"Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animal", says a young kid in the tone of a middle-aged man. Almost every year, this quote starts floating on the internet around Christmas. The '90s kids will most likely know the reference. However, the kids, who did not grow up in the 1990s might be wondering - Where does this quote come from?
The 'Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animal' quote comes from the 1992 comedy film: Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.
Starring Macaulay Culkin, this is a sequel to Home Alone (the 1990 film), a holiday classic, considered to be one of the best Christmas movies. It is the second chapter from this successful movie series that shows Kevin, Culkin's 10-year-old character, being left alone on Christmas after he mistakenly boards a flight to New York City while his family stays in Miami.
While all that is well and good, why does Kevin say this dialogue in the first place? The answer is more fascinating than you would imagine.
'Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animal': The Origin
Before digging into the origins of this quote, let's briefly recap what happens in the first two Home Alone movies. Released in 1990, the first film follows Kevin being left alone at home after his parents accidentally forget him on their way to Paris for Christmas celebrations.
Then, in the 1992 movie, Kevin is, yet again, left alone on Christmas! This time it happens because he accidentally boards a flight to New York and books a room with his father's card while his parents end up in Miami.
The first film shows Kevin protecting his house from two robbers while the second shows him running up into them again in the Big Apple. Besides the obvious similarities in their storylines, they have one more thing in common.
In both films, Kevin watches a black-and-white movie, titled Angels with Filthy Souls. It features an old man with a gruff voice who often uses strong language to intimidate those around him.
In the first Home Alone film, Kevin uses the movie to scare away a burglar and a pizza delivery person. Kevin pauses or rewinds it at specific moments to send a message outside without opening the door or showing his face. So, the burglar and the delivery person think that an old man is speaking to them.
Similarly, in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Kevin uses the movie's dialogues to scare away the hotel staff, who show up outside his room.
That specific scene ends with the iconic quote - 'Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animal', as the old man starts violently shooting a woman. As it happens, Kevin rushes out of his room and lip-syncs to the dialogue from the movie.
The Inspiration behind the 'Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animal' Fake Film
'Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animal', this iconic funny quote comes from a fictional movie within a movie. Turns out, Angels with Filthy Souls is a fake movie made specifically for the Home Alone movies.
According to an interview by Vanity Fair, this black-and-white gangster movie was shot in a single day in an abandoned high school gym. It was inspired by the classic noir movies from a bygone era of Hollywood that featured similar kinds of violence and foul language. It has the same grainy and misty look often associated with noir films.
Angels with Filthy Souls was reportedly inspired by James Cagney’s 1938 film, Angels with Dirty Faces. While speaking about the inspiration for the fake movie's title and its visual style, art director Dan Webster says,
I believe the title was decided upon only because we needed to create a label for the tape Kevin puts in the VHS player. Now that is a very old-fashioned sentence!
That is how Angels with Dirty Faces inspired Angels with Filthy Souls and gave birth to an iconic quote cherished to this date.
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