Buzz
When actress Suzanne Cryer starred in Neil Simon’s play Proposals in 1997 in New York, she noticed the audience murmuring. It wasn’t long before she realized what they were saying: “yada, yada, yada.”
Cryer had just appeared in a 'Seinfeld' episode titled “The Yada Yada,” where her character Marcy uses the phrase as a conversational filler—something George Costanza (Jason Alexander) starts to grow suspicious of.
It’s clear that many in the crowd at Proposals, and elsewhere, knew the expression thanks to that 'Seinfeld' episode. However, the origins of yada yada yada as American slang stretch much further back than George’s romantic entanglements.
Yada, Yatter, and Yaddega
The Oxford English Dictionary suggests that yada yada yada likely evolved from yatter, a Scottish term from 1827 meaning “idle talk” or “endless chatter.” Yatter was flexible and could have influenced similar expressions in Yiddish, such as yatata or yaddega-yaddega, in the mid-20th century, commonly used to signify a dismissive response to a conversation. It often implied, “Other things happened, but they’re irrelevant or uninteresting.”
The phrase was spotted in gossip columns and comic strips during the 1940s, and was also part of a Judy Garland and Bing Crosby duet, “Yah Ta Ta.” (“When I’ve got my arm around you and we’re walking, must you ya-ta-ta, ya-ta-ta, talk talk talk?”) A notable instance was Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s creation of a song called “Ya-ta-ta” for their 1947 musical Allegro, which mocked the shallow small talk heard at social events. Instead of dialogue, characters at a cocktail party simply repeated “yatata yatata.”
The yada yada yada version might have been introduced by the controversial comedian Lenny Bruce, who used “yaddeyahdah” in his 1967 book The Essential Lenny Bruce. Bruce was likely influenced by Jewish comedians he grew up watching in the 1940s, who may have borrowed the phrase from vaudeville acts.
It’s unclear whether Bruce or cultural traditions kept the phrase in circulation, but it wasn’t widely seen in print until the 1970s. In a 1975 profile of actress Elizabeth Ashley, her use of yada yada yada was noted, with author Sally Quinn describing it as “a meaningless phrase that signifies unnecessary explanation.”
In 1988, Miami Herald book critic Debbie Sontag kicked off her review of Jay McInerney’s Story of My Life with: “Yada, yada, yada.” That’s how the novel’s 20-year-old protagonist, Alison Poole, dismisses her friends’ repetitive chatter. Sontag, unimpressed, echoed this sentiment, calling the book a ‘yada-yada’ novel about ‘yada-yada’ people—readable, but hardly riveting.
“The Yada Yada”
The phrase yada yada yada is akin to conversational fillers like etc. or blah, blah, blah. However, it didn't reach the same level of common usage until it became part of the Seinfeld lexicon, alongside other iconic expressions like “the double dip” and “spongeworthy.”
The widespread use of yada yada in modern language is credited to Peter Mehlman, a writer for Seinfeld. In a 2023 interview with Cracked, he recalled encountering an editor who frequently used the phrase. This sparked the idea that, in his script, yada yada could serve as shorthand for details the speaker wanted to gloss over.
Mehlman co-wrote the episode with Jillian Franklyn, who had initially jotted down a note to explore the phrase blah blah blah. Ultimately, yada yada yada proved to be the winning choice.
In a 1997 episode from the show’s eighth season, George is dating Marcy (played by Suzanne Cryer), who has a habit of brushing over important details with the phrase 'yada yada yada.'
Jerry comments, ‘I notice she’s big on the phrase ‘yada yada.’ That’s good. She’s very succinct.’ (Meanwhile, Jerry’s real concern is that his dentist, Tim Whatley, has suddenly converted to Judaism and now makes overly familiar Jewish jokes.)
At first, George is impressed by Marcy’s succinctness. (‘So, I’m on 3rd Avenue, minding my own business, when yada yada yada, I get a free massage and a facial.’) He begins using it himself to skip over the uncomfortable topics of his strained relationship with his parents and deceased fiancée. However, Marcy soon starts using 'yada yada yada' to avoid discussing more troubling matters. (‘My old boyfriend came over late last night, and yada yada yada … anyway, I’m really tired today.’) Eventually, George realizes that her use of yada yada yada hides a major flaw: she’s a shoplifter.
Interestingly, Mehlman believed that the line anti-dentite, which Kramer uses to describe Jerry’s attitude towards his Jewish dentist, would be the episode’s most memorable quote, rather than ‘yada yada yada.’
When considering whether to use yada yada yada or yada, yada, yada with commas, it likely doesn’t make much of a difference. The former may have a choppier feel, better suited to emphasize whatever details you wish to hide. Ultimately, though, yada yada yada is one of those expressions that seems more at home in speech than writing—its meaning often better conveyed through tone and gestures.
Yada yada yada, or something along those lines.
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