Some Like It Hot Quotes

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Source: Some Like It Hot

Speaker: Osgood Fielding III

Well, nobody's perfect.

Context

This famous line is spoken by Osgood Fielding III, played by Joe E. Brown in Some Like It Hot (directed by Billy Wilder, 1959).

Every writer dreams of crafting the perfect last line. One final, slam dunk quote that brings it all home and leaves the audience thinking (or, in this case, laughing) long after they've left the theater.

Well, when Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond (we called his office but he's refusing to tell us what all those initials stand for) penned the last line of Some Like It Hot, they must have popped the champagne right away, already knowing that it would go down in Hollywood history as one of the greatest comic lines of all time.

Here's the premise: Osgood Fielding, an elderly millionaire, has set his romantic sights on a young woman. Well… at least he thinks she's a woman. Turns out she's really Jack Lemmon in woman's clothing. But when "Daphne" finally reveals the truth, Osgood isn't fazed for even a moment. "I'm a man!" 

"Well, nobody's perfect."

Where you've heard it

One of the most famous quotes from one of the most enduring comedies of all time, the "nobody's perfect" line has seeped into our common vocabulary so much that some people and artists may not even realize they're referencing the black and white classic.

Was Hannah Montana, for example, aware she was borrowing when she sang this gem? Did this short-lived television series recognize where it was drawing its inspiration from?

Yeah, the saying itself was probably around before Some Like it Hot came out, but a line like that has the tendency to cement it in our consciousness.

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

The line isn't pretentious in the slightest. It's just true.