I Can't Believe I Ate the Whole Thing Orange

White text around an illustration of a person putting their foot in their mouth on an orange background

The phrase “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing” premiered in a television ad for the Alka-Seltzer company in 1972. In an interview, Howie Cohen, an ad man from the Doyle Dane Bernbach advertising company, described that the phrase was something he uttered spontaneously after a large meal, to which his wife told him, “There’s your next Alka-Seltzer commercial.” The ad and phrase remained popular in American culture for years to come. In fact, the humorous phrase was used in a season four episode of the television show The Simpsons, attached to the notoriously food-focused character Homer Simpson.