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Politics & Power Quote by David Hasselhoff

"The hamburger is a symbol of the greatness of America"

About this Quote

It takes a particular kind of celebrity delusion - and cultural intuition - to crown the hamburger as America’s greatness. Coming from David Hasselhoff, an actor whose fame ping-ponged between hyper-American TV heroics and near-mythic popularity in Germany, the line lands as both earnest branding and accidental satire. He isn’t invoking the Founding Fathers; he’s invoking the food court.

The intent is obvious: simplify “America” into something instantly legible, exportable, and comforting. The hamburger is democracy you can hold with one hand. It’s cheap, standardized, and available almost everywhere - a soft-power artifact that travels better than any speech about freedom. Hasselhoff, as a pop-cultural emissary, understands symbols that survive translation. “Greatness” here isn’t moral superiority; it’s mass appeal.

The subtext is where the quote gets interesting. It conflates cultural dominance with cultural quality, a very American sleight of hand. The hamburger signifies abundance and convenience, but also industrial agriculture, franchising, and the way the U.S. turns regional tastes into global templates. The burger is less “home cooking” than system: supply chains, marketing, speed, and sameness marketed as choice.

Context matters: Hasselhoff’s career was built on polished, consumable Americana - Baywatch bodies, Knight Rider gadgets, an image designed to be instantly understood. In that light, the hamburger isn’t just a symbol of America’s greatness; it’s a symbol of how America sells greatness: wrapped, portable, and ready in minutes.

Quote Details

TopicFood
SourceHelp us find the source
FeaturedThis quote was our Quote of the Day on March 28, 2023
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Hasselhoff, David. (2026, January 11). The hamburger is a symbol of the greatness of America. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-hamburger-is-a-symbol-of-the-greatness-of-171960/

Chicago Style
Hasselhoff, David. "The hamburger is a symbol of the greatness of America." FixQuotes. January 11, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-hamburger-is-a-symbol-of-the-greatness-of-171960/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The hamburger is a symbol of the greatness of America." FixQuotes, 11 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-hamburger-is-a-symbol-of-the-greatness-of-171960/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

David Hasselhoff

David Hasselhoff (born July 17, 1952) is a Actor from USA.

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