Life & Wisdom Quote by Evan Esar

A hamburger by any other name costs twice as much - because branding is the oldest magic trick in American consumer life: make the ordinary feel bespoke, then send the bill. Evan Esar’s line riffs on Shakespeare’s “rose” with a wink sharp enough to draw blood. Where Juliet argues that names don’t change essence, Esar flips it: in modern commerce, a name is the essence, at least at the cash register.

The joke works because it’s not really about hamburgers. It’s about our willingness to pay for narrative. Call it “artisan,” “gourmet,” “craft,” “smash,” “dry-aged,” “Wagyu blend,” or just give it a backstory involving reclaimed wood and a chef’s childhood in “the old neighborhood,” and suddenly the same meat-on-bun becomes a lifestyle purchase. Esar compresses that whole theater into one deadpan price hike.

The subtext has a mildly cynical tenderness: people aren’t only being duped; they’re participating. Paying extra isn’t always about taste. It’s about avoiding the stigma of the cheap, the fast, the mass-produced. A renamed hamburger offers a little status, a little identity, a way to turn lunch into self-expression.

Contextually, Esar was a professional quip-smith, and this is classic mid-century American satire: skeptical of advertising, amused by social climbing, and keenly aware that “progress” often means repackaging the same product with a better story and a higher margin. The punchline lands because it still describes the menu we’re living inside.