Royale With Cheese
02. John Travolta & Samuel L. Jackson Lyrics


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Dialogue Written by Quentin Tarantino
JULES
-- okay so, tell me again about the hash bars?
VINCENT
Okay what d'you want to know?
JULES
Hash is legal there, right?
VINCENT
Yeah, it's legal, but is ain't a hundred percent legal. I mean you can't
Walk into a restaurant, roll a joint, and start puffin' away. I mean they
Want you to smoke in your home or certain designated places.
JULES
Those are hash bars?
VINCENT
Yeah, it breaks down like this, okay: it's legal to buy it, it's legal to own
It and, if you're the proprietor of a hash bar, it's legal to sell it. It's
Legal to carry it, but that doesn't matter 'cause -- get a load of this,
Alright, -- if you get stopped by a cop in Amsterdam, it's illegal for them
To search you. I mean that's a right that the cops in Amsterdam don't have.
JULES
Oh, man -- I'm goin', that's all there is to it. I'm fuckin' goin'.
VINCENT
You'll dig it the most. But you know what the funniest thing about Europe is?
JULES
What?
VINCENT
It's the little differences. I mean they got the same shit over there, we got
Here, but it's just there's a little difference.
JULES
Examples?
VINCENT
Alright, well you can walk into a movie theatre in Amsterdam and buy a beer.
And I don't mean in a paper cup. I'm talkin' 'bout a glass of beer. And in
Paris, you can buy a beer at MacDonald's. You know what they call a Quarter
Pounder with Cheese in Paris?
JULES
They don't call it a Quarter Pounder with Cheese?
VINCENT
No, man, they got the metric system there, they wouldn't know what the fuck
A Quarter Pounder is.
JULES
What'd they call it?
VINCENT
They call it Royale with Cheese.
JULES (repeating)
Royale with Cheese. What'd they call a Big Mac?
VINCENT
Big Mac's a Big Mac, but they call it Le Big Mac.
JULES (repeating)
Le Big Mac. What do they call a Whopper?
VINCENT
I dunno, I didn't go into a Burger King. You know what they put on french
Fries in Holland instead of ketchup?
JULES
What?
VINCENT
Mayonnaise.
JULES
Goddamn!
VINCENT
I seen 'em do it, man. They fuckin' drown 'em in this shit.




JULES
Uuccch!

Overall Meaning

"Royale with Cheese" is a song from Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, one of the most acclaimed and beloved movies of the 1990s. The song is a spoken-word piece by Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta, two of the movie's main stars, and is incorporated into a scene in which they discuss the differences between Europe and America. The conversation is about how things can be similar but different across countries, and they begin to talk about fast food in Paris. They explain that the Quarter Pounder is known as the Royale with Cheese in France, and this leads to them discussing other differences, such as the fact that mayonnaise is a popular condiment for french fries in Holland.


Line by Line Meaning

Hash is legal there, right?
Is it okay to use hash in Amsterdam without getting into trouble?


Yeah, it's legal, but is ain't a hundred percent legal. I mean you can't Walk into a restaurant, roll a joint, and start puffin' away. I mean they Want you to smoke in your home or certain designated places.
Using hash is legal but there are specific rules. You can't use it anywhere you want; there are designated spots or your home. You can't even use it inside a restaurant.


Those are hash bars?
Are the designated spots for smoking hash called hash bars?


Yeah, it breaks down like this, okay: it's legal to buy it, it's legal to own It and, if you're the proprietor of a hash bar, it's legal to sell it. It's Legal to carry it, but that doesn't matter 'cause -- get a load of this, Alright, -- if you get stopped by a cop in Amsterdam, it's illegal for them To search you. I mean that's a right that the cops in Amsterdam don't have.
If you're the owner of a hash bar, you can legally sell it. You can also buy and own it legally. You can carry it on you, but you can't get searched by the cops in Amsterdam.


Alright, well you can walk into a movie theatre in Amsterdam and buy a beer. And I don't mean in a paper cup. I'm talkin' 'bout a glass of beer. And in Paris, you can buy a beer at MacDonald's. You know what they call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?
You don't have to drink beer from a paper cup in Amsterdam; you can buy it in a glass at the movie theatre. Meanwhile, in Paris, you can buy beer at McDonald's. And they don't call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese by that name in Paris.


No, man, they got the metric system there, they wouldn't know what the fuck A Quarter Pounder is.
They use the metric system in Paris, so they wouldn't know what a Quarter Pounder is since it's an imperial unit of measurement.


They call it Royale with Cheese.
In Paris, a Quarter Pounder with Cheese is called Royale with Cheese.


What'd they call a Big Mac?
What do they call a Big Mac in Paris?


Big Mac's a Big Mac, but they call it Le Big Mac.
A Big Mac is still called a Big Mac, but it's pronounced differently (Le Big Mac) in Paris.


I dunno, I didn't go into a Burger King. You know what they put on french Fries in Holland instead of ketchup?
Vincent doesn't know what they call a Whopper in Paris. In Holland, they use mayonnaise instead of ketchup on their french fries.


Uuccch!
Expressing disgust upon discovering the practice of putting mayonnaise on fries in Holland.




Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: QUENTIN JEROME TARANTINO

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
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Most interesting comment from YouTube:

@rednick4143

Meanwhile in France:
French guy 1: Do you know what they call le Royale with cheese in America?
French guy 2: They don't call it le Royale with cheese?
French guy 1: No, they don't use le metric system. So instead they call it le "Quarter Pounder with cheese."
French guy 2: "Quarter Pounder with cheese"? What's a Pounder?
French guy 1: I don't know, mari. Must have something to do with England.
French guy 2: What do they call le Big Mac?
French guy 1: Le Big Mac is still called "Le Big Mac" but instead they just say "Big Mac" without le "Le."
French guy 2: [In an American accent] "Big Mac." [chuckles] What do they call le Gros Mensonge?
French guy 1: I don't know, I never went to Le Burger King.



All comments from YouTube:

@Bedinsis

Here we get some immediate insight into the character Vincent: he went to Paris, one of the gastronomic capitals in the world and went into a McDonalds.

@watermelonhead8054

lmao i never caught that, that PERFECTLY sums up vincent though lol

@Gallia91

I assume it would be interesting to visit a McDonald's in another country just to see how it compares to the one at home

@francisco-vb9wg

yeah Vincent isn't a douche. hes a simple man. clearly he had money for all those "fancy" restaurants but he wasn't a douche.

@AIRSOFTRAIDERS1

Well it's not like people eat at a sit down restaurant every night usually, he probably just got a quick bite to eat at one point

@StopFlaggingVideos

@francisco i guess any quality dining experience above the level of McDonald's is for douches. or anything you don't approve of anyway

65 More Replies...

@kristjancebulj8162

Fun fact: at the end of the clip, when they're getting their guns from the trunk, Jules puts his safety on after racking the slide, Vincent however, does not. That, combined with his lack of trigger discipline eventualy leads to him shooting Marvin in the face.

@tvalla

great fact!!!

@lukahmei2000

It’s those little details that really make movie magic 🪄

@nqabayomuzikhulilekamangwe2690

That’s what their car scene was about. Everything thing is the same but just a little different

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