It's the Best Whatever, Ever!

aka: Best X Ever

Is it because of who's getting married or because of who crashed the wedding?

"Mr. Sun came up and he smiled at me
Said "It's gonna be a good one, just wait and see!"
Jumped out of bed, and I ran outside
Feeling so extra-ecstatified
It's the best day ever! (best day ever)
It's the best day ever! (best day ever)"

— "Best Day Ever", Spongebob Squarepants

A line used in kids' shows, sitcoms, and kids' sitcoms, at the beginning of the episode, just before Hilarity Ensues.

The characters will be discussing whatever the subject of the episode is and someone will say, "This is gonna be the best (whatever) EVER!" Then, everything goes horribly wrong, but of course later they realize that it didn't go SO badly after all. "It really was the best (something) ever!"

Not to be confused with Most Triumphant Example, which is your Personal Favorite Whatever, Ever. Contrast with Worst. Whatever. Ever!.

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Best Examples, Ever!:

Best Comic Books, Ever!

• The Simpsons Futurama Crossover Crisis: Because the anti-gravity gum allows his car to fly, Homer calls it the best gum ever.

Best Fan Works, Ever!

• In Avatar: The Abridged Series, Aang describes his own move of freezing himself and Appa in a ball of ice as the "Best. Plan. Ever."
• In Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series, Seto is shown a giant rock and is told that his destiny is to play a "Children's Card Game" for the rest of time.
  Kaiba: Best. Destiny. Ever!
• After a particularly insane easter egg hunt in Calvin & Hobbes: The Series, Calvin notes:
  Calvin: That was the best Easter Egg hunt ever, Hobbes!
• In The Havoc Side of the Force, when one of his crew fails to prevent some of the others being kidnapped but manages to relay what happened to him, Harry Potter decides to give him "extra duties" in the form of "visiting and reviewing the best brothels on every planet and station they land on for the next twenty years so he can eventually tell Harry which is the best in the galaxy". Said crew-mate promptly declares Harry the best boss ever.
• The students at Skyhold Academy are fond of describing their school as the "Best. School. EVER." This is invariably said in response to something outlandish being done by their teachers, who are AU versions of the members of the Inquisition. The kids are completely serious when they say it.
• In Building It Together after Harry and Draco proclaim their mutual love Harry refers to his previous birthday, when he accidentally ended up in Draco's flat, as the "best birthday ever". Draco responds by calling Harry the "best body pillow ever".
• Brilliant but scary:
  Ron: Harry, Hermione is planning a coup against the government because of what Umbridge has been doing to you.
  Harry: Which is incredibly dangerous and she really shouldn't, but she's just amazing like that, best friend ever.
• In Moments in Love Hermione refers to sex with Harry as the "best Christmas present ever".

Best Films — Animation, Ever!

• The Incredibles: After a day that involved fighting an army of mooks, escaping an Island Base on a rocket and taking down a giant robot, Dash shouts, "That was the best vacation ever!"
• Tangled: After she leaves her tower for the first time in her life, Rapunzel finds herself conflicted between guilt over disobeying her "mother" Gothel, and a sense of liberation over being outside for the first time, resulting in a string of rapid-fire Gilligan Cuts;
  Rapunzel: (joyous) I can't believe I did this.
  (guilty) I can't believe I did this! Mother would be so furious.
  (joyous) That's OK, though, I mean what she doesn't know won't kill her.
  (guilty) Oh my gosh. This would kill her.
  (joyous) This is so fun!
  (guilty) I am a horrible daughter. I'm going back.
  (joyous) I am never going back!
  (guilty) I am a despicable human being.
  (joyous) Woo-hoo! Best. Day. Ever!
• In Batman: Assault on Arkham, after Batman knocks out Black Spider and switches costumes with him to fool the villains, The Joker finds Black Spider and prepares to shoot him in the head, thinking he's Batman. At this moment, Black Spider's Explosive Leash is triggered and his head is blown off. Surprised, Joker comments, "Best gun ever."
• My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Legend of Everfree: Gloriosa Daisy repeatedly insists that she wants to make this week with the CHS students as campers "The best week ever!"... because it's also probably going to be the last. Naturally, this ends up being the week Camp Everfree gets plagued by weird magical happenstances and an angry nature spirit.

Best Films — Live-Action, Ever!

• The plot of Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh revolves around a foster girl wishing to have "the best Christmas ever" and Drake and Josh have to give her and her foster family just that.
• The lines "it was the best day ever" and "it was the worst day ever" are used during nearly every day in the movie Thunderpants.

Best Literature, Ever!

• Barbara Robinson wrote a whole little series of books whose plots depended on this trope: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, The Best Hallowe'en Ever, and The Best School Year Ever. Probably the Trope Codifier.
• Richard Scarry wrote a popular children's book called Best Word Book Ever.
• Guinness World Records goes so far as to collect detailed documented examples of the World's Best / biggest / most expensive / fastest / etc. Whatever, Ever!

Best Live-Action TV, Ever!

• Arrowverse
  • Crisis on Earth-X, providing the page image. After sleeping through the actual wedding, and waking up when Nazis from an alternate universe crashed it, this is Mick Rory's reaction.
  • The year prior, when various heroes assemble during the Invasion arc, Barry brings Supergirl over. Felicity's reaction when Supergirl first demonstrates her powers; "Best! Team-up! Ever!"
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
  • Xander has to attend a Saturday computer class and hears Cordelia does too: "Ooo, did you hear that? An extra day of class AND Cordelia! Throw in a little rectal surgery and it's my best day ever!" (Clearly not his best day ever.)
  • Buffy thinks a present Xander got her is the best present ever. The present? A rocket launcher he stole from the local army base to kill a demon.
• This is almost becoming a catchphrase for Richard Castle. He has used the phrase "Best X Ever" on numerous occasions.
• Cowboy Bebop (2021). In "Dog Star Swing", Jet seeks help from an old contact from his police days. She turns out to be an attractive middle-aged woman who makes no secret of her desire to get into Jet's pants, to Spike's amusement.
  Spike: Seriously, favorite person ever!
• The Doctor points out this trope in the Doctor Who episode "The Impossible Planet":
  The Doctor: Oh come on! Did you have to? "No turning back," that's almost as bad as "Nothing could possibly go wrong," or "This is gonna be the best Christmas Walford's ever had!"
• On Firefly, after Simon and River are kidnapped, Jayne goes through their stuff for valuables and stops a moment to pretend he's reading aloud from Simon's diary:
  Jayne: "Dear diary, today I was pompous and my sister was crazy. (turns page) Today we were kidnapped by hill folk, never to be seen again. It was the best day ever."
• Hiro and the Comic Book Shop Guy both say "Best. Day. Ever." in a Season 3 episode of Heroes since it was a pretty awesome day for both characters. Hiro teleported himself into a comic book store, and the shop guy realized that Hiro was the guy from their comic books.
• Combined with Worst. Whatever. Ever! in the "Ho Ho Ho Job" episode of Leverage, after it's revealed that Elliot will be spending time as a mall Santa for their con, with Parker as an elf.
  Parker: This is the best case ever!
  Elliot: (simultaneously) This is the worst case ever!
• In one of the "Competitions" episodes of World's Dumbest..., the #1 entry comes from a game show in which women perform a balancing stunt while a camera provides a clear view of their cleavage. Chuck Nice expresses his feelings with excited clapping and squealing before proclaiming, "It's the best show ever!"
• In the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode "Face My Enemy", Hunter's story of his ex, which the Team has heard a million times, is inturrupted by Coulson bringing his comm back online.
  Mack: Best timing ever.
• On NCIS: Los Angeles, Kensi considers it the best day ever when Deeks confesses to her that he was a stripper in college.
• Friends: When Joey is preparing to audition for a Game Show Host gig he persuades Ross and Chandler to play through the game so he can learn how the rules work. Chandler is initially skeptical but eventually gets so into it that even when he loses to Ross he declares it "the best game EVER!"

Best Music, Ever!

• There is a popular series of various artist compilation albums in the UK called "The best [name of genre] album in the world...ever!".
• One Direction has a hit song titled "Best Song Ever".

Best Pro Wrestling, Ever!

• WCW commentator Tony Schiavone was the master of hyperbole, dubbing a whole bunch of angles (especially during the later "downer" years) as "the greatest (something) in the history of our sport", no matter the twist. He would also do the same with every upcoming episode of Nitro, for years until it shut down in 2001.
• Every year WrestleMania is typically billed as the greatest or most historic WrestleMania ever, particularly on DVD's released after the fact. After 27 installments and counting this gets harder to believe as time goes on, though at WrestleMania 21 they said WrestleMania XX was the greatest ever. Who knows, that might have even continued if not for you know who.
• One of Christopher Daniels's finishing moves, running up the turnbuckles for the "best moonsault ever".
• One of Cherry Bomb's finishing moves, the "best super kick ever."
• ACH boasts his midnight sun, the "best 450 ever".
• Rudy Switchblade and Jessie Godderz in Ohio Valley Wrestling, the "best team ever".
• CHIKARA's 2009 Season Finale Three-Fisted Tales, November 22, 2009, ended with the shocking formation of Die Bruderschaft des Kreuzes. Right when Tursas took out a remote control to turn out the lights, someone in the crowd said, "Wow, this is one of the greatest things ever."
• For Backlash 2020, WWE marketed the upcoming match between Edge and Randy Orton as the "Greatest Wrestling Match Ever". To further emphasize it, the tagline was also used in other matchup graphics for the show whilst the event's theme tune was "The Greatest Show" by Panic! at the Disco.

Best Puppet Shows, Ever!

• In "A Very Spritely Holiday" on Johnny and the Sprites, Basil declares that the present he and the other Sprites are making for Johnny will be the best present ever.

Best Video Games, Ever!

• Tiny Tina of Borderlands 2 describes the tea party where she vaporizes with electricity the bandit who betrayed her parents to the Hyperion corporation as the "best tea party ever."
  • Gaige the Mechromancer considers her pet Killer Robot being this, and often informs you about the fact.
• Dissidia Final Fantasy/Final Fantasy VIII: "THE GREATEST ATTACK EVER!"
• The protagonist of Growing Up describes being a part-time video game tester as the "BEST. GIG. EVER!"
• Used at the ending of Hotel Mario, where Mario, Luigi and Peach address the fourth wall and say "You're the best player ever!" Well, you deserve some kind of recognition for actually playing through the game.
• The Matrix: Path of Neo has this after Breaking the Fourth Wall in a movie theater:
  Movieguy: Best. Movie. Ever.
• One of Frost's intros against Erron Black in Mortal Kombat 11 has her claim to be "Sub-Zero's best student ever", but this was done out of sheer arrogance. Erron lampshades this with this gem:
  "You're all broth and no beans."
• Zoey Payne of SSX becomes the creator and manager of the event. To her it's the best job ever.
• A GalNet article in the Xtended Game Mod for X3: Terran Conflict details a new sport from the Split Dynasty, where contestants enter a jumpgate race in starfighters — which are fully armed — and lose points every time they don't fire at other racers. When the winner crosses the finish line (and then bails out), explosives planted in each ship detonate after seven seconds. The sheer death toll of the races has caused the Split to declare it "the best sport ever"

Best Web Animation, Ever!

• Awesome Series: "This gun is the best gun ever."
• This has been done a number of times in the Homestar Runner cartoons.
  • "This is the best Decemberween ever!"
  • "Aww, man. This is the worst Decemberween ever."
• In the Red vs. Blue mini-series "Where There's a Will There's a Wall" Caboose says, "This is the best Christmas ever." on the Blues receiving a chopper.
  • At the end of Season 10, Sarge threatens to make hamburger out of Grif and Simmons if they don't stop bickering and get to work.
  Grif: (Sighs wistfully) That sounds like the most delicious punishment ever...
  Simmons: (Just as wistfully) Of all time...
  • In season 2, a negotiation between the Red and Blue teams somehow devolves into getting Grif say a lot of demeaning things about himself. As he's doing this, Sarge comments, "This may be the greatest surrender of all time."

Best Web Comics, Ever!

• Friendship is Dragons:
  • Pinky Pie says it at the end of the first session, when the players insist they continue the game as little ponies, despite the GM not having further campaign plans.
    Pinky Pie: I can already tell they're gonna be the best adventures EVER!
  • And again, when it is agreed that Pinkie's player will be the GM for the next, reduced-group gaming session.
    Pinky Pie: This is gonna be the best session EVER!
• Ménage à 3, being a Sex Comedy, sometimes finds relatively "adult" uses for the phrase:
  • When Amber describes to Zii how wonderful she felt when Gary used his unintentionally secret sexual technique on her, she says it was the "Best. Orgasm. Ever." (Zii then gets angry because she thinks Gary has been holding out on her.)
  • Gary declares Yuki the "Best girlfriend ever" when (for reasons that sort of make sense to her) she tells sex goddess DiDi to stay naked around him all the time.
  • Slightly more innocently — Jung was prepared to give a play a horrible review, on principle, but after all the entertainment caused when it basically collapses in disaster at the end, notably Sandra's fight with Dillon over Matt, he pronounces it the "Best. Play. Ever."
• In The Order of the Stick, Elan says this several times.
  • "It was the best adventure EVER!" By the end of the page, he gets stabbed.
  • Strip #647:
    Elan: Woooooo! Wind Walk is the best cleric spell ever!!!
    Durkon: Dinnae look down, dinnae look down, dinnae look down...
  • Elan concludes what would otherwise be a No-Dialogue Episode by "That was the best day EVER!". Of course, said day isn't finished, and it gets much, MUCH worse.
    Tarquin: Here's to us, Elan. We're going to tell the best story EVER.
  • Elan seriously jinxes his party leader in #916.
    Elan: I'm not the leader of my team, Dad. Roy is, and he's the best hero EVER.
• Super Stupor: The Best Divorce Story Ever.

Best Web Original, Ever!

• Bum Reviews: This is the one of the catchphrases of Chester A. Bum. "OH MY GOD! THIS IS THE GREATEST MOVIE THAT I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE!!"
• From The Onion: "Amazing New Hyperbolic Chamber Greatest Invention in the History of Mankind Ever".
• One Kids React segment has The Gregory Brothers getting a "best idea EVER!" from one of the kids.
• In Pay Me, Bug!, Captain Vindh and crew are blackmailed into an insanely dangerous job by someone they all truly hate. He describes it as the "best trip ever."
• This is the premise of the Greatest Movie Ever! Podcast, where every week the Almighty Gooberzilla and a random co-host review what they declare to be the Greatest Movie Eveeeer!, be it Spider, Blade Runner, or Dragonball Evolution.

Best Western Animation, Ever!

• American Dad!:
  • A Christmas Episode is titled "The Best Christmas Story Never"; another is called "The Most Adequate Christmas Ever".
  • Also Steve's reaction to Mex's catchphrase on Tex and Mex. "Best. Catchphrase. Ever."
• Seems to be a Stock Phrase in Nickelodeon shows. Case in point, about every second episode of The Fairly OddParents!.
• In the '’Batwheels'’ episode called “Nightbike”, after Joker and Harley Quinn pulling the banana peel prank; she quoted that it was the “Best. Prank. Ever.”
• In Family Guy, an ad is shown for "Hasbro's Best Thing Ever" (a short of Silly Putty actually). Stewie, watching the commercial, enthusiastically shouts: "I want it!"
• One episode of Hey Arnold! had the title character going through a list of things that would make the best Saturday ever, but no kid had ever successfully completed. Two of the first items are eat a bowl of cereal while watching cartoons all morning. He oversleeps, the milk is spoiled, and the TV goes out. Everything else goes just as wrong.
• In the Kick Buttowski episode where the kids get trapped on a school bus on a snow day because Kendall Perkins had her dad call the school to make it a school day, they take so long getting to school that school hours are over, much to the disappointment of Kendall. The episode ends with Kick and Gunther declaring "Best. Snow day. Ever."
• Molly of Denali: In "Midnight Sun Fun Run," Molly says that the lemonade from the lemonade station is the "best lemonade ever."
• The first season of Moral Orel ended with (or began with, depending on your point of view) an episode titled "The Best Christmas Ever", in which Orel is determined to make this Christmas just that. The subversion? The episode has such a Downer Ending that the commentary for the episode mentioned that [adult swim] got several letters from people saying the episode ruined their Christmas.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • In "Look Before You Sleep", Twilight excitedly states "This is gonna be the bestest slumber party ever, yeah!" Naturally, everything that can go wrong does, mostly from Rarity and Applejack not getting along.
  • The season one finale is entitled "The Best Night Ever". The mane cast has spent the entire season dreaming about the upcoming Grand Galloping Gala^note for the pony-illiterate: an annual society party thrown by the ponies' universally-beloved God-Empress, and are determined to make sure it is the Best Night Ever at any cost. Unfortunately their efforts end up making the party an unqualified disaster (like, they actually cause significant damage to the venue), except that later Princess Celestia^note aforementioned God-Empress comes and tells them that it was, in fact, the Best Night Ever, at least compared to the stuffy Galas of previous years; the reason she had invited Twilight and her friends to the Gala was in the hopes they would liven things up.
  • Rainbow Dash quotes the trope twice in "Sonic Rainboom" when she A) does the Sonic Rainboom, and B) gets to meet the Wonderbolts and wins the Best Young Flyer award.
    • She parodies the line as "Best wedding ever" when she does a sonic rainboom following Shining Armor and Cadance's wedding ceremony.
  • In "Luna Eclipsed", Twilight ends her friendship report saying it was "the best nightmare night ever".
  • Sweetie Belle has "the best idea ever" in "Hearts and Hooves Day". It ends being probably one of their worst idea, period.
  • At the end of "Magical Mystery Cure", Pinkie declares, "best coronation day ever!"
  • In "Pinkie Apple Pie":
    • Apple Bloom kicks it off by calling hers the "best family ever!"
    • Pinkie Pie herself says "Best ever!" a lot throughout the episode.
  • In "28 Pranks Later", Rainbow Dash states that her large-scale cookie prank is gonna be the best prank ever. By the end of the episode and after a Zombie Apocalypse scare she is certainly rethinking this opinion.
  • In "The Summer Sun Setback", when Twilight plans the last Summer Sun Celebration, she tells her friends it could be the "best Summer Sun Celebration ever." Later when the plans are secretly ruined by their past villains, Cozy Glow declares this the "best road trip ever".
• Phineas and Ferb:
  • The chorus of the extended version of the Theme Tune starts off "This could possibly be the best day ever...."
  • One episode is called "The Best Lazy Day Ever". And it was.
  • "And the forecast says that tomorrow will likely be a million and six times better!"
  • In "Phineas and Ferb Get Busted!", Linda calls Candace "the best daughter ever" when she finally realizes what the boys were up to in her absence.
  • In general, making every day the best day ever is Phineas and Ferb's main goal.
• The Polly Pocket animation is based on the trope. The theme song mentions "best time ever". One episode was about Polly and her friends going to watch a movie adaptation of what they consider "the best book ever", hoping it'd be the best movie ever, only to later decide it was the worst movie ever.
• The Powerpuff Girls (1998); the episode "Best Rainy Day Adventure Ever" is actually considered by fans one of the best PPG episodes ever.
• The Simpsons: Bart and Lisa are certain the trip to Itchy 'n' Scratchy Land will be the best vacation ever! Subverted in that it really was the best vacation ever. Double Subverted in that they promised to never speak of it again.
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • The episode "Best Day Ever" (from which the opening quote comes from). SpongeBob's plans for the best day ever get sidetracked when he helps his friends with various crises. Before that, the song appeared in The Movie of the show.
  • SpongeBob once described being on television as "The greatest thing to happen in the history of history!"
  • At the end of "The Gift of Gum" when all of Bikini Bottom is covered in gum, Patrick remarks that this was "the best Best Friends Day ever".
• In Teen Titans episode "Betrayal", Beast Boy ate a pie offered by Terra and compliments with, "This is the best pie... in the history of pies."
• In the VeggieTales Christmas Special, they successfully have the Best Christmas Ever.
• Several times in the Wibbly Pig episode "Balloons," Wibbly's balloon party is declared to be "The Best Big Balloon Party Ever," both spoken and in song.
• In "Franklin Has a Sleepover" from Franklin, Franklin and Bear declare their sleepover to be "the best sleepover ever." This trope has also surfaced on the CGI spin-off Franklin and Friends.
• Similarly, in "The Sleepover Problem" on Peg + Cat, Peg declares that her sleepover is going to be the best sleepover ever. (Viewers of both shows will have to judge whether it was better than Franklin's.)
• At the beginning of "Too Much Vacation" on the PBS Kids version of The Berenstain Bears, the Bear family declares that their vacation will be "the best vacation ever." Throughout the episode, as things go wrong, Papa Bear's refrain becomes "We won't let (x) spoil our best vacation ever." He finally gets fed up, though, after a flood hits the cabin that they're staying in and he gets washed away into a stream, a quite rude awakening. He grumbles that they were supposed to be having fun, but it turns out that Sister and Brother were having fun and thought that he was too, showing him the pictures of his antics during the vacation. They put a smile on his face and he decides that he was looking at things all wrong, deciding that it was, indeed, the best vacation ever.
• In "A Very McStuffins Christmas" on Doc McStuffins, Stuffy declares it the best Christmas ever and punctuates it for emphasis.
• In the Magic Adventures of Mumfie Christmas special, several times throughout the special, Mumfie mentions wanting to have "the best Christmas ever".
• Trolls: The Beat Goes On! has a song called "Best Day Ever".

Best Real Life, Ever!

• The 1969 Hugo Awards ceremony in St. Louis included a Special Award given to Neil Armstrong, Edwin E. Aldrin, and Michael Collins for "The Best Moon Landing Ever." Not to be confused with the following year's Dramatic Presentation award for the TV coverage of the same event.

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It's the best stinger, ever!

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