Withnail and I, 1987

When an out-of-work actor realises he smokes too many “Camberwell carrots” he goes “on holiday by mistake” with an unnamed friend. After deciding they “want something’s flesh”, they “demand to have some booze” and order “the finest wines available to humanity”. They are joined by Withnail’s uncle Monty who thinks that “flowers are essentially tarts, prostitutes for the bees”. Every other line is just as wonderful. Reacquaint yourself when the newly restored Withnailand I gets a cinema release on 3 October.

Airplane!, 1980

It’s not just about “Don’t call me Shirley”, surely. Airplane! made shameless use of repetition (“Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit drinking / smoking / sniffing glue”), misunderstandings (“Nervous?” / “Yes” / “First time?” / “No, I’ve been nervous lots of times”), and fnar fnar jokes to create one of the most juvenile films of all times – and one that regularly tops “funniest film of all time” lists. Its rapid-fire wordplay is as cringe-inducing as it is amusing, but the deadpan delivery by Leslie Nielsen and co ensures they don’t seem aware of their own comedy.

Mean Girls, 2004

Written by Tina Fey, this razor-sharp high school satire starred Lindsay Lohan as the wholesome, home-schooled new girl who is invited into popular clique the Plastics, led by queen bee Regina George. The dialogue perfectly encapsulates the feather-brained yet pithy argot of teenage girls, ranging from “That is so fetch” (cue “Stop trying to make ‘fetch’ happen”) to the timeless “Get in, loser. We’re going shopping”. The film’s mix of cattiness and superficiality is heavily indebted to its 90s companion Clueless, of “You’re a virgin who can’t drive” fame.

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, 1989

The 80s stoner double-act of Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter has given us dozens of new everyday expressions to choose from. The verbally challenged duo excel at brief exclamations (“Bodacious”, “Bogus”, “Party on, dudes”, and of course “69, dudes!”) as well as variations on the theme of “excellent” (“Most excellent”, “Be excellent to each other”). For best results, references should be accompanied with high fives, air guitars, and gormless grins. The film’s successor and kindred spirit Wayne’s World (1992) is equally quotable.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 1975

If Salvador Dalí were to have a row with someone, his insults would probably be pretty similar to the surreal and imaginative vocabulary the Pythons use in this film. The famous taunting scene (“I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries!”) has been quoted so often that you could comfortably repeat it in front of your gran, only for her to join in. The rest of the script is equally well known: from the bleak (“Bring out yer dead”) to the very, very silly (“You’re using coconuts”).

Casablanca, 1942

The black and white Humphrey Bogart/Ingrid Bergman love story is mentioned six times in the American Film Institute’s Top 100 Greatest Movie Quotes of All Time, making it the most quoted film on the list. But take note: the oft-repeated “Play it again, Sam” is a misquotation – it’s actually “Play it, Sam – play As Time Goes By”). The other five are: “We’ll always have Paris”, “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship”, “Here’s looking at you, kid”, “Round up the usual suspects”, and “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.”

Pulp Fiction, 1994

There’s a reason why “Tarantino” is so often followed by the suffix “-esque dialogue”. The director’s expletive-laden, verbose interchanges are as much part of his style as his high-energy soundtracks and blood-spattered fights. The Ezekiel 25:17 passage (delivered in the film by Samuel L Jackson) which culminates in “you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you” is likely to be the best-known Bible passage to an entire generation of film lovers. Many of the one-liners are just as ominous: “I’m gonna get medieval on your ass”, and, most chillingly of all, “Bring out the gimp”.

The Princess Bride, 1987

Based on William Goldman’s 1973 fantasy novel of the same name, this film adaptation looks and sounds like a traditional fairytale romance, but its biting wit and unexpected genre-bending elevate it to pure satire gold. The quote everyone knows, “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die,” repeated ad nauseam, now seems oddly prescient of Prince Oberyn in Game of Thrones. Other classics include “Inconceivable!” / “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means” – so popular that it is now an internet meme.

The Big Lebowski, 1998

This film is guaranteed to make anyone overuse the word “dude” for at least a fortnight. The ultimate stoner film (“Yeah, well, that’s just, like, your opinion, man”, “Fuck it dude, let’s go bowling”), the cult classic is also notable for using the word “fuck” 271 times during its 117-minute running time – one every 26 seconds. Its finest quotes include warnings (“You are entering a world of pain”), exhortations (“Calm down, you’re being very undude”), simple orders (“Shut the fuck up, Donny”), and alcohol-fuelled wisdom (“Sometimes you eat the bar and sometimes, well, the bar eats you”).

This is Spinal Tap, 1984

The film’s trademark phrase, “These go to 11”, has taken on such a life of its own that it has a Wikipedia page about it. BBC iPlayer volume, perhaps not coincidentally, also goes up to 11. Immortalising the successes and failures of fictional rock band Spinal Tap, the mock-documentary records the band members’ malapropisms (“It’s sexist” / “What’s wrong with being sexy?”), cliches (one band member’s plan B career is “full-time dreamer”), and mundanity (“I remember being knocked out by their exuberance, their raw power … and their punctuality”).

• This article was amended on 6 October 2014 to remove a misattribution in the paragraph on Withnail and I .