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Tue 30 September 2025 3:00, UK
When Joe Pesci‘s irascible, hot-tempered characters pop into your mind, what catchphrases come along with them?
Some of you may think of Pesci in “Funny how?” Goodfellas mode, viciously lambasting his mobster pal Henry Hill for calling him a “funny guy”, only to reveal with a hysterical laugh that he’s just breaking his balls. On the other hand, people who were kids in the early 1990s will almost certainly think of Pesci as Harry, one-half of the Wet Bandits, spouting nonsensical, cartoonish gibberish every time Kevin McCallister introduces him to a new (miraculously) non-lethal booby trap. Heck, some people may even think of one word: “Yoots”. If you know, you know.
However, if you’re anything like me, the first catchphrase that leaps out at you is one Pesci repeated in three movies to increasingly over-the-top fucking effect. It’s not even really a phrase, per se; instead, it’s merely one word repeated over and over again so quickly, and with such escalating exasperation, that it becomes profoundly hysterical. That catchphrase is, of course, “OK, OK, OK!” and it was made famous by Leo Getz, everyone’s favourite diminutive money launderer, real estate agent, and private detective from the Lethal Weapon franchise.
Brilliantly, Pesci’s almost unbearably funny use of “OK, OK, OK!” in Lethal Weapon 2, uttered every time Riggs and Murtaugh asked him a question of any kind, was so beloved that he was brought back for the third and fourth films despite his character being intended as a one-time deal. It became a running gag so popular that people waited with bated breath to see how aggravated the character could get, which led to exponentially more “OKs”.
On top of that, audiences pondered if there was any way he could top his iconic “They fuck you at the Drive-Thru!” monologue, which was entirely improvised on the spot by an irate Pesci. “If there’s something I can grab onto and beat the shit out of, I’ll do it,” the Irishman star told Empire magazine in 2012. “I remember being pissed about Drive-Thrus, because they do actually fuck you. You go home and there’s no fuckin’ ketchup in the bag. And you can’t go back, because there’s always a long line. So you’re fucked!”
Interestingly, the origin of “OK, OK, OK!” came very much from real life, just like “They fuck you at the Drive-Thru!” However, the story behind it is much more elaborate than Pesci having a bad experience at his local McDonald’s. The tale behind this catchphrase encompasses a trip to the happiest place on Earth, accompanied by one of Hollywood’s most legendary hellraisers, to see an iconic band that Pesci had a hand in forming. Oh, and there are also Mormons involved.
“Mickey Rourke and I had gone to Disneyland,” Pesci recalled, as if that’s the most normal thing in the world. “Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons were singing at Frontierland.” You see, Pesci and Valli, one of the most famous crooners in history, were childhood pals. Pesci was even the man responsible for introducing Valli to Bob Gaudio, his main goddamn songwriting compatriot in what would become the Four Seasons.
Anyway, on this fateful day that Pesci and Rourke decided to catch Valli’s show in Disneyland, of all fucking places, they stopped to ask for directions from “these blonde-headed, blue-eyed kids” who worked at the park. Pesci was pretty sure they were Mormons, but any thoughts about their religious affiliation quickly went out the window when “the first word out of this kid’s mouth was, ‘OK!’” Within seconds, the employee hit Pesci with “about 12 more” OKs, which was so funny that even the notoriously cantankerous Rourke laughed.
Why did this kid feel the need to pepper everything he said with a multitude of “OKs”? We’ll never know. But what we do know is that he popped into Pesci’s head when he was figuring out how to play Leo Getz, and when he began improvising a cavalcade of “OKs” in front of Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, and director Richard Donner, an indelible movie catchphrase was born.
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