“Danger, Will Robinson!” is a catch phrase from the classic 1960s American television series Lost in Space. The Robot, acting as a surrogate guardian, says this to young Will Robinson when the boy is unaware of an impending threat.
In hacker culture and in English-speaking society, this catch phrase currently serves to inform someone that they are about to make a mistake—that there’s a factor he or she overlooked which ought to be taken into account.
When given in person, the vocal klaxon is more-often-than-not accompanied by a brief and careful oscillation of one’s arms to and fro and up and down, parodying the body language of the original chrome-plated character.
Despite the popularity of the phrase in everyday culture, it was only said once on the show. This was during episode 11 of season 3 "The Deadliest of the Species". The Robot gave warnings intermittently to Will and the other crew members of the Jupiter 2, in the form of the expressions "Warning!" and "Danger!".
The official studio website (which no longer exists) for the 1998 Lost in Space feature film was www.dangerwillrobinson.com.[1]
Significant examples
On the Live compilation of Frank Zappa's "You can't do that on stage anymore - Volume 3", at the end of the song "In France" - to make the entrance for the next song - "Drowning witch", Ike Willis says "Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!", this phrase creates a segue between these two very different songs. The recording was made in Chicago, at the Bismark Hotel on November 23 in 1984.
In 1997, a musical parody of Lost in Space called Danger, Will Robinson! opened in Chicago and became a cult hit. It featured songs from the 1950s and 60s integrated into the plot.
In The West Wing series 4, episode 1 '20 hours in America (Part 1)' Josh Lyman uses the phrase in response to a group of teenage girls heckling him on the subject of abortion.
References
- ^ "Visual Effects Headquarters Archive: Lost in Space". http://www.vfxhq.com/1998/lostinspace.html. Retrieved on 2008-11-25.
External links
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