Like Cheers before it, Frasier is an instant classic that many viewers go back to watch time and time again. It’s not only pure nostalgia fuel, but it also holds up in many ways during rewatches, even in the age of binge-watching.
Watching every episode of Frasier again can be a daunting task, especially when there are so many episodes to watch (264 episodes, to be precise), but it’s a show more than worthy of rewatching. These jokes that everyone completely missed the first time they watched Frasier are just as funny now as the day they were written. It’s time for a Frasier rewatch if you don’t remember any of these!
“My brother is too kind. He was already eminent when my eminence was merely imminent.”
The first entry on the list comes just two seasons into Frasier’s eleven-season run, from season 2, episode 18, “The Club.” Upon hearing from a colleague that his older brother, Frasier, has referred to him as an “eminent psychiatrist,” Niles Crane replies, “My brother is too kind. He was already eminent when my eminence was merely imminent.” Of course, he has some masterful blink-and-you-miss-it wordplay with “eminent” and “imminent,” since they’re words that rhyme so closely it’s easy to mistake one word for the other. That’s especially true if you’re paying enough attention to Niles, and you miss the joke the first time around!
“I've always liked the notion of meeting the great figures of history. But then I think, what if it's like high school and all the really cool dead people don't want to hang out with me.”
Niles has a bad habit of catastrophizing everything that happens to him, which is probably familiar to readers who also have anxiety. Niles, Frasier, Martin, Roz, and Daphne are all discussing what comes after death in season 4, episode 12, “Death and the Dog” — Is there an afterlife? A heaven? A hell? Nothingness? Niles’ contribution quickly spins into hysteria: “I've always liked the notion of meeting the great figures of history. But then I think, what if it's like high school and all the really cool dead people don't want to hang out with me. Mozart'll tell me he's busy but then later I'll see him out with Shakespeare and Lincoln!”
“We were having espresso, and, perhaps to counteract the stimulative effect, Frasier was telling us about his day.”
There’s not much better than a classic Niles Crane burn, especially when the one he’s laying out is his older brother, Frasier. In this scenario, Niles is actually reflecting on a past experience and narrating his flashback, in season 3, episode 2, “Shrink Rap.” When he begins to recall the night he’s been asked to discuss, he opens with, “We were having espresso, and, perhaps to counteract the stimulative effect, Frasier was telling us about his day.”
“Why don’t you start, Frasier? I’ll jump in when you get hoarse.”
Niles’ wife, Maris Crane, is a running gag the audience sees on Frasier, made even more hilarious for the fact that they never actually show Maris. No human woman could fit her description, after the way the characters talk about Maris, so it’s for the best she’s never shown, but that doesn’t stop Martin getting some good zingers on her in season 6, episode 6, “Secret Admirer.”
Niles gets some bad news from Maris, and he’s distraught, exclaiming how he just doesn’t believe it, that he made himself perfectly clear! “What is wrong with that woman?” he asks, which leaves Martin wide open to hilariously respond: “Why don’t you start, Frasier? I’ll jump in when you get hoarse.”
“How exciting to be present at the birth of a new phobia.”
In season 7, episode 3, “Radio Wars,” Niles is angry because Frasier ignored his shouting and didn’t hold the elevator. Frasier hadn’t even realized it was Niles, apologizing because he thought it was instead someone who was trying to get a picture of his butt. However, Niles has absolutely no context for this, and so his deadpan response is absolutely hilarious: “How exciting to be present at the birth of a new phobia.”
“This isn’t Trivial Pursuit, let me finish!”
Niles is known for being somewhat excitable and blurting out comments periodically, which just add to the humor and charm of his character, courtesy not only of the writers on Frasier, but also of the wonderful David Hyde Pierce himself. He shows that off against Kelsey Grammer in season 10, episode 18, “Roe to Perdition,” when Frasier is trying to recall the name of the boat that a minor character from earlier in the episode, Petyr, had mentioned sailing on. However, as soon as Frasier so much as says the words, “What was the name of the boat—” Niles is there, ready and excited with his answer: “HMS Bounty!” Frasier, of course, has to remind his brother: “This isn’t Trivial Pursuit, let me finish!”
“I’ve struck a blow for justice! Nobody calls me Peachfuzz!”
If you’ve seen Mark Duplass’ and Patrick Kack-Brice’s 2014 horror film Creep, the name “Peachfuzz” may strike fear into your heart. For Niles, the name “Peachfuzz” is even more personal: it’s a nickname he got in high school that he was entirely unaware of. Frasier informs him of this fact in season 1, episode 6, “The Crucible.” Coach Medwick, a coach at their high school, made that nickname up for Niles himself, and this makes Niles so angry that he takes a brick from Frasier and throws it through the front window of the gallery that Frasier himself had just been about to destroy.
When Frasier demands to know what Niles has just done, Niles answers with one of his greatest lines of all, easily lost in the rest of the chaotic scene: “I’ve struck a blow for justice! Nobody calls me Peachfuzz!”
“I saw a twinkle in her eye I have not seen since the neighbor children discovered our new electric fence.”
When Maris and Niles’ marriage starts to collapse, Niles suggests that the two of them start seeing a marriage counselor, or perhaps a couples’ therapist; in response, Maris serves him divorce papers. In season 4, episode 21, “Are You Being Served?,” Niles does have a brief moment where he says he has “every reason to believe” that he and Maris “may be on the road to reconciliation,” since he couldn’t stand to be apart from her anymore and finally expressed to her his desire to go into counseling together. Though Maris verbally tells Niles that she’ll think about this, Niles goes on to hilariously claim: “I saw a twinkle in her eye I have not seen since the neighbor children discovered our new electric fence.”
“Oh, we must be in the placebo group.”
One of Martin’s girlfriends, Sherry Dempsey, provided endless comedy fodder while she was on the show. In addition to the humor element, though, Sherry was a great match for Martin, and was an enjoyable presence on the show during her arc. When Sherry is talking to Niles and Frasier after meeting them, she makes the above comment: “I just love making people laugh! I think humor is like medicine.” In an aside to Frasier, Niles quietly comments, “Oh, we must be in the placebo group.” This sidebar snark is easily missed and also easily one of the best jokes in the entire episode.
“People are always saying in conversation, ‘It’s just like riding a bike.’ I can smile and nod. But I only understand it in theory.”
One of the funniest jokes on Frasier is also one of the most underrated, especially since it’s so easily missed. This one comes courtesy of Frasier Crane himself, with some outstanding delivery from the man of the hour, Kelsey Grammer. Every time the audience gets a glimpse of the Crane boys’ childhood, it’s guaranteed hilarity, and this joke is no exception. In season 10, episode 16, “Fraternal Schwinns,” it’s revealed to Daphne (and the audience) that neither Niles nor Frasier can ride a bike. According to Martin, it’s because he tried teaching them, but they got hurt and had to go to the hospital so many times that Social Services started to investigate the family.