“Well, nobody's perfect.”

Surface meaning

Osgood Fielding III says the line after learning that Daphne is actually Jerry, a man in disguise. He understands that the person he wants to marry does not fit his expectations, but he decides that imperfection is not a reason to end the relationship.

Cinematic context

The line comes at the end of Some Like It Hot, when Jerry, played in disguise by Jack Lemmon, tries to stop Osgood from pursuing a marriage that cannot work in the ordinary sense. Jerry removes the wig and explains the truth as plainly as possible. Osgood listens, absorbs the revelation, and answers without anger or visible shock.

The moment follows a film built around mistaken identity, sexual performance, and people falling for someone they believe belongs to another category. Osgood has been courting Daphne, while Jerry has been trying to escape a dangerous situation and maintain the disguise. His response closes that chain of complications with one short acceptance.

Deeper meaning

The humor comes from the distance between Jerry’s panic and Osgood’s calm. Jerry treats his identity as a problem that must finally be confessed, while Osgood treats it as one more inconvenient detail. The line does not explain away the revelation or pretend that nothing has changed. It simply refuses to let social expectations dictate the emotional answer.

That refusal gives the ending its warmth. Osgood does not become a symbol of perfect understanding, and the film does not turn the exchange into a serious argument about identity. Instead, his response makes acceptance sound practical, almost obvious. The joke works because the most conventional character in the scene produces the least conventional conclusion.

Pop-culture legacy

Ranked 48th on the American Film Institute’s list of the 100 greatest movie quotes, the line is remembered as the final button of one of Hollywood’s best-known comedies. It is often used when a flaw, contradiction, or awkward truth is revealed and the speaker chooses tolerance over objection. Its connection to Some Like It Hot also gives it a larger association with disguise, desire, and the comic collapse of rigid categories.

Delivery

Joe E. Brown plays Osgood’s answer with complete composure. There is no grand pause or attempt to underline the shock of the revelation. That relaxed delivery makes the line funnier, because Osgood sounds as though he has solved a minor inconvenience rather than received news that overturns his understanding of the relationship.

Why it works

The line is short, familiar, and broad enough to cover almost anything. Its vague word, “perfect,” quietly changes the scale of the scene: Jerry’s revelation is enormous to Jerry, but Osgood folds it into the ordinary list of human imperfections. That mismatch gives the ending both its punchline and its generosity.