He Never Said That
Ask anyone to do an impression of B.A. Baracus and they’re either going to say “I ain’t getting on no plane” or “I pity the fool!” While B.A. said the former line many, many times, he never actually said “I pity the fool!” Crazy, right? But hear us out. The catchphrase belonged to Mr. T, but just like “Beam me up, Scotty!” and “Play it again, Sam,” this exact quote never made its way into the series.
Photo by Ron Galella / Ron Galella Collection / Getty Images
In fact, B.A. usually called people “suckers,” not fools. So, how did this common misconception come to be? Well, Mr. T said this line in his breakthrough movie, Rocky III, in 1982. In the film, Mr. T’s character, Clubber Lang, says, “I don’t hate Balboa, but I pity the fool!”