"These go to eleven..."

One of the classic scenes from the 1984 mockumentary film "This is Spinal Tap" involves Rob Reiner (playing the documentary director Marty Di Bergi) and Christopher Guest (playing guitarist Nigel Tufnel) talking about guitar amplifiers.  Nigel proudly shows Di Bergi the band's amplifiers, which all turn up to eleven.  Here is the sequence (watch the clip here):

Nigel Tufnel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and...

Marty DiBergi: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten?

Nigel Tufnel: Exactly.

Marty DiBergi: Does that mean it's louder? Is it any louder?

Nigel Tufnel: Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?

Marty DiBergi: I don't know.

Nigel Tufnel: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?

Marty DiBergi: Put it up to eleven.

Nigel Tufnel: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.

Marty DiBergi: Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?

Nigel Tufnel: [pause] These go to eleven.

It's a great scene!  It's an incredibly funny scene, because Nigel and his bandmates actually think that their amplifiers are louder than any other band's amplifiers - "These are special."  I think of this scene whenever I hear someone talking about giving an 110 percent effort.  

Hall of Fame baseball player Yogi Berra said, "You have to give 100 percent in the first half of the game.  If that isn't enough, in the second half, you have to give what's left."  Yogi was famous for these kinds of quotes, which have been called "Yogi-isms" (perhaps his most famous one is "It ain't over 'til it's over") - this particular one is a "Yogi-ism" because, as everyone knows, it is impossible to give more than a 100 percent effort.

The quote by legendary UCLA Basketball Coach John Wooden is perhaps more accurate, but certainly not as witty.  Coach Wooden once said, "Give me 100 percent.  You can't make up for a poor effort today by giving 110 percent tomorrow.  You don't have 110 percent.  You only have 100 percent, and that's what I want from you right now."