The 10 Least Original Quotes from “The Wire” [#WireQuoteDay]

#WireQuoteDay is trending HARD on Twitter right now.

Reading through the various submissions takes me down a memory lane of amazing episodes, characters and moments from perhaps the greatest television show of all time. People are pulling out some obscure and brilliant selections.

But there are also some picks that make me wanna say…come on man, that’s the best you could come up with? One of the most obvious quotes from “The Wire”? It’s like picking “NEWMAN!” for Seinfeld Quote Day. You don’t even have to have seen the show to know some of these quotes.

I guess you could say Wire Quote Day is separating the casual Wire fans from the psychotic Wire fans.

Not to pick on any of these individual tweeters, because there are dozens of tweets to pick from for each of these quotes, but here are the least original choices for Wire Quote Day.

"My name is my NAME" -Mario #wirequoteday—
Anna Kathryn Pierce (@akpierce) March 25, 2011

(Um…Mario?)

This one is easily the most beaten into the ground. Of all the clever turns of phrase on that show over five seasons, hundreds of people zero in on this memorable but overplayed Marlo Stanfield line. Yawn.

"Come at the king, you best not miss." –Omar #WireQuoteDay—
Craig (@coolaid0) March 25, 2011

Great line, but I liked it better the first two dozen times it was tweeted.

"What about Wallace!?!" #wirequoteday—
Russell Mann (@rmann18) March 25, 2011

This was a really great scene…but wasn’t the quote “Where’s Wallace”? Anyway, please dig a little deeper here, folks. It’s motherfucking WIRE QUOTE DAY, STRING! WHERE’S THE INSPIRED QUOTE CHOICE, STRING???? WHERE IT AT???

@KenTremendous we gotta get a WIRE on them!!! #WireQuoteDay—
nick (@elSneaker) March 25, 2011

Not so much obvious as incredibly weak, baffling, even. Did you actually watch the show?

"We used to make shit in this country, build shit. Now we just put our hand in the next guy's pocket." -Frank Sobotka #wirequoteday—
Brian Scheer (@Scheer_Power) March 25, 2011

Ah yes, the time when David Simon hit us over the head with the moral of the story…one of my least favorite moments on an almost flawless show.

@BastardMachine Omar coming. #WireQuoteDay—
Christopher Devon (@ONN8) March 25, 2011

Such a weak choice…if you’re going to do something in this vein, let’s call it the lookout warning signal genre, why not “Narcos!” or “Five oh creepin!”

[Farmer in the Dell] -Omar #WireQuoteDay—
Andrew Lee (@L4ndrew) March 25, 2011

Huh? That’s not even…ah forget it.

Sheeeeeeeeiiiiiiiit -Clay Davis
#WireQuoteDay—
mike tully (@realmiketully) March 25, 2011

Even Isiah Whitlock Jr. thinks that’s a lame pick.

"I got the shotgun. You got the briefcase. It's all in the Game though, right?" -Omar #WireQuoteDay—
Alan Sepinwall (@sepinwall) March 24, 2011

This is one of the best moments in The Wire, but come on. You can do better than this on Wire Quote Day!

"Aw F—." "Mother F—–." "F— F— F—ety F—." "F—." "Hmph F—." "F— F— F—." "The F—?" #WireQuoteDay http://bit.ly/ehcCFU—
Rocco DeMaro (@RoccoDeMaro) March 25, 2011

Awesome scene, but as a quote? Poo.

Anyway — here are my picks:

Update: No surprise…it turns out that Wire Quote Day was the brainchild of America’s best TV critic, Tim Goodman:

We need to designate a Wire Quote Day. "One of theirs gotta drop." – Marlo.—
Tim Goodman (@BastardMachine) March 24, 2011