed the most famous line in his hit movie Crocodile Dundee was designed to use comedy to take the edge out of a violent encounter.
The 1986 film which remains the biggest earning Australian movies of all time, produced one of the most quoted lines in movie history, ‘that’s not a knife, THAT’S a knife.’
“To me it was… sort of saying, instead of stabbing somebody, repel an attack with humour, and the suggestion, ‘don’t mess around with me or ill carve you up son.’” Hogan said in a revealing interview on Sunday Night with Kerri-Anne Kennerley.
THAT’S a knife will be forever etched in the annals of pop culture history. It’s even featured in The Simpsons and Family Guy. But does Paul ever get sick of people coming up to him in the street and quoting the line to him?
“I’ll go into a restaurant in Japan or Mexico and inevitably the chef will come out with this big knife and say ‘that’s not a knife, this is a knife, and look pleased with themselves like they thought it up first. (It happens) thousands and thousands of times…. No you don’t get sick of it.”
Hogan said he was honoured so many people remembered the line.
“It is nice, yeah.”
Crocodile Dundee is about an American reporter who goes to the Australian outback to meet an eccentric crocodile hunter and invites him to New York city.
Hogan’s job promoting Australian tourism to the world also led to another famous quoted line, put another shrimp on the Barbie.
“So many Australian’s say to me, you should have said prawn on the Barbie. I just know there are two expressions that went into the language and they are still there. Slip a shrimp on the Barbie and That’s not a knife.”
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