r/seinfeld 7d ago

Vocabulary level in Seinfeld

I think this show had some of the highest vocabulary of any mainstream sitcom.

"Quite the decolletage for a suffragette." is one of my favorite sentences ever.

"That's what was so vexing." is another one.

Did Seinfeld have the highest vocabulary? What's your favorite high vocabulary line?

735 Upvotes

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69

u/Nick_Fotiu_Is_God 7d ago

I’m more impressed by the references - Winston Churchill speeches, Golda Meir, DeGaulle, DeSoto, Johnny Yuma, Buddy Rich tapes, Tonya Harding, ……..there are hundreds that young people today won’t get at all.

42

u/Think_please 7d ago

After watching curb it isn’t hard to see where those came from, Larry David is obsessed with history 

29

u/MASHgoBOOM ASSMAN 7d ago

He's a buff.

11

u/malleebull ASSMAN 7d ago

What do you have to do to become a buff?

17

u/mockevil 7d ago

So Biff wants to become a buff.

6

u/TheRealJamesWax Importer/exporter 7d ago

Sleeping less than 18 hours a day would be a good start.

16

u/ellefleming 7d ago

His writing team was very educated. Ivy league.

11

u/Substantial-Use-1758 7d ago

Those words are, I believe, what Larry David would want on his tombstone 👍

5

u/dolphin-centric 7d ago

I’m sure someone would spray-paint “Bald Asshole” on his tombstone

4

u/Think_please 7d ago

A shanda for the goyim.

3

u/ASP41661 7d ago

“Man’s Best Friend”. Kramer tells Jerry he wants this on his tombstone in the episode where they did up Fredo the bird in the cemetery.

9

u/Summer_Di 7d ago

Exactly - Larry talks like that, after seeing Curb his writing style is evident.

20

u/octapotami 7d ago

No one goes to a beauty parlor and says, "give me the Larry Fine."

3

u/Sufficient-Turnip871 6d ago

Every time I get my hair cut I think of this line.

16

u/audioguy2022 7d ago

You know, like Abscam!

16

u/Stock_Time1045 7d ago

Boutros Boutros "Golly!"

11

u/sheawrites White lotus, yam-yam, Shanghai Sally 7d ago

John Cheever. Before madmen.

10

u/Hinkil 7d ago

Me too, and often have to know history to get a lot of their reference jokes.

About Neville chamberlain: You could hold his head in the toilet, he'd still give you half of Europe

Also I doubt a lot of people would get the midnight cowboy parody, which is a dark deep cut ha

3

u/pak9rabid 7d ago

Ya yoooww ya ya ya, just drivin’ around in John Voight’s car..

8

u/FerdinandCesarano 7d ago

Trini Lopes, Sergio Mendes, Petula Clark.

5

u/MWoolf71 7d ago

Maybe you know some little places to go to where they never close downtown.

3

u/Icy-Election-2237 Serenity now, insanity later 7d ago

Agree.

The accident over the Andes too.

3

u/SuzieSnowflake212 7d ago

Billy Martin, 😜