Best quotes of the year collected

This year’s most popular internet meme and one or two quotes that may be lost on young people have made the finals of this year’s Quote of the Year competition.

Massey University Quote of the Year competition organiser Dr Heather Kavan said quotes were chosen for their likely popularity rather than their ability to shock and outrage instantly, ruling out many of the offensive social media outbursts that made headlines in 2017.

Ten finalists chosen from a long list of nominations submitted by the public have been announced and people have until December 13 to vote.

And what some have called New Zealand’s most popular meme of 2017 stands a chance of also being voted in as the nation’s quote of the year.

Actor Michael Galvin called his Shortland Street line ‘‘please tell me that’s not your penis’’ an act of genius on the part of the show’s scriptwriters, a view Kavan somewhat agrees with.

‘‘It was a powerful quote in terms of being highly suspenseful and drawing in a huge audience.’’

As for gaffes, Kavan said she was surprised that none were nominated, despite a year that seemed to have been full of them.

The major debate among judges picking the list of finalists this year was whether two of the quotes chosen would be lost on the younger generation.

One, from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, was that climate change was the nuclear-free issue of her generation.

The second was from musician Don Mcglashan, who compared the late John Clark to Rudolf Nureyev, a cold-war era ballet director and dancer.

And although both of those quotes may have been lost on Dilworth School student Jai Selkirk, that didn’t stop him from making the NZ Quote of the Year list with a line from his winning poetry slam entry, highlighting negative stereotypes against Ma¯ ori.

Historically, some of the best quotes tended to be reactions to things other people had said, and at this game few were better than Winston Peters, who demonstrated his master of the sharp colourful comeback when he called Gareth Morgan a ‘‘toothless sheep’’.

Peters also featured as the subject of another quote in the finals, the target of Ali Ikram who explained New Zealand’s electoral process on Twitter as ‘‘we all vote then take the ballots—chuck them out—and ask a man called Winston Peters who won’’.

Cat Pause surpassed her source material when she replied to Hamilton City Councillor Siggi Henry’s bizarre statement that fat people could fall and crush innocent passersby by replying that there was as much chance of that happening as a ‘‘sharknado’’ coming to town.

However, one quote stood above the rest in the nomination process and was also the one that had the biggest impact on her personally, Kavan said.

That was actor Jatinder Singh in a Rainbow Youth ad turning to his friend ‘‘Nigel’’ who had just used the word ‘‘gay’’ to say: ‘‘It’s deeply disappointing, but it’s not gay’’.

The entry was sent in almost as nominations were opened, with a second nomination for it coming in only a few seconds afterwards.

‘‘Even so, in previous years we’ve had votes pouring in for quotes that no-one foresaw as winners.’’

❚ The full list of Quote of the Year finalists is available online at www.stuff.co.nz.