“Did I ever tell you about my Uncle Louis?” – Gabe Kotter (Gabe Kaplan), “Welcome Back Kotter”, 1975-79

RIP to Robert Hegyes, the actor who played Juan Epstein, the Puerto Rican Jew Sweathog, on “Welcome Back Kotter” in the late 1970s. With Words Matter, I try to analyze the meaningful and memorable quotations from American history and culture. However, there are cases in which a post might only reflect on the memorable. This is one such time:

The Top Five “Welcome Back Kotter” Quotations

5. “Hi there.“ – Freddy “Boom Boom” Washington (Lawrence Hilton Jacobs)
The funnier forerunner to Joey Tribiani’s “How you doin’?” on “Friends” two decades later. Of course, anything is funnier when placed in comparison to the abomination that was “Friends.”

4. “I got a note.” – Juan Epstein (Robert Hegyes)
A running joke on the show was Epstein’s transparently phony attempts to evade assignments by turning in notes from his mom excusing him from the work. It was obvious that these notes were frauds because Juan would lip-sync the contents of the note as Mr. Kotter would read it and because they were always signed, “Epstein’s Mother.”

3. “Up your nose with a rubber hose.” – Vinny Barbarino (John Travolta)
Travolta’s portrayal of not-so-bad-boy/hearthrob Barbarino is still, by far, the best thing John Travolta has ever done. That or “Boy in the Plastic Bubble.” (click to see a few minutes from this 1976 Movie of the Week, featuring Robert “Mike Brady” Reed and Diana Hyland, who became Travolta’s much-older girlfriend until she died of breast cancer a year later at age 41.)

2. “Ooooh, ooooohhh, ooohhh! Pick me Mr. Kotter!” – Arnold Horshack (Ron Palillo)
Anyone who is now between the ages of 40 and 60 likely imitated this frequent joke by the dweeby Sweathog at least once when raising his had in class.

1. “Did I ever tell you about my Uncle Louis?” – Gabe Kotter (Gabe Kaplan)
Episodes of “Welcome Back Kotter” often began with Gabe Kotter in his very 70s small New York City apartment in conversation with his very 70’s wife Juile. Conversation turned or was steered by Kotter to a subject that allowed him to deliver, in classic Borscht Belt style, a joke about one of his relatives. It was usually an uncle who typically had a name that has become extremely popular in recent years, though back then was pretty much the domain of old Jews (ex. Max, Sam, Ben, Jake.)

Hegyes is the first from the cast of that popular show to die. Only Travolta has enjoyed wide popular success since the show ended its five year run in 1979.