Which Movie The Ryan Reynolds “But Why?” Gif Is From

Here’s the movie Ryan Reynolds’ omnipresent “But Why?” gif comes from. After small guest appearances on popular TV shows like The X-Files, Ryan Reynolds first gained attention with his lead role on ABC sitcom Two Guys, A Girl And Pizza Place in the late 1990s which lasted for four seasons. His first big starring role in a movie came later with 2002’s Van Wilder, where he co-starred alongside Kal Penn.

Ryan Reynolds tended to steal most of the movies he appeared in and is one of the few reasons to watch 2004’s Blade: Trinity, but he had trouble landing a true star-making role. Green Lantern from 2011 was supposed to be the start of a major franchise but it was a critical and commercial bomb, and nobody seems to hate it more than Reynolds himself. R.I.P.D was also poised as a brand new comedy-action series but again met with bad reviews and weak box-office. It wasn’t until he finally got passion project Deadpool off the ground that he truly became a movie star.

Ryan Reynolds has also proven remarkably popular in the gif department. One of the most popular is the “Confused Ryan Reynolds” gif which originated from 2006 comedy Just Friends, while another is “But Why?” This sees Reynolds donning scrubs and comes in handy when expressing disbelief at a dumb comment or decision. This gif is taken from the 2004 stoner comedy Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle, where the title pair dress up as surgeons while visiting a hospital to get out of a sticky situation, only for Reynolds Nurse to confuse Kumar (Kal Penn) for his brother, a surgeon.

Harold and Kumar are thus forced to operate on a gunshot victim, but when Kumar asks the nurse to bring in some medical marijuana, Ryan Reynolds’ character takes off his mask and asks “Marijuana? But why?” in an understandably befuddled manner. Kumar surprises everyone by effectively pulling out the bullets, however, with the patient helpfully giving directions to White Castle once the operation is done.

Ryan Reynolds’Harold And Kumar Go To White Castle cameo is short but memorable and reunited the actor with his Van Wilder co-star Penn. While the latter returned for 2006 sequel Van Wilder: The Rise Of Taj, Reynolds’ title character is bizarrely absent. There’s a fair chance people who’ve used the “But why?” gif have no idea which movie it actually came from, so that’s one mystery solved.

About The Author

Padraig Cotter
(3484 Articles Published)

It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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