What is the single greatest line in television history? {Please include context & Episode of the Series}

“Shut-up-yoose” - Archie Bunker from all in the family

“no soup for you” (soup Nazi), “yadda, yadda, yadda”. and “not that there’s anything wrong with that” (when referring to gays) all from Seinfeld.

Doctor Who: “Face of Evil” from the classic series.

The Doctor remarks off-handedly to Leela as they are dealing with Xoanon, a super computer that is screwing up Leela’s world, “You know, the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They don’t change the views to fit the facts. They change the facts to fit the views.”

Words to live by, especially today.

The full quote is even better (and more relevant to the present), I think:

You know, the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They don’t alter their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit the views, which can be uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that needs altering.

Lots of great lines from Justified but my favorite is:

“You run into an asshole in the morning, you ran into an asshole. You run into assholes all day, you’re the asshole.” --Raylan Givens - S4E1

Perfect distillation of the character and life in general.

Justified has the best dialogue of any show I’ve ever seen.

I’m not saying it’s the best show (although it’s one of my favorites), or that it has the best writing and characterization (although they are excellent) - I’m saying that word for word, its dialogue is simply unparalleled.

Her?
Often-repeated line in “Arrested Development”.

From “The Dirty Vicar Sketch”:

“Cooor, wot a luvley bit o’stuff!”

and

“I like tits!”

“I’ve got a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel.” — Blackadder

Or Blackadder: Baldrick, I have a very, very, very cunning plan.Baldrick: Is it as cunning as a fox what used to be Professor of Cunning at Oxford University but has moved on and is now working for the U.N. at the High Commission of International Cunning Planning?

My wife and I occasionally quote these lines - she doing a perfect Comic Book Guy in a Korean accent.
Skinner’s mother: Sunsets. Thank god there is only one of these a day.
Comic Book Guy: Could it be any more orange.

From Friends in the episode where the guys and girls have a bet to switch apartments:
Ross: What is Chandler Bing’s Job?
Rachel: Oooh. Oh gosh. It has something to do with numbers…
Monica: It has something to do with transponding…
Rachel: Oh! Oh! He’s a transponster!
Monica: That’s not even a word!

My wife and I use Monica’s last line a LOT.

if life were fair, there wouldn’t be rich people.

Jimmy James to Beth in season 3, episode 9 of “News Radio”.

Kenny from Frasier :-
“I don’t want to get involved in some get-rich-quick scheme, but I do need to make a lot of money really fast”

I haven’t read all of these so not sure if it has already been mentioned.

The episode of Seinfeld where they’re staying at a friend’s home on the coast. George goes swimming in the cold water and is concerned that his new girlfriend saw him naked after the cold water caused shrinkage. The guys ask Elaine if women know about shrinkage, and she says, - “It shrinks?! Why does it shrink? I don’t know how you guys walk around with those things.”

Another from the oft-maligned Friends.

Monica is fed up with the gang’s comments about her choice of romantic partners and calls them out, one by one.

“Fine but. . .married a lesbian…left a guy standing at the altar.. fell in love with a gay ice dancer… threw a girl’s wooden leg in a fire…lives in a box!”

Two that I often think of from The Good Place. One just because it applies in so many situations:

And one just because it goes somewhere unexpected:

Speaking of Nina Van Horn, there was an episode of JSM that was like an “A&E Biography” episode. Somewhere near the end they ask all the interviewees to describe Nina in one word. Don Henley (of The Eagles) says “[Something]… no, [something else]. Is there a word that means both? I’ll bet the Germans have one.”

My problem is that I can never remember what the two words were, which is part of what makes it such a great quote. Somebody help me out here?

Yeah I’d say for recent shows it’s between this and something from Bojack Horseman . Though of course “recent” is a relative term, I was going to say “in the last five years” but it turns out somehow neither of these shows are from the last five years :frowning: :old_man:

The internet is truly a repository of trivia…

I’m watching the Columbo episode “Identity Crisis.”

A roving photographer at an amusement park has just snapped a shot of CIA operative Patrick McGoohan and told him he can pick it up whenever he wants.

McGoohan: I can stop by any time?

Photographer: Any time.

McGoohan: Well. In that case, I’ll be seeing you.

(Do I really need to explain why this one is funny? :face_with_raised_eyebrow: )

Probably. I get it, but I’ll bet a lot don’t. Certainly anyone much younger than I am won’t.

I’ve used the phrase at times as a “goodby”.