Chopped Liver As An Expression
Since eating chopped liver may not be appreciated by everyone, the Jewish English expression "What am I, chopped liver?", signifies frustration or anger at being ignored on a social level.
An alternative explanation for the etymology of the "What am I, chopped liver?" expression is that chopped liver was traditionally served as a side dish rather than a main course. The phrase, therefore may have originally meant to express a feeling of being overlooked, as a "side dish."
A similar reference aired in 1963 on The Dick Van Dyke Show on an episode titled "Jilting the Jilter" at the Internet Movie Database. Sally Rogers, played by Rose Marie, is asked by a "second-rate comedian" Fred White, played by Guy Marks, "What do you think you are your majesty, chopped chicken liver?"
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Famous quotes containing the words chopped, liver and/or expression:
“It is said that he once had a sore toe that so annoyed him that he went to the woodpile and chopped it off with an axe, quoting the Scripture, ‘If thy foot offend thee, cut it off.’”
—For the State of Rhode Island, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“Life loves the liver of it.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)
“... language is meaningful because it is the expression of thoughts—of thoughts which are about something.”
—Roderick M. Chisholm (b. 1916)