The 25 Best Sonnings in Movie History

All the excitement of watching someone get utterly disgraced.

Not Available Lead
Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

Not Available Lead

To son. To make someone feel the way a child does when being barked on by his or her dad. To dismantle someone with words, make a person feel small and powerless. The act of sonning—Hollywood loves it, even if the studio execs probably don't know the term.

Sonning has existed on the silver screen since the beginning of motion pictures. (Legend has it that Thomas Edison captured the early sonning of a factory worker by his boss, but the results were too stunning for general consumption and the footage was lost.) Our greatest performers have relished the moment when they get to crush a weakling with a simple phrase, a few sentences.

Bask in the glory of these verbal beatdowns. These are the 25 Best Sonnings in Movie History.

RELATED: The 25 Greatest Movie Beatdowns, in GIFs 
RELATED: Don Draper's 25 Greatest Sonnings 

25. "Yeah, all right. I'll see you guys there. *raspberry*"

Not Available Interstitial

Movie: Happy Gilmore (1996)
Who does the sonning? Happy Gilmore (Adam Sandler)
Who gets sonned? Driving Rage Guy
Context: Polo'd and moneyed plebians, don't speak to the golf-ball whacking god that is Happy Gilmore. He doesn't need your patronizing suggestions about attending a tournament while he's working on the driving range. That's the lesson one lowly country club member learns in this scene. —Arianna Friedman 



24. "Get off the scale."

Not Available Interstitial

Movie: Heavyweights
Who does the sonning? Tony Perkis (Ben Stiller)
Who gets sonned? All of Camp Hope
Context: Heavyweights shouldn't exist. It's a Disney movie with a quasi-uplifting message about self acceptance set at a fat camp, with a script co-written by Judd Apatow. It features Ben Stiller's best comedic performance. There are moments of strange dubbing, where it looks like dialogue was altered. It's a shaggier, beautiful comedy that knows no bounds. Especially when it comes to bullying and sonning.

As Tony Perkis, the crazed fitness guru and new owner of the aforementioned fat camp, Ben Stiller leaves no explosive gesture in his gym bag. During the big weigh in that will mark the incredible, infomercial-baiting progress of the campers, something goes wrong. The kids are getting fatter. When the third camper steps to the scale and the numbers to wobbling, Perkis dismisses him and by proxy the entire camp with a snippy "Get off the scale." They have failed, and it's up to dear old Uncle Tony to teach them a severe lesson. The emasculation has just begun. —Ross Scarano



23. "I mean no disrespect, but you're a cunt."

Not Available Interstitial

Movie: In Bruges (2008)
Who does the sonning? Ken (Brendan Gleeson)
Who gets sonned? Harry Waters (Ralph Fiennes)
Context: You're guaranteed to expect to hear some unforgivable stuff when someone starts a sentence with "No disrespect." But Ken, a contract killer, took the cake, the paper plates, the decorations, and all when he sits down for a drink with his boss Harry, who's in town to kill Ray (Colin Farrell) himself, since Ken refuses to take out his friend.

Understanding he can't convince Harry to spare Ray's life, he looks his murderous boss in his eye, and calmly begins to call him a cunt, and his kids cunts. He calls him a cunt seven times in total. Calling someone the c-word is still unacceptable 99.999% of the time. And that .001% belongs to In Bruges. —Frantz Rocher

22. "We, on the other hand, are colonized by wankers. Can't even find a decent culture to be colonized by."

Not Available Interstitial

Movie: Trainspotting (1996)
Who does the sonning? Renton (Ewan McGregor)
Who gets sonned? The entire country of Scotland
Context: When Tommy (Kevin McKidd) and his pals galavant off to the countryside to appreciate the great Scottish outdoors, a fed up Renton calls bullshite. He has a point. Scots have been at the helm of scientific discovery and innovation—radars, insulin, steam engine, television, just to name a few—as well as vanguards in the early Enlightenment period (Adam Smith ring any bells?). But at the end of the day, Scotland is recognized as that backdrop for Braveheart.

Well, Renton, we can't say we understand your rapport with the Brits (and not because of the accent) but we raise a glass to you for telling it how it is no-holds-barred. And hey, at least you're not English. —Arianna Friedman 

21. "You ought to wean her, she's old enough."

Not Available Interstitial

20. "I was gonna listen to that, but then, um, I just carried on living my life."

Not Available Interstitial

Movie: Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)
Who does the sonning?: Aldous Snow (Russell Brand)
Who gets sonned?: Matthew the Waiter (Jonah Hill)
Context: It's never OK to be rude to waiters, but it's also rather unmannerly to pester someone for a favor when they clearly are not interested. Matthew, an overattentive waiter, just won't stop fanboying over Aldous Snow. He doesn't want much, just to hang out with his idol and to get some feedback on his music, but a tense, not to mention private, dinner is neither the time nor place.

So can we blame Aldous for being upfront and giving the world the best breakup line? If you do use it, just be super light and casual about the matter to emphasize your apathy. No sympathy for Matthew since he gets to call out—or rather whisper out—Aldous (everyone has an Aldous) for being a major asshole and mess with his food (sorry about those student loans though). —Arianna Friedman



19. "Everything you done to me, already been done to you."

Not Available Interstitial

Movie: The Color Purple (1985)
Who does the sonning? Celie Johnson (Whoopi Goldberg)
Who gets sonned? Albert (Danny Glover)
Context: A true moment of sonning involves making your opponent feel so inferior, out of their depth, and helpless so as to stun that person into disgrace. In The Color Purple, the triumphant moment comes when ALbert is going to put his hands on Celie for the upteempth time—and she stops him. In a single sentence, she makes him realize his own powerlessness. It shuts him down. —Ross Scarano

18. "You lose! Good day, sir!"

Not Available Interstitial

Movie: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)
Who does the sonning? Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder)
Who gets sonned? Grandpa Joe (Jack Albertson)
Context: Let's get one thing clear. The movie is Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, not Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, a detail that irked author Roald Dahl during the screenwriting process so much that he eventually disowned the film. But truly, this is Wonka's show.

After sneaking away from the tour, Charlie (Peter Ostrum) and Grandpa Joe sample Fizzy Lifting Drinks. Shit nearly hits the fan, but the two still have the audacity to pester the candy genius for a lifetime supply of chocolate. If Charlie and Grandpa Joe break the rules and fail to read the fine print, they deserve to suffer the Willy's wrath.  —Arianna Friedman

17. "Who's your daddy?"

Not Available Interstitial

Movie: Remember the Titans (2000)
Who does the sonning? Coach Herman Boone (Denzel Washington)
Who gets sonned? Gerry Bertier (Ryan Hurst)
Context: Let this be a lesson to smartasses: Don't cross Coach Boone. Resistant to the integration of their football team, captain Gerry Bertier tries to lay down his racist rules to the new coach. But Coach Boone isn't one to be told what to do. To assert his authority, Boone embarrasses Bertier and his buddy, calling him Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin in front of every single parent saying goodbye to their kid taking off for football camp, before instructing him to look closely at his parents. He wants him to forget their faces. From then on, in as literal a sonning as their could be, Boone's his daddy now. —Tara Aquino 



16. "Here, tell these people something they don't know about me."

Not Available Interstitial

Movie: 8 Mile (2002)
Who does the sonning? Rabbit (Eminem)
Who gets sonned? Papa Doc (Anthony Mackie)
Context: Rabbit isn't the luckiest kid in Detroit. He's stuck in a factory job he hates and living out of a trailer park with an equally miserable mom, with his rhymes being his only chance of escaping it all. But shit, everyone's trying to rhyme, including Papa Doc, the leader of the Free World, a rival gang along 8 Mile. In an effort to show him up, B. Rabbit turns the mic and hurls all his own insults at himself, before exposing Doc as Clarence, a lame prep school kid stunned to silence. —Tara Aquino



15. "You've gotta ask yourself a question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?"

Not Available Interstitial

Movie: Dirty Harry (1971)
Who does the sonning?: Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood)
Who gets sonned?: That poor, poor bank robber (Albert Popwell)
Context: Early on in the vigilante cop movie you most likely saw referenced before you actually saw it, Harry Callahan is busting up a bank robbery the only way he knows how: with his gun, badge, and gruff sonning abilities. He catches a bullet stopping the thieves, but that doesn't prevent him from standing before one of the wounded criminals, and asking one of the most famous questions in all of the movies. Did he empty every round, he wonders aloud for the thief? Well, did he? Yes, as it turns out he did. But his words are enough to make the wounded robber give up, making this a perfect sonning. —Ross Scarano

14. "Welcome to Earth."

Not Available Interstitial

13. "You're part eggplant."

Not Available Interstitial

12. "I collect your fucking head."

Not Available Interstitial

11. "Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe fuck yourself."

Not Available Interstitial

10. "I drink your milkshake."

Not Available Interstitial

9. "My offer is nothing."

Not Available Interstitial

8. "Maybe I don't give a shit. Maybe I don't remember the last time I blew my nose either."

Not Available Interstitial

Movie: Carlito's Way (1993)
Who does the sonning?: Carlito Brigante (Al Pacino)
Who gets sonned?: Benny Blanco (John Leguizamo)
Context: To watch Brian De Palma's gangster flick, about ex-con Carlito Brigante, who wants to get straight but can't leave his old life of crime behind him, is to hate that mosquito, Benny Blanco. He's young, so obnoxious, and never sorry. Which is why it's beautiful when, after Carlito's friend and attorney Dave Kleinfeld (Sean Penn) has sex with Benny's girlfriend, Carlito tells the up-and-comer just how miniscule he is. Blanco says that maybe Carlito rememebrs him, to which Pacino's character retorts:

"Maybe I don't give a shit. Maybe I don't remember the last time I blew my nose either. Who the fuck are you, I should remember you? What, you think you like me? You ain't like me motherfucker. You a punk. I've been with made people, connected people. Who you been with? Chain-snatching, jive-ass, maricon motherfuckers. Why don't you get lost? Go a head, snatch a purse. Come on, take a fuckin' walk."

7. Everything Gny. Sgt. Hartman Says

Not Available Interstitial

6. "Well, I got her number. How do you like them apples?"

Not Available Interstitial

5. "Sit your $5 dollar ass down before I make change."

Not Available Interstitial

4. "Does he look like a bitch?"

Not Available Interstitial

3. "Now go home and get your fucking shinebox."

Not Available Interstitial

2. "You can't handle the truth!"

Not Available Interstitial

1. "Fuck you. That's my name."

Not Available Interstitial

Latest in Pop Culture