Daily Dialogue — December 22, 2012

Gin: Well, let’s face the facts. Y’all are a couple of half-bucket small-timers. You, because of your physical attributes, found a niche, and I respect that. But you also been caught… by me. So this is how it’s gonna be. I don’t want to take over. I don’t even want to change your scam. Whatever you guys do, it works. All I want is a taste. When the deed is done, we part ways. I’ll buy a little ranch in Havasu, and you all take your little medicine show back on the road.
Marcus: How much?
Gin: Half.
Willie: No fucking way…
Marcus: Just back off, Will, I got this. I got this! Okay, 30%. That’s three of us. 30%, that’s fair.
Gin: Half.
Marcus: I meant 33%.
Gin: I meant half.
Marcus: And 1/3.
Gin: Half.
Marcus: 35%.
Gin: Half.
Marcus: 40%.
Gin: Half.
Marcus: 42%?
Gin: Half.
Marcus: Um… 45%.
Gin: [Thinks for a minute] Half.
Marcus: 48%?
Gin: [In British accent] Half.
Marcus: 49%?
Gin: Half.
Willie: Well, what’s one point.
Gin: We split the dough right down the middle. Any merchandise you take, I get to look at and cherry pick.
Marcus: No. Money is one thing but you ain’t getting the sh…
Gin: This ain’t no Chinese menu, jagoff! I tell YOU how it’s gonna be. This is pricks fix!
[Exits]
Willie: Pricks fix?
Marcus: Ah, he’s a fucking moron.
Willie: Oh really? Is that how you got the upper hand?

— Bad Santa (2003), screenplay by Glenn Ficarra, John Requa

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is negotiations, suggested by JasperLamarCrab. Today’s suggestion by Def Earz.

Trivia: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen and Terry Zwigoff revised the screenplay.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary from Def Earz: “In a way, this isn’t even really a negotiation as Gin has the upper hand from the start, he’s basically just torturing Marcus here. For writers, it’s a study in how much comic mileage you can get out of repetition and one word — ‘half’”.