Writer-director Jordan Peele expressed confusion when his directorial debut, the critically acclaimed social thriller Get Out, was nominated in the “Musical or Comedy” categories at the 75th Golden Globes. It was a terrifying movie about the ugly realities of racism, so Peele wondered exactly what the Hollywood Foreign Press found so funny.
However, there is one character in the movie who steals every scene with his hilarious dialogue, and that’s Chris’ best friend, Rod Williams, played by Lil Rel Howery. A lot of Rod’s lines were ad-libbed on the fly by Howery. Here are his 10 funniest quotes from the movie.
“THIS DUDE IS FROM BROOKLYN. HE DIDN’T DRESS LIKE THIS.”
Rose’s web of deceit begins to untangle when Chris recognizes one of the neighbors’ husbands. He takes a picture of the man, who Rod identifies as Andre Hayworth, a friend of theirs from Brooklyn. But what stands out to Rod is that he’s dressed like an old white man, complete with a straw hat.
When he takes the case to the police, the only evidence he has is the picture. The detective doesn’t think Rod has much to go on, so he pleads with her: “This dude is from Brooklyn. He didn’t dress like this.”
“I AIN’T MAKING THIS S*** UP. I SAW IT ON A&E. THAT IS REAL LIFE.”
Chris starts to tune out when Rod tells him that he might be being lured into life as a sex slave by going to visit his girlfriend’s parents, because he thinks it’s a ridiculous conspiracy theory.
However, Rod insists that he learned about it on reality TV, therefore it must be true: “I ain’t making this sh*t up. I saw it on A&E. That is real life.”
“CHRIS, YOU GOTTA GET THE F*** OUTTA THERE, MAN!”
The reason why Jordan Peele called the movie Get Out is because it’s the phrase that audiences usually yell at the screen during horror movies. A character is in a haunted house, and all they would have to do to avoid the ghosts is leave.
All throughout Get Out, the audience is telling Chris to get out of the house and go home. In this sense, Rod is the on-screen audience surrogate, telling his friend, “Chris, you gotta get the f*ck outta there, man!”
“I’M TS-MOTHER*ING-A. WE HANDLE S.”
Jordan Peele apparently has a real respect for TSA agents. He doesn’t see them as an annoying roadblock at the airport like most people do; he empathizes with them. That’s why he wrote an awesome TSA agent character into his directorial debut.
In the movie’s final moments, after Rod saves Chris from the living hell he’s been put through, he says, “I’m TS-motherfckin’-A. We handle shit. That’s what we do. Consider this situation fckin’ handled.”
“THAT’S JEFFREY DAHMER’S BUSINESS.”
When Chris first starts to notice that something is up with Rose’s parents and their neighbors, he gives Rod a call. Rod believes that Rose’s mother hypnotized him in an attempt to turn him into a sex slave.
He links this back to serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and his victims, describing the disturbing things Dahmer would do with his victims’ bodies. Rod’s ultimate take on it: “You know, that’s Jeffrey Dahmer’s business.”
“SORRY ABOUT THE S***!”
When Rod first brings his theory about Rose’s parents’ community to the police, he’s only about halfway right: “I believe they’ve been abducting black people, brainwashing them, making them work for them as sex slaves and sh*t.”
He gets it quite close: they have been abducting black people and brainwashing them. He apologizes to the detective for cursing, but accidentally repeats the curse word: “Sorry about the sh*t.”
“YOU AIN’T GETTING IN MY HEAD.”
Rod freaks out when Chris tells him that Rose’s mother hypnotized him. As far as Rod is concerned, you’re better off just avoiding hypnotism altogether because you have no idea what they’re going to do to you once you’re under their spell. According to Rod, they could have you barking like a dog or flying around like a pigeon.
He explains his stance on hypnotism pretty succinctly: “Bro, I don’t care if the btch is Iyanla Vanzant, okay? She can’t fix my motherfcking life. You ain’t getting in my head.”
“WHITE PEOPLE LOVE MAKING PEOPLE…”
Rod is always paranoid. His instincts as a TSA agent have taught him to always suspect that something fishy could be going on. And ultimately, that paranoia ends up saving Chris’ life, so it’s not necessarily a bad thing.
White people love making people sex slaves and sh*t.
Rod presents a number of theories about Chris’ fate, and his most commonly recurring conclusion is that Chris is being brainwashed into becoming a sex slave: “White people love making people sex slaves and sh*t.”
“THE NEXT 9/11 IS GOING TO BE ON SOME GERIATRIC S***.”
Early in the movie, Rod presents a conspiracy theory to Chris, based on his work with the TSA. He believes that the next big terrorist attack to hit America will be carried out by old people.
He explains that elderly people aren’t subject to the same airport security procedures as everyone else because they’re not deemed as threats. Hence, “The next 9/11 is going to be on some geriatric sh*t.”
“I MEAN, I TOLD YOU NOT TO GO IN THAT HOUSE.”
The audience let out an enormous sigh of relief at the end of Get Out when Chris managed to fend off the Armitage family, and the sirens that appeared up the street were from his friend Rod’s TSA squad car. In the original script, the police arrested Chris and sent him to prison. But given everything he goes through in the movie, Chris really deserves a happy ending, so it’s a good thing Jordan Peele changed it.
After the intense finale, it was also great to see Lil Rel Howery lighten the mood with a hysterical line. He reminds Chris, who’s just been through a near-death experience, “I mean, I told you not to go in that house.” He did, to be fair.
