Ace Ventura: Pet Detective Quotes

Context

This line is spoken by Ace Ventura, played by Jim Carrey, in the film Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, directed by Tom Shadyac (1994).

Let's show you something, Shmoopers. Back in 1994, Jim Carrey was best known for performing wacky and over-the-top characters on television. His movie career was pretty lackluster when he landed the lead role in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. This one part, though, would launch him into stardom and make him one of the most popular and well-paid actors of all time. That's pretty darn impressive for a pet detective.

One of the best-known lines from that movie is Ace's signature catchphrase: "Alrighty then!" He breaks it out fairly often and it's usually just a way for him to wrap up a conversation in the most annoying way possible. After all, Ace Ventura can't just say "okay" when he's done talking to you. That would be way too normal.

Jim Carrey actually contributed quite a bit to the script for Ace Ventura, so he's the one who inserted this catchphrase into the movie. If you watch some of his old sketches from In Living Color, you'll see him doing Ace's voice and even hear him let out an "alrighty then" as the (pretty offensive by today's standards) Overly Confident Gay Man.

Alrighty, then (sorry)—check out this clip.

Where you've heard it

"Alrighty then" is generally used as a sort of wacky substitute for the words "okay" or "all right." Even though it predates Ace Ventura, the movie is really what launched this phrase into the popular lexicon.

Additional Notable References

• In Bruce Almighty (also starring Jim Carrey), God says "alrighty then" to Bruce (wink, wink).
• Rachel says this during an episode of Friends, too (which also featured Ace Ventura's leading lady, Courtney Cox).
• "Alrighty then!" was nominated by the American Film Institute as one of the most memorable movie quotes of all time.

Pretentious Factor

Annoying? You bet, but Ace Ventura is never pretentious.