On September 11th, 2001, something happened that changed American life forever. It was a momentous day whose impact was so profound, widespread and long-lasting that American history can usefully be divided into two categories: pre and post.

Everyone knows where they were when this historic event occurred. It is burned indelibly into the cultural memory, in our collective consciousness as Americans as a date that will live in infamy, to paraphrase FDR’s words about another infamous attack, this time on Pearl Harbor.

I’m speaking, of course, about how Dana Carvey, a comedy terrorist of sorts in his complete disregard for the rules of propriety and single-minded hunger to make people laugh, and his gifted collaborators launched a devastatingly successful, full frontal attack on our collective funny bone by filming, on September 11th, 2001, the legendary Turtle Club sequence in the great Dana Carvey’s 2002 classic Master of Disguise.

The world was never the same. To this day, simply stating the words, “Turtle! Turtle! Turtle!” In a gratingly unnatural manner is enough to provoke Pavlovian shivers of delight from me and my fellow Pistachio Nuts, as I just decided Master of Disguise super-fans are known.

To be a true Pistachio Nut, and not a pretender hopping on the bandwagon because it’s cool is to forever be asking yourself, and then answering truthfully, “Am I not turtley enough for the Turtle Club?”