Posted by The Fool of Spoons on March 29, 2001 at 19:07:15:
... is a gun made of soap covered with black shoe polish.
No, seriously, the best gift for the well-equipped mercenary is something unrelated to war. I mean, he or she is well-equipped already, right? Maybe a tuning fork or a spoon would be a more appropriate gift. Which reminds me, how some there isn't such a thing as a tuning spork?
I know that line is supposed to be funny (the one that ends "The perfect gift for the well-equipped mercenary" - if you've never heard it, you have a serious problem. Look it up - the movie is a must-see) but it just doesn't make any sense. The kind of humor that it would be, were it a good line, is exaggeration - the well-equipped mercenary would certainly not, no matter how well-equipped he or she is, have a soap gun, but a soap gun is completely useless, especially to a mercenary, so it wouldn't make a perfect gift. It's not even a get-out-of-jail card for Ernest. Ernest has a better sense of humor than that. As the line actually IS, the only funny thing about it is the originality of trying to escape from jail with a gun made of soap.