‘Seinfeld’: This Is the Only Line Jerry Seinfeld Uses From the Show in Real Life
From “No soup for you!” to “Festivus for the rest-of-us,” Seinfeld introduced the general public to some iconic phrases that have far outlasted the show itself. Some of the best Seinfeld quotes have become part of the common vernacular.
People use them in everyday conversation, sometimes without even knowing the origin of these Seinfeld- inspired phrases. So when Jerry Seinfeld, creator and star of the show, hosted an AMA on Reddit 6 years ago, naturally fans wanted to know which classic Seinfeld quotes he is most likely to drop in real life. Seinfeld’s answer is kind of surprising.
Jerry Seinfeld only quotes one of the show’s lines in real life
Despite how popular so many of the show’s lines have become, Seinfeld himself only uses one of them in real life. And it’s one of the more obscure quotes from the show. Even diehard fans may have trouble placing Seinfeld’s favorite line, which wasn’t said by any of the show’s main characters.
According to Seinfeld, he’ll say “If you’re one of us, you’ll take a bite.” He uses this line specifically with his kids, when they don’t want to eat their food. “I find myself saying that to my kids a lot. It’s a very obscure line, but George was working at some company where they all had lunch together, and he wasn’t trying the apple pie, and the boss finally says ‘If you’re one of us, you’ll take a bite.’ A lot of times kids won’t want to try certain foods, and so I’ll use that line. Sometimes I’ll quote Newman in flames screaming ‘Oh the humanity.'”
The episode Jerry Seinfeld quotes is the “Unadvertised Sale” episode
Like all of Seinfeld, this episode has a few good quotes that fans still remember. In it, George starts a new job. When he hears the last guy was fired for his “nose whistling,” George becomes paranoid about his pants, which make a loud swoosh noise every time he takes a step. He sits down to eat with the boss, and confesses his fear.
Luckily, his new team doesn’t care about his noisy pants. In fact, his boss reveals, he didn’t fire the nose whistler for being too loud. He fired him for not being “a team player.” The boss makes it crystal clear that being part of the team is integral to success at this new company.
When the chef brings out a special pie, George is suspicious. Although Seinfeld calls it an apple pie in his AMA answer, it’s actually a chocolate cream. George, who was familiar with the chef, was worried the pie was actually poisoned when he saw the cook peeking out from the kitchen to watch them eat it.
His boss insists that he take a bite, however, to prove he’s part of the team. His coworker leans over and says, “If you’re one of us, you’ll take a bite.” George doesn’t eat the pie, and doesn’t land the job. But, as he later tells Jerry and Elaine, he was the “only one at the table who didn’t get violently ill.”
Fans still remember this obscure ‘Seinfeld’ quote
Seinfeld didn’t think anyone was going to remember where he got the one quote he uses in real life. He posted: “The only line I quote from the show (and I’ll be very impressed if anybody out there remembers this line) is ‘If you’re one of us, you’ll take a bite.'”
Well, Seinfeld has reason to be impressed. A lot of fans remembered the quote immediately, and even other lines from that episode. One fan replied: “That’s from the unadvertised sale episode. ‘You know for an unadvertised sale, you’re doing a lot of yapping about it!'”
Another fan remembered the episode even better than Seinfeld himself, correctly recalling the type of pie that George didn’t want to eat. “wasn’t it Boston Creme Pie, not apple pie? IIRC”
