The Wire Quotes

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Source: The Wire

Speaker: Omar Little

"You come at the king, you best not miss."

Ayo, lesson here, Bey. You come at the king, you best not miss.

Context

This line was spoken by Omar Little (played by Michael K. Williams) in The Wire, written by David Simon and Ed Burns (2002-2008).

With his deft skill at sticking up drug dealers, taking their product and money, and giving it out for free, Omar Little is like the Robin Hood of the Baltimore housing projects. However, he has made a lot of powerful enemies, including Avon Barksdale and Stringer Bell, who are the drug kingpins. This leads to some of Stringer's men burning his apartment.

But Omar is still alive and ready for payback. Stringer's soldiers and the aforementioned arsonists Wee-Bey and Stinkum are looking to expand their territory when Omar jumps out at them in the dark like he's some kind of shotgun-toting Batman. He kills Stinkum, shoots Wey Bey in the leg, and taunts him with this one-liner.

When you're trying to kill a guy like Omar, who survived a fall from a three story building in a later season of The Wire, maybe you should send someone like Boba Fett to take him out instead of the usual muscle.

Where you've heard it

You've heard this line after you tried to debate, arm wrestle, or beat someone in a competitive activity and completely failed. Better luck next time.

Additional Notable References:

  • If you enjoy The Wire and the basketball skills of LeBron James, then this t-shirt might be perfect for you.
  • You know a quote has taken off when a character from a different TV show quotes it. Jack Barker, a tech CEO in HBO's Silicon Valley, uses this quote to ward off an attempt from his engineers to make a new product behind his back.
  • And Omar's cool quote might not be super original because essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson had a similar sentiment back in the 19th century when he said, "When you strike at a king, you must kill him."

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

Unless you can back up this quote with some sort of mad skills, you're definitely gonna miss.