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In The Last Unicorn (film), the Unicorn has a conversation with a butterfly. True to the Unicorn's observation that all butterflies know is "songs and poetry and anything else they hear," most of the butterfly's speech consists of snippets and paraphrases from pop culture, some of which are familiar, and some of which are more obscure.

• "Wave the flag for Hudson High, boys, show them how we stand!" is from the theme song for the radio show Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy, which ran from 1933-1951
• "I am a roving gambler" is the opening line of a Traditional song called "The Roving Gambler"
• "how do you do?"
• "How far would I travel, yessir! - to be where you are?" is (minus the "yessir") from a slow blues song called "How Deep is the Ocean?"
• "Clay lies still, but blood's a rover" is a quote from A. E. Housman: "Clay lies still, but blood's a rover; / Breath's a ware that will not keep. / Up, lad; when the journey's over / There'll be time enough for sleep."
• "Red Rover, Red Rover, let Charlie come over!" refers to the game Red Rover
• "Won't you come home Bill Bailey, won't you come home?" is the title/opening line of a popular song published in 1902
• "My wild Irish rose" is a song written in 1899 by Chancellor Olcott
• "Excellent well, you're a fishmonger!", is how Hamlet recognizes Polonius while feigning madness in Shakespeare's Hamlet.
• "You're my everything" is a song by Nat King Cole
• "You Are My Sunshine" is a popular song first recorded in 1940
• "you are old and grey and full of sleep" is the first line of the W B Yeats poem "When you are old and grey"
• "you're my pickle-faced, consumptive Mary Jane!" is a variation of the final line of a song called "Hungry Hash House": "She' my freckle-faced consumptive Mary Jane"
• Your name is a golden bell hung in my heart. I would break my body to pieces to call you once by your name!
• "Rumpelstiltskin! (Gotcha!)" refers to the fairy tale published by the Grimm Brothers in 1812
• One, two, three o'lairy!
• Oh, have you seen the muffin man, the muffin man, the muffin man?
• One? One alone, to be my own...
• "Buckle down, Winsocki, buckle down" is the opening line/title of the most famous song from the 1941 musical Best Foot Forward
• Go and catch a falling star...
• "I must Take the A Train" is the title line of a song by Billy Strayhorn
• I am a cook and a captain bold and the mate of the Nancy brig
• Has anybody here seen Kelly?
• "Unicorn". Old French, "unicorne". Latin, "unicornis". Literally, one horned: "unus", one, and "cornu", a horn.
• A fabulous animal resembling a horse with one horn.
• Visible only to those who search and trust, and generally mistaken for a white mare. Unicorn.
• "See You Later Alligator" is a song recorded by Bobby Charles in 1955
• "Close cover before striking!" is a common instruction found on matchbooks
• No, no, listen. Don't listen to me, listen.
• You can find the others if you are brave. They passed down all the roads long ago, and the Red Bull ran close behind them and covered their footsteps.
• "Hold tight... Hold tight... Hold tight hold tight" is the opening line of the Andrews Sisters song "Seafood"
• "His firstling bull has majesty, and his horns are the horns of a wild ox. With them, he shall push the unicorns, all of them, to the ends of the earth." This is a paraphrase of Deuteronomy 33:17 from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible: "His firstling bull has majesty, and his horns are the horns of a wild ox; with them he shall push the peoples, all of them, to the ends of the earth." The King James version renders this verse as: "His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth."
• Listen, listen, listen quickly!
• Listen, listen! (laughs)
• "The king is in the counting house, counting out, counting out, counting..." comes from the English nursery rhyme Sing a Song of Sixpence
• It's you or me, moth! Hand to hand to hand to hand to hand to hand...