22 years after the episode containing this quote initially aired, the best line in the history of Gilmore Girls is more ironic than ever. The best line in Roseanne contrasts an uplifting depiction of suburban family life with a grim, blackly comedic punchline, highlighting the show’s balance of sweetness and a surprisingly unvarnished commentary on the realities of surviving as a struggling working-class family in middle America.

Similarly, the best line in the history of The Simpsons is subject to plenty of heated debate, but one that is often singled out is an ironic comment from Homer that mocks the saccharine “Golden moments” of ’80s family sitcoms. Like Seinfeld and Married… With Children, The Simpsons was a brazen riposte to the cloying sentimentality of ’80s sitcoms, so it is fitting that the show’s most iconic quote is one that deconstructs sappy, facile life lessons.

This makes it tough to pinpoint the best quote in Gilmore Girls, since the WB’s cult seven-season dramedy didn’t have such a clear or discernible mission statement. For the most part, Gilmore Girls was a chronicle of the unconventional mother/daughter relationship between the motor-mouthed inn operator Lorelai and her precocious daughter Rory. Lorelai’s romance with the gruff diner owner Luke and Rory’s academic life were the main focus of the show’s story, along with both women’s relationships with Lorelai’s parents.

The Best Gilmore Girls Quote Doesn’t Come From Lorelai Or Rory

From this rundown, it might sound like Gilmore Girls primarily functioned as a generational family soap in the vein of Parenthood, This Is Us, or Brothers and Sisters, and indeed, much of the show’s central conflict came from misunderstandings between various generations of the Gilmore family. However, what the show is most fondly remembered for is its rat-a-tat fast-paced dialogue style, which blended constant pop culture references with verbal volleys inspired by classic screwball comedies.

The Best Gilmore Girls Line Highlights The Show’s Weirdest Reality

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Thus, when choosing the show’s single best line, the natural inclination is to pick one of Lorelai’s many wordy streams of consciousness or Rory’s pithy, quirky replies. However, both the worst storylines in Gilmore Girls‘ history and the show’s best moments prove that its real heart lay elsewhere. In season 4’s finale, “Raincoats and Recipes,” Luke finally asks Lorelai out, uttering the iconic line “This thing we’re doing here, me, you? I just wanted you to know I’m in.”

The simplicity of this quote proves a strange paradox of the series. Namely, despite all the motor-mouthed monologues from Lorelai and Rory, Gilmore Girls was always at its best when it was a plainspoken character drama. The quirky locals of Stars Hollow and Rory’s love interests might have been just as eloquent and prone to obscure references as the titular Gilmore girls themselves, but the show didn’t need these flashy instances of verbal dexterity to succeed.

Luke’s Iconic Gilmore Girls Line Has Only Grown More Ironic Since 2004

Luke’s straightforward admission of his love remains an all-time great moment, like the funniest scenes in Gilmore Girls, precisely because it breaks with the usual artifice of the show’s highly stylized dialogue. It is something of a shame, then, that the line is also iconic because of how misleading the image it paints of Luke and Lorelai is. Since the show’s original ending infamously broke up Lorelai and Luke (more than once!), the pair didn’t even end up together in earnest until the 2016 revival.

Despite this sweet quote, both Luke and Lorelai would repeatedly fail to show up for each other in the seasons that followed, resulting in arguably the messiest romantic relationship in the show’s history. Although the duo did eventually get their happy-ever-after ending, it is still strange and striking to realize that the best line in Gilmore Girls promised a clean commitment that neither of its main romantic leads could ever follow through on.

Release Date

2000 – 2007-00-00

Directors

Jamie Babbit, Amy Sherman-Palladino, Lee Shallat Chemel, Kenny Ortega, Michael Katleman, Matthew Diamond, Michael Zinberg, Gail Mancuso, Lesli Linka Glatter, Steve Clancy, Bethany Rooney, Jackson Douglas, Robert Berlinger, Steven Robman, Alan Myerson, Lev L. Spiro, Rodman Flender, Adam Nimoy, Arlene Sanford, Bruce Seth Green, Danny Leiner, David Paymer, David Petrarca, Eric Laneuville

Writers

Rebecca Rand Kirshner, David S. Rosenthal, Sheila R. Lawrence, Jennie Snyder Urman, Joan Binder Weiss, David Babcock, Bill Prady, Gayle Abrams, Gina Fattore, Jane Espenson, Jenji Kohan, Keith Eisner, James Berg, Stan Zimmerman, Allan Heinberg, Jed Seidel, Jessica Queller, Lisa Randolph, David Grae, Rina Mimoun, Jordon Nardino, Scott Kaufer, Joanne Waters