Friday, April 15, 2016

Yada-yada

In a famous Seinfeld episode, George complained that his girlfriend often filled in her stories with the expression "yada-yada" leaving out much of the detail. This left him in the dark and drove him crazy, especially since the stuff she glossed over with yada yadas was what he most wanted to hear. It was like a writer telling a long and complicated joke and then, upon finally reaching the punch line, inserting ...

Needless to say, the expression quickly made its way into popular American discourse, along with such other Seinfeld contributions as "Not that there's anything wrong with that" and "Serenity now!"

This morning as I re-read what I already wrote for Wacky in WhoVille, I discovered how insidious the yada-yada can be. 

In a crucial section following the crisis/climax of the book, I find that I had merely written yada, yada, yada. 

Fortunately this was not a large lacuna and it did not take a lot of time to fill.  On the other hand, I wonder how many yada-yada gaps lie ahead ...
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Obsessive-compulsive research librarian note: This particular episode, I have since learned, will be re-broadcast tomorrow evening on TBS. A fine example of coincidence, synchronicity, yada, yada, yada. 

3 comments:

Bob said...

"No, I mentioned the bisque."
My favorite line from that episode.

Moving with Mitchell said...

"Seinfeld" was brilliant for pointing out words, phrases, situations that were already very common and then making them entirely "Seinfeld." I had so many friends before I left New York who told stories that ended with "yada yada yada." And marble rye? Don't get me started!

Moving with Mitchell said...

Hilariously, Jerry is on the phone right now talking with his sister about a high-drama family situation that shouldn't even be a blip on the radar. I just heard him say, "yada yada yada."