Capítulo 9 de 27 · 2'58"
Tony Kirby arrives at the Sycamore house to meet Alice's family and walks straight into chaos: an income-tax collector is threatening Grandpa Vanderhof with jail, and Grandpa insists he does not owe a cent. Later the ballet teacher Kolenkhov drops in and calls the Monte Carlo Ballet garbage — "It stinks."
❝ Monólogo · 6 frases Grandpa vs the Tax Man
Kolenkhov Drops By
Tony Kirby comes to the Sycamore house to meet Alice's eccentric family. He finds Grandpa Vanderhof arguing with an income-tax man who threatens him with jail, and refusing to pay more than $75. Not long after, the ballet teacher Kolenkhov arrives and bluntly tells the family that the show they are off to see is terrible.
The comedy comes from a collision of worlds. Tony, a rich man's son, steps into a house where nobody obeys rules, and the first thing he hears is Grandpa refusing to pay taxes: "I don't owe the government a cent." The tax man threatens, "You'll go to jail if you don't pay," and Grandpa treats the whole thing as a game. Against this, Tony's good manners and Kolenkhov's theatrical rudeness — "The Monte Carlo Ballet? It stinks" — show how casually this family speaks its mind. Tony is not there to judge, though; he is there because he loves Alice, and the scene lets him see, in one evening, exactly what he would be marrying into.
A1–C2 es la escala MCER. Las tarjetas por encima del nivel elegido se atenúan y la reproducción no se pausa en ellas.
“If you think you're bigger than the law, you've got another thing coming.”
A hard little warning lands in one breath, and the idiom makes it sound final.
Informal
“Well, I might pay you about $75, but it isn't worth a cent more.”
He haggles over taxes like a market stall, and the absurdity is the point of the line.
Informal
“I don't owe the government a cent.”
Seven short words close the whole fight; the flat certainty is what makes it land.
Informal
“Well, why not? Have they got fences?”
A plain question that deflates bureaucratic jargon.
Informal
You'll pay every cent just like anybody else. Now, listen to me. You'll go to jail if you don't pay, do you hear that? That's law. If you think you're bigger than the law, you've got another thing coming. You're just the same as anybody else. And the sooner you get that through your head, the better.
Siguiente · 10as he pleasesLa escena: Alice Explains Her FamilyGrandpa has never paid income tax and refuses to start, offering $75 and saying the government has no claim on him; the collector threatens jail to force payment.
No. He calls the whole argument a game, says he was only having fun with the collector, and insists he does not owe the government a cent.
Essie's Russian ballet teacher, who arrives for dinner and instantly declares the Monte Carlo Ballet, the show the family is going to, is terrible.
To meet Alice's family. He walks into the tax argument and the household's chaos, and simply takes it in without judging them.
It means the collector is sure Grandpa is mistaken and will find out he cannot beat the law. It is a threat dressed up as advice.
