Context

This line is from the song "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" by Vicki Lawrence, from the album The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia (1973).

This line comes from the one and only #1 hit song from Vicki Lawrence, who was way more famous for being an actress-comedienne on The Carol Burnett Show. The song tells the story of a dude who's wrongly accused of murdering a guy who was sleeping with his wife. Due to that backwoods Southern lawyer and a judge who'd rather get to supper on time, he ends up being hung.

But wait—the song has a few more twists up its sleeves. Click here to let Vicki sing you the whole sordid tale while randomly standing on a beach. You can also click here for a possibly better version sung by Reba McEntire.

Where you've heard it

This particular lyric hasn't gotten referenced all that much, but you might remember in the movie Reservoir Dogs when gangster Nice Guy Eddie admits that he just realized that (spoiler alert!) the singer of the song is the one who really killed the guy. The song also got a shout-out on an episode of Designing Women.

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

Quoting semi-forgotten, pseudo-country hits will always win you extra cool points with us.