“Can you give me an explanation as to why the pharmacist has to be two-and-a-half feet up above everybody else? What the hell is he doing, he can't be down there on the floor with you and me?”

-Jerry Seinfeld, American comedian & actor, born 1976

This quote is from one of Jerry Seinfeld’s standup routines from his show Seinfeld. It’s part of a larger bit where he questions why a pharmacist needs to be higher up than a customer. Typically, the area behind a pharmacist’s counter is a step or two above the rest of the space, and Seinfeld is using verticality to assume this means he or she must be better than the rest of us because they’re up higher than us. The entire bit follows:

Can you give me an explanation as to why the pharmacist has to be two-and-a-half feet up above everybody else? What the hell is he doing, he can't be down there on the floor with you and me? Brain surgeons, airline pilots, nuclear physicists, we're all on the same level. Oh no, he's gotta be two-and-a-half feet up. "Look out, everybody, I'm working with pills! Spread out, give me some room!” The only hard part of his whole job that I could see is typing everything onto that little tiny label. He has to try and get all the words on there, keep the paper in the roller of the typewriter. Oh no, he's gotta be two-and-a-half feet up. "Yeah, I'd like to get this prescription filled." "Alright, you wait DOWN THERE, only I'm allowed up here."[1]


[1]: Seinfeld, Jerry, writer. "The Nose Job." In Seinfeld. November 21, 1991.