Jennifer Aniston. Photo: Courtesy Wikipedia.

The claim that Yiddish is becoming more prevalent than English in popular culture might not be so far fetched after all. Case in point: on last night’s episode of Chelsea Lately, on the American entertainment news channel E!, host Chelsea Handler, in spite of the obvious corroborative evidence— such as the walnut-sized diamond engagement ring she’s been sporting— followed talk-show protocol and asked guest Jennifer Aniston if she was indeed engaged to boyfriend Justin Theroux. The star, who has been referred to as “America’s Sweetheart,” choked up and the audience erupted into applause. Then, clearly still emotional, she waved her hands at her face and said, “I just got verklempt!” The scene was reminiscent of the 1990s  SNL skit starring Mike Meyers, “Coffee Talk,” where his character Linda Richman would periodically break-up before employing the Yiddish word,  which means “overcome with emotion,” to comic effect.

Below is a video of the emotional moment.