The Law Requires That I Answer "No"

About

"The Law Requires That I Answer 'No'" is a memorable quote from the 2004 Pixar film The Incredibles that has become the basis for a series of image macros. Online, people use a screenshot from the film along with the catchphrase to provide a punch line to a set up that implies someone is begrudgingly denying something that is illegal or inappropriate.

Origin

The phrase "the law requires that I answer 'no'" was first uttered in the Pixar film The Incredibles. In the movie, Mr. Incredible, in his secret identity of Bob Parr, is reprimanded by his boss Mr. Huph for helping his clients. When Parr asks, "Are you saying that we shouldn't help our customers?" Huph responds, "The law reqires that I answer 'no.'" On September 6th, 2010, YouTuber ^[1] vangassel uploaded the clip of the scene (shown below), where it received more than 738,000 views in seven years.

Spread

Seven years later, on November 16th, 2017, Imgur ^[2] user bagaault uploaded a gif of the moment with the title "For those times when you really, really want to say 'Yes.'"

The following month, on December 23rd, Redditor ^[3] andgalsagaard posted a screenshot of the moment with the caption "when you walk in to work toasted af and your boss asks you if you're 'under the influence'" on the /r/dankmemes subreddit. The post (shown below, left) received more than 5,300 points (95% upvoted) in four days.

Over the next few days, more users on /r/dankmemes posted variations of the image macros, captioning the moment with different, begrudged denials.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References