Guide Note

This page contains memorable quotes from the 1984 cult classic film This is Spinal Tap. This is Spinal Tap is a mockumentary (errr... should I say "rockumentary") film by Rob Reiner that stars Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer as members of the fictional classic rock band, Spinal Tap. Christopher Guest plays "Nigel Tufnel", the lead guitarist whose amp goes all the way up to eleven. Michael McKean plays David St Hubbins, the lead singer who was named after the patron saint of quality footware. And Harry Shearer plays "Dereck Smalls", the bass player who sees his role in the band as lukewarm water to David and Nigel's fire and ice.

Fast Facts

1. First appearance: 1978 ABC comedy special The TV Show
2. Spinal Tap released on March 2, 1984
3. Most of the film was ad libbed
4. The same actors portray fictional folk band The Folksmen in A Mighty Wind

Spinal Tap Quotes

• Nigel Tufnel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and...
• Marty DiBergi: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten?
• Nigel Tufnel: Exactly.
• Marty DiBergi: Does that mean it's louder? Is it any louder?
• Nigel Tufnel: Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?
• Marty DiBergi: I don't know.
• Nigel Tufnel: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
• Marty DiBergi: Put it up to eleven.
• Nigel Tufnel: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.
• Marty DiBergi: Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?
• Nigel Tufnel: These go to eleven.

• Nigel Tufnel: The sustain, listen to it.
• Marty DiBergi: I don't hear anything.
• Nigel Tufnel: Well you would though, if it were playing.

• David St. Hubbins: I do not, for one, think that the problem was that the band was down. I think that the problem may have been that there was a Stonehenge monument on the stage that was in danger of being crushed by a dwarf. Alright? That tended to understate the hugeness of the object.
• Ian Faith: I really think you're just making much too big a thing out of it.
• Derek Smalls: Making a big thing out of it would have been a good idea.

• Nigel Tufnel: It's like, how much more black could this be? and the answer is none. None more black.

• David St. Hubbins: It's such a fine line between stupid, and clever.

• David St. Hubbins: Dozens of people spontaneously combust each year. It's just not really widely reported.

• Nigel Tufnel: You can't really dust for vomit.

• Marty DiBergi: The review for "Shark Sandwich" was merely a two word review which simply read "Shit Sandwich".

• Nigel Tufnel: We've got Armadillos in our trousers. It's really quite frightening.

• Derek Smalls: Remember at Luton Palace we were talking about writing a rock musical based on the life of Jack the Ripper.
• David St. Hubbins: Yeah!
• David St. Hubbins: You're a naughty one...
• Together: Saucy Jack...
• David St. Hubbins: You're a haughty one, saucy Jack.

• Ian Faith: They're not gonna release the album... because they have decided that the cover is sexist.
• Nigel Tufnel: Well, so what? What's wrong with bein' sexy?

• Nigel Tufnel: In ancient times, hundreds of years before the dawn of history, an ancient race of people... the Druids. No one knows who they were or what they were doing...

• Nigel Tufnel: I'm quite influenced by Mozart and Bach, so I like to think that this piece is more of a Mach really.