These Celebrities Revealed How They Feel About Their Famous Catchphrases

Read on to find out what these stars think of their catchphrases…

1. Steve Carell

Catchphrase: “That’s what she said”

Steve Carell has a lot of memorable lines from his time on The Office but one of the most famous may be “That’s what she said.” It turns out that Steve is actually not a big fan of the joke. He explained that even now, years after the show has wrapped, people still yell the line at him and ask him to include the catchphrase in autographs — which he often turns down.

“I’d be walking around with my kids…and someone would roll down the window of their car and scream ‘That’s what she said.’ With no context!” Steve recalled during a BBC Radio 1 interview. “And not even in response to some, you know, it wasn’t even a joke one. No setup at all.”

He added, “It was fun in the moment and certainly that character thought it was funny, which was the joke because it was even a bad joke back then. The character did not have a good sense of humor. So I think people forget that it was coming from a place of mockery for starters.”

2. Jaleel White

Catchphrase: “Did I do that?”

Jaleel White’s Family Matters character Steve Urkle became synonymous with the catchphrase “Did I do that?” During a cast reunion, Jaleel looked back on the one-liner fondly, explaining that he had no idea at the time that it was going to become a part of pop culture history.

“Listen, back then you didn’t really know what was going to be a catchphrase, that was gonna stick. Nowadays, things are so contrived, it’s like, ‘Oh we’ve got our catchphrase!’ and they’ll just drill it in your head, whether audiences like it or not,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “Sometimes a delivery can mean more than what was actually said. So for a lot of things, like ‘Did I do that?’ it was just the delivery.”

3. Paris Hilton

Catchphrase: “That’s hot”

Paris Hilton has been using the phrase “That’s hot” since middle school! While she’s recently swapped it out for her new catchphrase “sliving,” she still loves her original one-liner. Paris explained in her memoir that it was actually her sister Nicky Hilton who came up with the phrase but she quickly picked it up herself as “a little positive affirmation.” After the second season of The Simple Life, she trademarked it.

“At some point, I heard Nicky say ‘That’s hot,’ and it resonated with me. I wrote it in my diary and doodled flowers and fireworks around it. It’s such a great statement, isn’t it? Positive. Unpretentious. The word hot is evocative; there’s energy in it,” Paris wrote.

She continued, “Suddenly there seemed to be a lot of things in my world that deserved this little accolade, and I recorded them faithfully in my diary. Mom got me markers with glitter in them. That’s hot. We learned how to diagram sentences. That’s hot. Nicole [Richie] is sleeping over the whole weekend. That’s hot.”

4. Christopher Walken

Catchphrase: “I got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell!”

People may love Christopher Walken’s iconic Saturday Night Live cowbell skit with Will Ferrell — but it turns out that the actor is not a huge fan of the whole thing. After it aired in 2000, viewers picked up on Christopher’s line, “I got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell!” Over the course of the past two decades, Christopher says he’s heard the line nonstop and even once told Will that it “ruined” his life.

“I go to see Christopher Walken in a play, I say hello to him backstage and he’s like, ‘You know, you’ve ruined my life. People during the curtain call bring cowbells and ring them. The other day I went for an Italian food lunch and the waiter asked if I wanted more cowbell with my pasta bolognese,’” Will said on The Tonight Show.  “And I think he was really mad at me [but] he had a little smile.”

5. Alyson Hannigan

Catchphrase: “One time at band camp…”

It’s been over 20 years since American Pie premiered and fans still remember Alyson Hannigan’s iconic line, “This one time at band camp…” While Alyson says it’s “lovely to be associated with a movie people still know,” she’s not a huge fan of when people recite the sexually-explicit line in front of her — especially when she’s with her young daughters.

“I have two daughters now and when they’re with me and somebody starts saying the line I’m like, ‘Can we just stop there?’ I get really panicked,” Alyson said on The Kelly Clarkson Show. “I’m like ‘Yeah, yeah I know what you’re talking about.’ I don’t want to have that conversation with them yet!”

6. Wayne Knight

Catchphrase: “Hello Newman”

Wayne Knight played the iconic role of Newman on Seinfeld and throughout the series, he was often greeted with the phrase, “Hello Newman.” Through the years, fans picked up on the phrase, also saying it whenever they saw Wayne in real life. In fact, Wayne says he hears it now more than ever and really doesn’t seem to mind.

“I honestly think that it’s more prevalent now than it was when the show was on the air originally,” Wayne told Vice. “Because now you’ve got grandparents, parents, and kids, all of whom have discovered the show on their own time. I got fan mail from Yemen. You know? Like…Yemen. What the f–k are you doing watching the show in Yemen? And everybody who comes up to me with the ‘Hello Newman’ or whatever, still believes that no one else has ever said it. Or they’ll say, ‘You must hate this, but…’”

7. Gary Coleman

Catchphrase: “Whatchoo talkin’ ’bout, Willis?”

Gary Coleman grew up on the show Diff’rent Strokes, where he became known for his catchphrase “Whatchoo talkin’ ’bout, Willis?” Up until his passing in 2010 at age 42, fans would shout the phrase at him or ask him to say it. Gary’s friend Ron Jeremy says the actor completely hated it and even once stormed off of a set when he was asked to repeat it.

“He was a sweet guy, but he hated being asked to repeat [it],” Ron told Us Weekly. “He didn’t want to live in the past.”

8. Arnold Schwarzenegger

Catchphrase: “I’ll be back,” “Hasta la vista, baby”

Throughout his film career, Arnold Schwarzenegger developed a repertoire of catchphrases including “I’ll be back” and “Hasta la vista, baby” from the Terminator movies. Looking back, Arnold says he had no idea those particular lines would be so popular — and he’s happy to repeat them for fans.

“You know, the funny thing about it is that none of those lines we knew are going to be big hits. You say those things but then the movie comes and people come up to you,” Arnold said on Live With Kelly and Mark. “I had not the foggiest idea that this would be the most quoted line in movie history. It’s wild.”

9. Matthew McConaughey

Catchphrase: “Alright, alright, alright!”

Matthew McConaughey has become known for his iconic “Alright, alright, alright!” line in Dazed and Confused. The actor explained that it was inspired by Jim Morrison of The Doors, who said the phrase between songs during a concert. While some people assume he’d be tired of hearing the phrase, he says he loves it.

“People ask me all the time, ‘Do you get tired of that?’ I said, ‘No. It’s the first three words I ever said on film 32 years ago. It precedes me.’ I thought I might just have a one-night hobby. It turned into a career. Please say it,” Matthew said on The Tonight Show.

10. Mr. T

Catchphrase: “I pity the fool!”

Mr. T has been pitying fools for almost his entire career — and he’s happy to do that for the decades to come. To this day, he has the phrase trademarked and he uses it on TV and in advertisements. He once explained that he actually came up with the phrase himself, noting that it has a religious connotation.

“When you pity somebody, you’re showing them mercy, ’cause I didn’t start this pity stuff. It was in the Bible. You know, you find pity so many times in the Bible and fool so many times so I put them together. Pity the fool because a lot of a lot of guys in the Bible was asking for pity, a lot of them were saying, ‘I did a foolish act.’ So I put it together,” he said on Conan.

11. Jim Parsons

Catchphrase: “Bazinga!”

When Big Bang Theory first aired, Jim Parsons’ character Sheldon Cooper often used the phrase “Bazinga.” But by the time season four rolled around, fans noticed that it had been phased out. Co-producer Steve Holland explained that the phrase began to have a negative connotation, so they opted to no longer use it.

“We had a complicated relationship with bazinga because it felt like it was becoming a catchphrase in a sort of not-great way, so we retired it almost entirely. After season four or five, we almost never said it, but it was always the thing that was associated with Big Bang. And sometimes in a detrimental way, because people would use it to mock the show sometimes,” he said in The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series.

He continued, “We maybe said it thirty times — if that — over the course of 279 episodes. But we couldn’t escape it. And yet, people loved it and latched on to it and it was part of the show’s identifying features.”

12. Jennifer Coolidge

Catchphrase: “You look like the Fourth of July.”

Legally Blonde 2 may have been released in 2003, but in the past few years, fans have really latched onto one of Jennifer Coolidge’s lines in the film. In one scene, she tells Elle, “You look like the Fourth of July! Makes me want a hot dog real bad.” Jennifer says she thinks the whole thing is pretty funny, especially when July 4th rolls around.

“You know, it’s so weird because there’s something about the Fourth of July line from Legally Blonde 2. I get so many DMs and texts and people leaving things in my mailbox. And if I’m out on that day, people just go nuts. I don’t know, it’s probably that line Paulette said, where she goes, ‘You look like the Fourth of July. That makes me want a hot dog real bad.’ I hear that the most,” Jennifer told Deadline.

13. Owen Wilson

Catchphrase: “Wow!”

Over the course of Owen Wilson’s film career, he has said the phrase “wow” in 27 different movies. When fans began noticing that Owen was using the phrase repeatedly, he made it a point to keep including it in his flicks as a nod to viewers.

“Yes, but they’re for my really committed fans,” he joked. “I throw out a little word, just sort of like a little wink and a nod to them. It’s like those New Yorker [magazine] covers, that the guy would write his wife’s name into the illustration. If you’re lucky enough to be one of those really committed fans, then I give you these little clues that are out there.”