Brooklyn Nine-Nine is filled with hilarious quotes, and the show’s funniest actually happened to be improvised. Brooklyn Nine-Nine is part of a legacy of workplace-based network comedy TV shows that are filled with jokes and funny moments, always choosing a laugh over drama wherever they can.
There is plenty to make you chuckle in the 153 episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and there are plenty of great moments to parse through in the series. The Santiago Drunkenness Scale, the Halloween Heist episodes, and Caleb the Cannibal are all funny, but not quite as funny as this improvised moment.
Andre Braugher Improvised Captain Holt’s “Hot Damn!”
One of the funniest moments in the show comes in season 2, episode 6, “Jake and Sophia”. When Amy Santiago (Melissa Fumero) is late for work for the first time ever, the other police officers take bets on what the reason could be. When Captain Holt (Andre Braugher) gets it right, he claps his hands and shouts, “Hot damn!“
This line was actually improvised by Andre Braugher, according to a SAG-AFTRA Foundation interview with the cast of Brooklyn Nine-Nine from January 2015. In the interview, the cast is asked if they stick close to the script. Braugher says, “I stick to the script.” Andy Samberg is quick to playfully admonish him, “Not always. Not always.”
Samberg goes on to say, “Andre will throw a crazy, out of left-field improv at you at the end of a scene and just destroy the crew.” As Braugher laughs, Terry Crews and Joe Lo Truglio simultaneously shout, “Hot damn! Hot damn was an improv.” Braugher then says there’s no point in improvising much with a script like Brooklyn Nine-Nine‘s.
Why “Hot Damn!” Is The Funniest Quote In Brooklyn Nine-Nine
“Hot damn!” is such a funny quote in Brooklyn Nine-Nine for a lot of reasons. For one, the cold open is already rolling along, with Jake (Andy Samberg) jumping from coworker to coworker, asking everyone’s guess as to why Amy is a few seconds late. Then Holt rolls up and asks why everyone is standing around.
Instead of being annoyed with Jake’s silly game, he’s immediately down to play and offers a suitably mundane reason for being late, “I’d say she’s in line at the bank.” His disaffected, “This is fun“, just adds to the humor. When Amy finally arrives, Holt solemnly demands to know why Amy is late.
Holt’s angry, stony face suddenly falls, and he slaps his palms with a big smile on his face. “Hot damn!” he shouts, pleased with his victory. Holt’s sudden transformation from his usual stoic disposition to one of pure excitement and joy is very funny, as is Amy’s bewilderment about her normally frightening Captain’s reaction.
The Captain Holt Quote Became A Meme
“Hot damn!” is as memeable as Captain Holt. Brooklyn Nine-Nine is already a show that is very easy to meme, and Captain Holt has always been a big part of it. His deadpan reactions, sassy comebacks, odd proclivities like using the full names of celebrities (Thomas Cruise) make him a character with a scene or line for every situation.
Just look up “Brooklyn Nine-Nine memes” on Google or whatever search engine you use. You’ll find pages upon pages of memes of every character. You could probably construct a fairly accurate copy of the series if you pasted together every meme-worthy scene; there are that many of them.
Holt’s memeable quotes include everything from shouting “Vindication!” to saying “Yas queen,” to referring to himself as “Velvet Thunder“. Nearly everything that comes out of Holt’s mouth is meme-worthy. That goes for “Hot damn!“, which is best used whenever you succeed in something people didn’t even realize you cared about.
“Hot Damn!” Hit Harder After Andre Braugher’s Death
Sadly, Andre Braugher passed away on December 11, 2023, at the age of 61 after a battle with lung cancer. Braugher is survived by his wife, Ami Brabson, and his three children, Michael, Isaiah, and John Wesley. After he passed, Braugher began trending on X, with people sharing tributes and condolences.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine hits a little differently on rewatch now. The series wrapped in 2021, so it was only two years later that Braugher passed away, meaning that the Andre Braugher that most people came to know so well with Brooklyn Nine-Nine likely didn’t change very much between the end of the show and his death.
Holt is a character filled with vibrance and excitement, hidden underneath a steady personality. From interviews, it’s clear that Braugher identified more with that excitable side of Holt than he did with the tight-lipped version. It makes quotes like “Hot damn!” in Brooklyn Nine-Nine feel like a peek into the real, talented Andre Braugher.
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