Edited by Kevin Porter (follow me on Twitter @KevinTPorter)
This video is a tribute to the work of Aaron Sorkin: the recycled dialogue, recurring phrases, and familiar plot lines. This is not intended as a critique but rather a playful excursion through Sorkin's wonderful world of words.
Scenes taken from:
Malice
A Few Good Men
Bulworth
Sports Night
The West Wing
Studio 60
Charlie Wilson's War
The Social Network
& Tom Hanks 1993 Oscar Speech for some reason
"Someone once said self plagiarism is style." - Alfred Hitchcock
Apt given his penchant for self-insertion (apologies if my writing seems pretentious - I think I've been watching too many Sorkin clips)
Saw "Steve Jobs" today and a character says "Don't talk to me like I'm other people." I wasn't the only one in the theatre who laughed.
+Kyle Burbank Same here. "You can complain about memory or you can complain about price, but you can't do both at the same time" or the line about creating the universe and how he did it already appeared on TWW S04E01/02 :P
YES! That was pretty early on in the movie, and I saw it coming as soon as he started talking. I said it along with him and my husband looked at me like i was crazy.
His daughter also said "not for nothing but..."
Steve Jobs would have been a better movie with someone other than Michael Fassbender.
@@tiaaaron3278 Agreed. Fassbender's a talented actor but the role just wasn't for him.
Actually Mr. Sorkin contacted me and said he enjoyed it, thought it was funny. The guy's a class act, couldn't have been more gracious.
Time to add newsroom? ;P
Social Network and Charlie Wilson's War are well written. The Steve Jobs film is decent as a dialogue film. That movie is a perfect example of how Sorkin can make conversation contain all the tension needed for an audience to feel invested. Nonetheless, a lot of the content he has made is trite lol.
@@drlca6601 At least he has written. And for that we are all thankful!
@@drlca6601 Throwing rocks is cheap and easy. Try uncovering beauty - that's _much_ more interesting.
@@WillBravoNotEvil true and yet valid criticism is also the driving force of many of the beautiful things we see.
"I'm not other people" - several other people
Seth rogan - Steve jobs
@@jimmy2k4o I'm pretty sure Rogan wasn't Steve Jobs (Steve Wozniak IMS) 😉
@@smokerjim pretty sure they meant it was in the movie steve jobs
@@blew1t thanks - re-reading my comment it did look a bit rude / snarky.
I legitimately thought this was going to be seven and a half minutes of every character saying "Okay" as a shrugging response to just anything.
What's great about Sorkin recycling so much material is that we get to see the different choices all these legendary actors make in delivering the same lines.
I seem to remember his dialogue without knowing I'd done it and find myself using Sorkinisms in conversations all the time! Why not? If your going to get someones attention it's wise to use the finest words to accomplish that goal. Thanks Aaron If I ever met the man I'd be forced to ask him what the hell is up with you and three things that all mean the same thing? 😂
You know what I got from this? That I miss the soft lighting of 90s television. It always looks like a hazy dream.
+Andres Meza Valdes Really?
+Richard Strong I'd post a reply, but I've already moved on to other things in my head.
***** Okay... But you just posted a reply so you clearly haven't moved on.
+Richard Strong It's not the lighting, it's analogue.
+Robin Gray It's shot on 35mm film and not digital video.
Did anyone else catch the "One egg is un oeuf" joke from The Trial of the Chicago 7, which was also used in The West Wing by Margaret?
I feel like "un oeuf is un ouef" is actually wittier but I'm not Aaron Sorkin.
Yeah, that and also the "levitate the Pentagon" thing from the Newsroom and Chicago 7
Also, it had a "don't be ridiculous" in it ("don't be ridiculous, they've already phoned the DOJ" - or whatever it was), AND a "that's nothing compared to the contempt which my government has for me", which I'm pretty sure was in WW, though not in this compilation - maybe this was the first time he re-used that line.
Yep.
@@owenthomas6337 Lionel Tribbey says something like this - "Which is nothing compared to the contempt I will have if this keeps happening!"
I wish someone would make a supercut of how Sorkin uses an interrogatory as a narrative device, like the same character repeating a question over and over through a film, until the character finally answers it.
Just saw Being The Ricardos. Nicole Kidman does that throughout
How did you cut your hand, Josh?
Must be said. The dude knows how to recycle.
ya think
Yeah, it truly must be said. Aaron Sorkin knows how to recycle.
Yeah but this is probably the same with every director. Every one has his own style and favourite lines
That said, the dude knows how to recycle.
Said it to must how be, recycle the dude knows how.
The biggest line missing from this is "Without you, I'd be in the tall grass. I'd be in the weeds," which appeared in SportsNite, West Wing, and Studio 60.
Make no mistake: with at least 5 minutes of material on the cutting room floor from this cut, I 100% intend to do a Sorkinisms sequel once this season of The Newsroom is over. Thanks for catching these! :)
You’re really quite something
@@Toribot ya think?!?
The egg joke is in newsroom too…
I can imagine Aaron Sorkin watching this and beaming with pride.
😂
Two staffers discuss this video while walking briskly down a hallway: "Hey." -"Hey." "I was expecting to hear more 'hey's' and 'yeah's' in that thing." -"Yeah."
+Fr. Victor Feltes You think?
Really?
And Okeys
this gives me more confidence as a writer....
"CAN WE HAVE A CIVILISATION?!" My favourite line
You just scored the wrath of whatever from high atop the thing!
Oh, hell yes. Go outside, turn around three times and SPIT!
@@geofffleming12 and curse!
good one
This is an *incredible* edit. The deeper cuts, the rhythms. You pulled Malice, you pulled Charlie Wilson, and near as I can tell you didn't leave the first four seasons of West Wing. Not for nothin', but we are kindred spirits, you and I.
Really wished you had included the actual chicken from The Social Network during the 'chicken impression' segment of this.
Joe Zaydon I didn’t know you couldn’t feed chicken... to the chicken...
buckaa, buck b-b-b-b-bucka
@@LloydWaldo DON'T FISH EAT OTHER FISH???? THE MARLINS AND THE TROUT??!!
How in the hell did you do this? Did you convert all the episodes to text and then run a file compare program to look for similar phrases, or do you just have a lot of free time?
or just download all scripts from sorkin on the internet
oh no.. he just searched for same keywords in subtitle files and made a note of timings and then edited and glued them together. hell of a task but way too much systematic.
Believe it or not there are enterprise media services which provide transcripts of everything said on television by everyone all the time. They even allow you to grab the video of the words being spoken. That’s how they find clips of people contradicting themselves so much.
Please post these softwares that transcribes quotes from movies/TV/media!!
@@hernerwerzog1278I was actually looking for something like this for a very long time. They are few and far between for personal end users. I think if you search for "Peter Fonda Picking Blueberries" or "Strawberries" (I did this when I searched for the film from which a Norm MacDonald quote) you might find one service that exists but is still in development. I know they were transcribing films and video content to text, and allowing dialogue / vocalised moments in films to searched like text. I remember doing it. I just don't recall the name of the service. What I do remember is they were in development, and not just as enterprise software but for personal users. It's gotta be one of the next step in scrubbing video, so to speak. But fundamentally necessary and important.
Love it! Compilations like this don't make me think less of Aaron Sorkin. They just make me want to re-watch The West Wing. :)
You bet your ass!
Y
West wing was so good
Maybe there's a whole bunch of people watching Shakespeare the way it was meant to be played, and that's preventing them from watching other stuff.
Am I just biased, or does Stockard Channing deliver her lines better than anyone else?
Maybe both. She delivered her lines extremely well and so did John Spencer.
I think an excellent case can be made that John and Stockard are the two best actors in this piece.
I think most of them delivered, most of the time.
*You're just biased.*
She really did. There is no game. I enjoyed her delivery on a total another level.
I started editing the piece in 2010. Of course I REALLY started the process of absorbing it all becoming obsessed with Sorkin's stuff when my mom bought me Sports Night on DVD for Christmas in 2002 (Thanks Mom). So I guess between 2 and 10 years :)
Your mum doesn t treat u like other people
Can you make a program to compare scripts? (The problem the lines are not identical in both scripts)
Brilliant. So many cuts, so fast, so dead on.
This is beautiful, I can't imagine what it took to put this all together
Wonderful! Thanks for all the hard work and great memories.
I have notes in my phone labeled “Sorkin stealing Sorkin”. I’m glad other people are just as obsessed as I am
My god, this reminds me just how good "Sports Night" was. His best show, I think.
Well, that was predictable.
* back of the head slap*
You think?
Was that supposed to be funny?
Buck-buck-bu-caaaaaaaa!
Oh you bet
You deserve a medal or something. Huge effort. Truly appreciated, this was a great video.
THIS IS AWESOME! Lot's of good work put into it. Thanks man!
Can you imagine how long this took to put together! Loved it.
This was a lot of work. Kudos.
Not only an incredibly well done piece, all that research and all. But the editing that you had to do it just blows my mind.
I just love this. Thanks for posting!
Somebody has a good editing sense and a love of Aaron Sorkin. Good job.
Wow nice work on the editing i love it
LOVE THIS thank you so much. Aaron Sorkin is my favorite and this made my night!
I rewatch this regularly I love it. I also find amusing how he not only recycles phrases, situations, and tropes, but character archetypes as well, and he always makes it work
0:41 "This will get worse before it gets better" Road House 1989
When Will McAvoy said "Y'think?" in The Newsroom, I lost it.
Omg Kevin I love you this is amazing
One of the best videos I've watched in a while. Could not stop laughing and now this is all I'm gonna look for whenever I watch one of his projects.
that must've take a good a mount of time, found the mash up funny, thx
"When the fall is all that's left, it matters." Richard the Lionheart, "The Lion in Winter"
My God, the amount of editing you had to do on this, you deserve an Emmy of your own for that!
And I bow my head for those who are willing to spend 100+ hours looking for snippets and assembling them as a video like this one. You truly are cool.
this is awesome!
"Nobody ever starts a sentence with 'Damnit!'."
I know. So untrue IMO
DysnomiaFilms Except Jack Bauer.
Dammit! You're wrong!
DysnomiaFilms "What do you suggest we do with the river?" "Dam it!"
Dammit Janet!
This was fantastic. Thank you!
I have been waiting for something like this for years. I am in your debt, sir!
Amazeballs! I love this almost as much as Sorkin himself!
well, that was predictable.
And this was before The Newsroom. "Gather ye rosebuds"
This is brilliant. Thank you!
Great job - thoroughly enjoyable! Now I've got to go dig out my DVD boxed set 'West Wing All 7 Seasons'' & watch every episode again.
Sigh. Write it until it works, and when it works--fuck it, write it again. I'll never quit my love of him...not for any commenter.
Last week's episode of The Newsoom ("112th Congress") used a variation of "decisions are made by those who show up," which I first hear on the WW ("College Kids"). Those it may have been used before. Caught it immediately and made me wonder, "how often does he reuse some phrases?" You've done an amazing thing here - keep doing it!
Speechless 😶 except to say thank you for your uploading this
I loved this video. It brought up so many wonderful memories. My 23 year old grandson watched it together.
Putting these clips back-to-back is totally unfair. You think? ("you think?", "you think?", "you think!?!") But it's also awesome; and you know it. ("and you know it", "and you know it", "and you know it!")
Yah....while some of those made me do a double take, the you think one is lame. People use that phrase all the time. The fact that it's used in more than one show by the same person doesn't make it any kind of -ism.
+Kevin T. Porter Just think what you could have added with the News Room. You also missed "Sunday, with my man!" - Amy Gardner in Season 3 of West Wing
KEVIN PORTER, you are a genius! This is a proper critique, much respect to your efforts, & your eye for the details.
This is a brilliant edit. Damn.
This is great LOL
+RogersBase Hey Roger! What if Aaron Sorkin directed One Piece?
You think?
Did not think I'd run into Rogersbase comment on a video from 2012
You missed an "Eat em up." CJ says it to Bartlett just before the second Inaugural.
What I get from this video is that Aaron Sorkin shows have great casts. Just brilliant!
This was really enjoyable especially since I’ve seen most of these shows/movies.
I wonder if we can do this to all the writers who have multiple movies /TV shows.
Hi there, thanks for the kind feedback, I really appreciate it! I think some people thought the same thing that you did, that some of these were taken from S5-S7 of West Wing, after Sorkin left and he had no influence on the show or the scripts. But I just want to be clear again that drew ONLY from Seasons 1-4 of TWW. To do otherwise would be deceitful and unfair :) Just out of curiosity, which parts look like they're from Wells era WW? Thanks again for the feedback!
Your dedication and attention to detail is impressive!
This is so much fun to watch. Thanks for putting it together! There was a major script recycling in the latest episode of 'The Newsroom': "It's just this side of a snuff film!" was a line also used in Judd Hirsch's rant of the pilot of Studio 60.
Even with the barrage of "you think's", I still associate that phrase with Leroy Jethro Gibbs. Or should I say Simon Donovan.
Oh *you think?*
Even though he rips off himself from time to time, he almost always creates entertaining material. "And you know it too"
Very entertaining and informative. I shudder when thinking about the patience levels you have in locating and editing.
This was brilliant, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise!
Wait...he wrote Tom Hanks' Oscar speech?
From Sam Seaborn: "Good writers borrow from other writers. Great writers steal from them outright."
And T.S. Eliot wrote, “Good writers borrow, great writers steal.” a long time ago....
@@Johnboydownunder A great writer to steal from!
Its funny how we get taken in by words as if they are so sincere. Seeing this makes me realize how much people idolize people that are saying someone else's words.
@@Johnboydownunder "Great writers take inspiration. Bad writers steal." --Me. Fuck Sorkin.
Not for nothing, could use an update with Newsroom and some of his recent films.
Really enjoyed this! thank you!
This was brilliant!!!
So, Aaron Sorkin is the Call of Duty of writing.
+alejandroalartiz Clearly you havent seen these shows
This is at the once the saddest and most hilarious thing
Amazing work bud! I'm a huge Sorkin fan and this goes to show his writing style can withstand the years of time and with the right context conveys his message and story right on!
I passed this up for weeks. I’m so glad I watched it today. Sorkin rules.
I find him better writing for film than television. Even in The West Wing all the characters sounded like varying degrees of Aaron Sorkin and very few of them come across as very believable human beings (although I enjoyed the first 2 seasons a lot in spite of that), whereas in his movies the characters seem a lot more like believable people. Why that is I don't know, might be better acting or just that we're only spending 2 hours with them instead of 20
Maybe because most of his movies are biopic of real people, like Mark Zuckerberg, Molly Bloom, Steve Jobs and Charlie Wilson?
Agreed. Few Good Men is real characters, West Wing was the same person putting on different costumes and talking to themselves,
Some of these are just standard phrases. Any writer with a certain style would have repetition like this. But some is absurd self-plagiarism, that makes me question the originality of his writing. I still love it though.
virtualpigmaster to be fair, he was on cocaine for about 10 years in there. And he has written more televisions scripts than almost anyone in history.
@@LloydWaldo Also to be fair, he was writing one of the Sportsnight seasons at the same time as the West Wing. The Stackhouse Filibuster episode of WW was structurally identical to an episode of Sportsnight where some unknown takes Pete Sampras to five sets, and no one can go home until it's over, so they all start writing emails to their families. It was pretty brazen at times, but ... what with the whole two series at once thing, and enough cocaine to kill a small horse...
I love this! Great job
I love this! Great work.
You left out Gilbert and Sullivan "and I'm never ever sick at sea"!
Okay? Okay. What's next?
I had no prior knowledge of almost any of these shows or films and yet i still highly enjoyed this video
Love it! Great work and it only makes me love Sorkin all the more.
While it's true a lot of things in Sorkin's dialogue is somewhat rehashed, most of it are just quick quips people say. I still think his way with words is amazing.
Which is why I watched all of these, and the Newsroom, too, and the lines were still perfect in each setting, and never felt or sounded “recycled.” It takes just as much creativity and genius to do that.
I'm not really sure if phrases like "you bet" or :you think?: should really count, as they're common enough American English phrases
Yes. Most work conversations in the state of Wisconsin contain "you bet" and "hey" in them.
...is "hey" not a thing people say outside of Wisconsin?
David Lewis
Well OK, maybe Minnesota too
"You bet" is common enough, but "You think?!" is a definite Sorkinism. He's not the only writer that uses it, but he uses it more than any other writer (that I'm aware of, anyway).
Incredible work!
Okay, to be fair, some of these are just "English Idioms: A Supercut".
Ya think?
Love the common english idiom of making chicken noises
Really?
Not for nothin', but...
Don’t talk to me like I’m other people!
You forgot his fun with dangling participles. I also want to create a list of his nicknames from the West Wing. Good stuff!
The participles dangled, the dialogue became snappier.
this is freaking amazing.....good job!
the fact that this video came up in my suggestions whilst I am simultaneously in the process of re-watching the West Wing and literally taking a break from reading the first chapter of my intro to Stylistic Analysis text book from university is both worrying and bizarre. That being said, great video!
missing the “this isn’t happening” from the social network when eduardo saverin is being accused of animal cruelty