Ahmed Best told a wonderfully funny George Lucas story about one of Jar Jar Binks’s strangest lines, and it turns out the actor was just as confused as many fans.
The moment comes from The Phantom Menace. Jar Jar, Qui-Gon Jinn, and Obi-Wan Kenobi have left Boss Nass in Otoh Gunga and are traveling through Naboo’s underwater core. When Obi-Wan asks why Jar Jar was banished, Jar Jar rattles off an explanation about “one or two little bitty accidents,” “boom de gasser,” and “crashin’ der boss’s heyblibber.”
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Ahmed Best Wanted To Know What He Was Actually Saying
In the supplied Celebration clip, Best remembers spending the day wondering how he could deliver the line convincingly when he did not understand the words. That is a very actor problem: even silly alien dialogue needs an intention behind it.
So Best went to Lucas and asked what the “boom de gasser” part meant. According to Best, Lucas replied, “I don’t know. You wrote it. You should be able to tell me.”
The delivery makes the anecdote. Best is trying to solve the secret mechanics of Gungan language, and Lucas tosses the mystery right back to him. It does not mean Lucas had forgotten the basic story. It sounds more like permission for Best to find a meaning that helped him play the scene.
So What Is A Heyblibber?
The canon answer is simple. A heyblibber is a Gungan submarine, and Jar Jar was banished from Otoh Gunga after crashing Boss Nass’s personal one. Wookieepedia’s canon pages for both the vehicle and Jar Jar Binks support that basic event.
So the sentence is not meaningless noise. Jar Jar is admitting that he damaged the boss’s vehicle badly enough to get thrown out of the city. The unusual Gungan wording hides a very ordinary mistake.
Best Decided Jar Jar Basically Crashed Boss Nass’s Porsche
Best’s interpretation makes the whole thing click. In his version, Boss Nass owns the Gungan equivalent of an expensive sports car. Jar Jar takes it when he is not supposed to, damages something like the clutch – the “gasser” – and crashes the vehicle.
Best even compares the heyblibber to a Porsche 911 while telling the story. That comparison is not a separate canon fact about Gungan engineering. It is the actor’s funny, practical way of understanding Jar Jar’s memory.
And it works. Jar Jar was not exiled for a grand political crime. He got near something expensive, caused another disaster, and finally exhausted Boss Nass’s patience.
That is why the story is so charming. Best took a line that sounded like nonsense, asked the creator for help, and ended up building the clearest translation himself: Jar Jar crashed the boss’s prized ride and got banished for it.
George Lucas may not have handed him a Gungan dictionary, but Best found the joke underneath the language – and more than two decades later, he finally let fans in on it.