Wednesday, October 01, 2014

UPDATED: Charles Addams Quote Source



To my esteemed friends: I need your help.

Can you source this quote attributed to Chas. Addams:

'"What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly."

Sure, you can Google it and find out it was Addams that said this. (Some sources say Morticia Addams.) 

But I'm asking: what is the original source? I cannot find it.

Is it a cartoon? Can you find the cartoon? A quote from an interview? Or is it a misattribution?

This will greatly assist a friend of mine who is searching for the source.

UPDATE:

A public thanks to my friend Julie Herbst-Dettmer for finding the quote. It's from the ADDAMS FAMILY MUSICAL. It comes about 40 seconds in from this Chicago version of the musical. I know that when the show was in Chicago, it was in previews, so this line may or may not be in the current version. Regardless, it's not a "real" Addams quote. But, well, it IS Addams-related:

3 comments:

Kurt said...

The Internet suggests it might appear in the Addams anthology "Drawn and Quartered." The full quote may be “Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly.”

Anonymous said...

I feel as tho the quote should be credited to the spider and the fly. Whom ever said or wrote the words first didn't first do so without watching a fly land on a spiders web. The fly frantically trying to escape, while the spider non chalantly wipes his hands preparing to feast on its freshly delivered meal. The spider and the fly.
JayKazNation.com
Jay B. Kaz
Jbkjbkpersonalgrowth@jaykaznation.

Cayla Allen said...

The line is said my Morticia in the musical. You can find on P.24 of the script or p.31 of 126 of the PDF file of the script.

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/51c3f070e4b011cb373cb4ea/t/56a31d6005f8e2da31194f8e/1453530469899/Addams+Family+Script.pdf