CYRANO DE BERGERAC. BtVS Intertext/Allusion.

In "Some Assembly Required" Xander and Buffy walk in on Giles as he prepares himself to ask Jenny Calendar out on a date.

 

GILES: (practicing) W-w-w-what I'm proposing is, um . . . and I-I don't mean to appear indecorous, is, is, um, a, a-a-a social engagement, um, a, a, a, a-a date, if you're amenable. (to himself) You idiot!

BUFFY: Boy . . . I guess we never realized how much you like that chair.

GILES: I-I-I was just working on . . .

BUFFY: Your pickup lines?

GILES: Um, in a manner of speaking, yes.

BUFFY: Then if you wouldn't mind a little Gene and Roger, you might wanna leave off the 'idiot' part. Being called an idiot tends to take people out of the dating mood.

XANDER: Hmm, it actually kinda turns me on.

BUFFY: (to Xander) I fear you. (to Giles) You also might wanna avoid words like 'amenable' and 'indecorous', y'know. Speak English, not whatever they speak in, um . . .

GILES: England?

BUFFY: Yeah. You just say, 'Hey, I got a thing, you maybe have a thing, maybe we could have a thing.'

GILES: Oh, thank you, Cyrano.

Giles alludes to the famous 1897 play by Edmond Rostand about an eloquent but unattractive long-nosed courtier who provides the language by which his friend Christian de Neuvillette professes his love for Roxanne, a woman whom Cyrano himself loves as well.

--David Lavery