You ain’t heard nothin’ yet, folks.

Al Jolson’s line is famously associated with the dawn of “talking pictures.” It is spoken in the 1927 Warner Bros. film The Jazz Singer, in which Jolson—already a major vaudeville and recording star—appeared in a story built around popular entertainment and family expectations. The film used synchronized sound for musical numbers and brief spoken dialogue, and Jolson’s unscripted-sounding address to the audience became emblematic of cinema’s transition from silent film to sound. The phrase has since been repeatedly invoked as a shorthand announcement that something bigger or more consequential is about to follow.

On its surface, the line is a showman’s tease: a direct, colloquial promise that the audience has not yet experienced the main attraction. In a broader cultural sense, it functions as a declaration of arrival—an announcement that a new phase is beginning. Because it is tied to The Jazz Singer and early sound cinema, the quote has come to signify technological and artistic breakthrough, the moment when a medium finds a new voice. It also captures Jolson’s persona: brash, intimate, and audience-facing, collapsing the distance between performer and crowd.

“You ain’t heard nothin’ yet!”
“You ain’t heard nothing yet!”
“You ain’t heard nothin’ yet, folks!”