(Gilmore Girls fan site)In the episode “Emily Says Hello,” in reference to The Godfather.
JACKSON (holding a giant pair of scissors): I came home from work, and I found these on the doorstep! What the hell is this supposed to mean?!
SOOKIE: Hon, maybe it’s just a joke.
JACKSON: No. This is not a joke! This is a threat!
LORELAI: Yeah. Those people at Butterick Patterns play pretty rough.
JACKSON: This is the fish on the doorstep. It’s the horse head in the bed. It’s the “Either your signature or your brains are going to be on the contract.”
SOOKIE: Jackson, calm down!
JACKSON: I will not calm down! I told them I would not do any ribbon cutting ceremonies!
Having been elected town selectman, and having been bombarded for several weeks with town business, and handling it pretty poorly, at the end of his rope, Jackson discovers a pair of giant scissors on his doorstep. They clearly want him to preside at a ribbon-cutting ceremony. But Jackson completely wigs out and reacts as if it were a threat.
This is the fish on the doorstep. It’s the horse head in the bed. It’s the “Either your signature or your brains are going to be on the contract.”
It’s an allusion to the movie The Godfather. In the first scene, Michael Corleone explains how his father helped Johnny Fontaine start his career, how he got him his first big singing gig by threatening a band leader:
My father made him an offer he couldn’t refuse… Luca Brasi held a gun to his head, and my father assured the bandleader, that either his signature or his brains would be on the contract… That’s a true story.
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