A Brief Note on the Origins of the Movie Quote: “I’ll Flip Ya- I’ll Flip Ya Fo’ Real”

A few years ago, a good friend recommended that I watch the Clint Eastwood produced documentary on jazz legend Thelonious Monk. Always a great love of mine, I was eager and a bit embarrassed not to have seen or even known about the documentary. Anyway – it was a real pleasure, full of wonderful performances and lots of inside looks at a man who was brilliant in music and maybe at best, strained in the rest of his relations with the world.

And then there was another gem inside the gem. More than halfway through the movie, we see Monk backstage with a girlfriend of his, in what appears to be the kitchen of a restaurant in a club where he has performed. She gives him a gift, which is a pen. He’s reluctant and we can tell he’s not good with receiving gifts or with being cared for in this manner. He asks a few questions of her about the pen, then tries to write something, but the napkin gives yields too easily to his maniacal scribbling.

Thelonious Monk Video: From Straight No Chaser (1988)

So he switches to a “proper” piece of paper. Writes something haphazardly, the way one might produce a signature for a fan. He asks her if she can decipher it, knows she nor anyone else most likely cannot, and then he says – “Can you read that? Get somebody can decipher that for ya – you know – ‘n tell you what it means – y’know – it’ll upset ya. You’ll flip. I mean flip fo’ real.” (Scan to about 5:55 through the video if you can’t be patient enough!”

Significance? Well – it’s Fenster’s most memorable line from The Usual Suspects (which to me has not aged well but that’s another story), which at first appears to be from out of nowhere, but in actuality, is a reference to THIS VERY SCENE and is a quote from Thelonious Monk. I’ve included that video in the rest of this post too, for comparison’s sake.

More Videos From Thelonious Monk, Straight No Chaser

Thelonious Monk Quartet, Straight No Chaser (Video Paris 1969)

The Usual Suspects (1995) Official Movie Trailer

Post Copyright 2009 Matty Byloos