1994 was the year of Jim Carrey. In just that one year, the comic starred in Dumb and Dumber, The Mask, and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. All just months after wrapping up the five-season run on In Living Color. He was nominated for everything from Golden Globes to Razzies, summing up the relationship the public would have with him for decades to come. Of all of his films that year, Ace Ventura is probably the one that gets talked about the least, but it was not without its charm. It was the first of Carrey’s big box office successes, and it’s certainly not without an endless supply of repeatable quotes.
“Alrighty then.”
There’s a version of this list that is just this quote, over and over again. Ventura says it ad nauseum in both this movie and its sequel, Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls. It’s the Jim Carrey line we all quote without actually realizing we do it.
“Yes, Satan? Oh, I’m sorry, sir. You sounded like someone else.”
Ace isn’t allowed to have pets in his building, so things are understandably tense between him and his landlord. I can only assume Mark Margolis, who plays the landlord, pulled a lot from this role when battling it out with Heisenberg as Tio Salamanca. He sets off a very long string of semi-recognizable actors who show up and disappear within minutes (I get the sense there’s a two-hour cut of this movie out there).
“If I’m not back in five minutes, just wait longer.”
This line about sums up the stakes in Ace Ventura. Despite all of the heightening suspenseful music and the appearance of Udo Kier, this is still just a movie about a missing dolphin. Not even a Flipper style of missing dolphin. The Miami Dolphins mascot is missing and they’d rather find him than replace him because of all of the time they’ve spent teaching him Super Bowl tricks. Unfortunately, the animal-loving and empathetic Ventura hadn’t seen Blackfish.
“But I’m sure you already knew that. That’s what turns me on about you. Your attention to detail.”
After saying she didn’t need his help finding the missing “porpoise,” Ace Ventura calls out Sean Young’s police lieutenant on her lack of dolphin knowledge. Carrey plays a great mix of dumb and right that we’ve all no doubt come across countless times on the internet. Perfectly self-satisfied, this line is a great way to cap off any of your own long rants.
“Congratulations on all of your success. You smell terrific.”
Ace Ventura falls into a long line of brilliantly hapless detectives, from The Pink Panther’s Inspector Clouseau to The Naked Gun’s Detective Drebin. For the most part, a lot of those figures sort of stumble their way through cases winding up at the solution through a combination of accidents, coincidences, and outside help. Ace Ventura, on the other hand, is a fantastic detective. He knows more about animals than any other expert and can analyze a crime scene better than most of the police force. The thing that makes him so strange is… absolutely everything else about him. No matter how smart he is, he’s still Ace Ventura, and he’s still stuck with his complete lack of social skills.
“Do not go in there!”
Ah, Jim Carrey and his toilet humor. Is this moment better than John Witherspoon’s take on sounding the alarm in Friday? Either way, kudos for the helpful warnings.
“I have exorcised the demons. This house is clear.”
Twenty years before there was “The God Warrior,” there was Ace Ventura. As with everything Jim Carrey has ever said or done, this line is all in the delivery. Make sure you watch the video so you can also get your dose of Ventura’s operatic singing through a soundproof sliding door. If there’d been any discernible way to type it out, it would have gotten its own place on the list.
“Looooooser.”
Like “Alrighty then,” this probably could have been placed at absolutely any point in this list. Ventura just never stops saying it. And, no matter where I’d placed it, it probably would have needed a different spelling. It’s amazing just how many ways Carrey can deliver a single line. Sometimes it’s about five different ways in a span of 30 seconds.
“I’m ready to go in, coach. Just give me a chance.”
While on the case, Ace and Monica from Friends (Courteney Cox, in her second biggest pre-Friends non-Masters of the Universe role) visit a mental home where Carrey goes all out to fit in. And there’s an understatement.
“I don’t know. I get hit in the head a lot.”
This movie was clearly intended as a star-making vehicle for Carrey, so almost all of the good lines (and all of the screen time) go to him. But it’s also a movie of weird cameos, with the entire plot revolving around the Miami Dolphins and a whole scene taking place at a Cannibal Corpse concert. The way Dan Marino casually tosses this line off, it’s no wonder he’s made so many cameos since. Also, pretty unlikely that this one makes it into a film if it was made today, what with the NFL’s concussion issues.
“Be careful with that phone, Lieutenant. In time, you could develop a tumor.”
Remember 1994, when we used to worry that our phones would kill us? They still might, I guess. But we’re all used to it now. It’s passe.
“Laces Out!”
Never forget that this all could have been prevented with some proper technique.
