About

"I love the smell of napalm in the morning", or "I love the smell of X in the morning," is a stock phrase and snowclone used in film and online where "napalm" is replaced in order to express a character or poster's sarcastic or sincere enthusiasm for a particular subject.

Origin

The original line was spoken by Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore, played by Robert Duvall, in the 1979 film Apocalypse Now.

"Smell that? You smell that? Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like… Victory. Someday this war's gonna end…"

Spread

"I love the smell of X in the morning" has been used dozens of times in film and television, to the point where it warranted its own page on TV Tropes. ^[1]

On October 19th, 2012, a template was published to Meme Generator. ^[2] The quote has also been used in several Advice Animals and Snowclones, including One Does Not Simply Walk Into Mordor (below, left), Disaster Girl (below, center), and Skeptical Third World Success Kid (below, right).

The phrase has also spawned a series of motivational posters where "napalm" is replaced with "success" and the phrase is generally superimposed onto a photo of a lion.

The snowclone remains popular, often used on Twitter ^[3] and Facebook. ^[4]

Various Examples

External References