Rita Cooper

Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David reveal how Seinfeld created everyday phrases like “close talker,” “double dip,” “yada, yada, yada,” and “master of my domain.” Host: “The phrase I’ve used with you, ‘close talker.’ How did you come up with that one?” Larry David: “There’s probably 200 in the audience tonight. Just people who have no sense that they’re talking like this to you, and you have to keep backing up until you fall.” Host: “A close talker.” Larry David: “Yeah. But there’s not only close talkers. There’s loud talkers.” Host: “Okay, regift. Where did that come from?” Larry David: “That was Burger, Chafer, regift.” Co-host: “How about double dip? I didn’t know this kind of happened from Seinfeld.” Larry David: “You dip once and end it.” Host: “Everybody uses the phrase ‘blank Nazi.’ Soup Nazi, this Nazi…” Jerry Seinfeld: “We were asking, ‘What’s going on in New York?’ And [Spike Feresten] said, ‘For lunch, we go to this place that the guy’s really hostile, and they call him a soup Nazi.’ And we went, ‘Let’s hear more about that.’” Larry David: “It’s amazing how often writers would be talking, and they didn’t know that they had gold.” Host: “Who came up with yada, yada, yada?” Jerry Seinfeld: “Peter Mehlman.” Host: “And one of the greats of all time, ‘master of my domain.’” Jerry Seinfeld: “That came from us playing with not using the word masturbation. We thought it would be more fun to just slalom around it.”