Some movies are so jam-packed with memorable lines that they seem to transcend their meager runtimes and enter the cultural canon. The ability to start telling a joke from your favorite movie, only for someone you just met to finish the line, is an unparalleled joy (and a great way to find people you actually want as your friends). 

David and Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams’ “Airplane!” flew into the spoof movie zeitgeist in 1980 with enough raunchy humor, gags and truly absurd lines to make a nun blush. Sure, there might be some other truly hilarious spoof movies like “Tropic Thunder,” “The Other Guys” and “Spaceballs” (this is not debatable — these are some of the best movies ever made. Take that, Citizen Kane!), but nothing beats the movie that did it first and best. So fasten your seat belt, relax and just remember — don’t order the fish!

“Airplane!” begins as all great fictional love stories (and real-life nightmares) do: at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Ted Striker (Robert Hays) abandons his taxi to run across the terminals in an effort to convince his ex-girlfriend and stewardess, Elaine Dickinson (Julie Hagerty), to stay with him — this is back when you could smoke on planes and your shoes never had to come off at security. Elaine refuses, saying she’s leaving him for good when she returns from the flight. In a last-ditch effort, Striker, a traumatized veteran and former pilot, boards the plane in the hopes of winning Elaine over. But disaster looms as some poorly cooked fish reminds everyone why no one raves about airplane food. The fish leaves both the pilots and half the plane with a healthy bout of food poisoning. Stranded in the sky with no one to fly (thanks, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, for barely working!), Ted is forced to face his fears and land the plane himself.

Now, you might find yourself reading this and thinking, “Huh, this sounds like a serious movie. And what is a zeitgeist? This guy sounds insufferable,” to which I’d inform you that “Airplane!” is based on the much more serious 1957 movie “Zero Hour!” — and pick up a dictionary, why don’t you! The entirety of “Airplane!” is one big “Zero Hour!” gag, taking its fundamental plot and riddling its body full of the naughtiest and most absurd jokes you could possibly think of. 

Before the release of “Airplane!,” Lloyd Bridges — father of the Dude himself, and my aunt’s ideal man, Jeff Bridges — and Leslie Nielsen were two actors who were typecast as serious men of action, à la Humphrey Bogart (and yes, I really did just say ‘à la’). Afterwards, Nielsen would become known not for his serious roles but for “Surely, you can’t be serious? … I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley.” The movie features some true heavyweights — don’t tell Kareem Abdul-Jabbar he only hustled in the post-season — delivering some of the most memorable lines with a degree of seriousness that is downright admirable. 

I’ve chosen to leave this review purposefully vague — it’s not just because I have midterms to study for, I swear — because any attempt at trying to encapsulate the humor of this movie would be as futile and roundabout as what I imagine a conversation with an in-character Nielsen would be. How do you sum up a movie that starts with two P.A. announcers fighting over the intercom at the airport, the inflatable autopilot Otto (I only understood this one after I was 14), the absolute beatdown that Rex Kramer (Robert Stack) gives to a bunch of shriners and everything in between? 

I might be a little biased, as I’ve been quoting this movie since I was around eight — now that I think about it, it’s a miracle I wasn’t sent to the principal’s office — but this movie is the spoof to end all spoofs. Some of the jokes might fly over the heads of the culturally unaware; even I only just learned about “Win it for the Gipper!,” but there is no denying the pure comedy gold embedded in every fiber of this movie. Even when you think they couldn’t possibly make a joke out of something, a gag is right around the corner. So do yourself a favor, be cool and watch this movie; everyone’s doing it! The next time someone asks how you take your coffee, you’ll have the perfect reply for them.