Leslie Nielsen quotes deal with bad breath

Actor Leslie Nielsen, who died on November 28, had a long list of movie roles than touched on nearly everything: space travel, sinking ships, vampirism, detectives, lovers’ revenger, you name it. Here are a few quotes of his that relate to bad breath because - as the website PopMatters recently pointed out - true Nielsen fans know he could hold his breath for a long, long time.

Airplane!, one of the actor’s signature comedies, sees a plane’s passengers suffering after a savory meal. Nielsen asks, “What was it we had for dinner tonight?” and when told it was “a choice of steak or fish,” adds “Yes, yes, I remember, I had lasagna.” Fatty meats and thick, rich foods are a common source of halitosis.

Protein-based foods may also give you bad breath. Proteins can coat your taste buds and teeth, providing nourishment for odor-causing bacteria in the mouth. In Dracula: Dead and Loving It, a character tells Nielsen “I tell you I saw you snatch a spider right of the air and eat it!” While that’s an unlikely food source, any protein-based meal can leave a rotten smell in your throat.

The worst oral odor can make you want to hold your breath around others. In the cheesy horror movie Creepshow, a crazed Nielsen, who is drowning in the incoming tide, screams “I can hold my breath for a long, long time!”

Rather than waiting to exhale, however, the best way to rid your mouth of any funk is to brush your teeth regularly and to consider rinsing and moistening your mouth with specialty breath fresheners.