"Sheer elegance in its simplicity" is an iconic villainous catchphrase in the series, used by villains to describe their nefarious plans. When delivered as a question ("My plan is sheer elegance in its simplicity, isn't it?"), the statement is invariably met with, "No!" from the Middleman, who sometimes goes on to say what about the plan is lacking simplicity or elegance.
Users of the phrases are:
- Dr. Gibbs - "My plan was sheer elegance in its simplicity."
- Mr. White - "My plan is sheer elegance in its simplicity, isn't it?"
- Aldwin - "The Pentarchs' plan is sheer elegance in its simplicity."
- Cecil Calloway Rogers - "My plan is sheer elegance in its simplicity, isn't it?"
- Eleanor Draper - "My plan, is sheer elegance in its simplicity, isn't it?"
- The Candle (imposter) - "The whole thing is sheer elegance in its simplicity."
- Guy Goddard - "My plan is sheer elegance in its simplicity."
- Ivan Avi - "Our plan was sheer elegance in its simplicity."
According to Guy Goddard, villains were using this catchphrase as far back as the 1960s.
When confronted by the Middleman, Wendy Watson, and Tyler Ford, who were trying to destroy his Polyditetrahexamono-Trioctalon, Manservant Neville said, "You have to admit...my plan is sheer elegance in its Draconian complexity."
Trivia[]
- In the "Annotations and Pop Culture References" section of "The Doomsday Armageddon Apocalypse", series creator Javier Grillo-Marxuach states that, "Fools, I will destroy you all!" would have replaced "Sheer elegance in its simplicity" as the standard villanous catchphrase if there had been a second season of The Middleman.
- It is also the phrase spoken by Matt Kesslar's character in his part in Dune, the remake. The birth of the catchphrase of the middleman