Annie Hall Quotes

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Source: Annie Hall

Speaker: Alvy Singer

"I was thrown out of NYU my freshman year for cheating on my metaphysics final […] I looked within the soul of the boy sitting next to me."

I was thrown out of NYU my freshman year for cheating on my metaphysics final, you know. I looked within the soul of the boy sitting next to me.

Context

This line is spoken by Alvy Singer, played by Woody Allen, in the film Annie Hall, directed by Woody Allen (1977).

Before there was College Humor, you had to actually go to a college to get a similar brand of humor. In Annie Hall, Alvy Singer is a neurotic comedian, so what better place for him to do a routine than at a college telling jokes about psychoanalysis and Freud?

He opens his little routine with, "I was thrown out of NYU my freshman year for cheating on my metaphysics final, you know. I looked within the soul of the boy sitting next to me." He knows his audience. They love it. Maybe these college kids will grow up to be neurotic just like him.

Where you've heard it

You've heard this if you've ever seen stand-up performed for a bunch of Psych 101 students.

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.

Woody Allen from 1977 + Freud + stand-up comedy + NYU = An 8 on the Pretentious Factor scale. If it were present-day Allen, it would be off the charts.