Daily Dialogue — June 18, 2020

Nigel Tufnel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and…
Marty DiBergi: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten?
Nigel Tufnel: Exactly.
Marty DiBergi: Does that mean it’s louder? Is it any louder?
Nigel Tufnel: Well, it’s one louder, isn’t it? It’s not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You’re on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you’re on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?
Marty DiBergi: I don’t know.
Nigel Tufnel: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
Marty DiBergi: Put it up to eleven.
Nigel Tufnel: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.
Marty DiBergi: Why don’t you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?
Nigel Tufnel: [pause] These go to eleven.

— This Is Spinal Tap (1984), written by Christopher Guest & Michael McKean & Harry Shearer & Rob Reiner

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Guitar. Today’s suggestion by Laura Bolton.

Trivia: Harry Shearer, Rob Reiner, Christopher Guest and Michael McKean were given $10,000 to write a script. They made a 20-minute version of the film to better demonstrate the improvisation they had in mind. Several scenes from the demo are in the finished movie.

Dialogue On Dialogue: While there’s a lot of dialogue about guitars in this visit to Nigel’s guitar room, it’s the amp “one louder” bit which is, indeed, one louder from a comedic standpoint.