"At my lemonade stand I used to give the first glass away free and charge five dollars for the second glass. The refill contained the antidote"
About this Quote
The brilliance is in the misdirection. Philips starts in the familiar American myth of scrappy entrepreneurship, then reveals the logic of a protection racket. Five dollars isn’t a realistic lemonade price; it’s a ransom. “Refill” is the comic pivot word: usually it signals abundance and customer care, but here it means you only get to be safe if you keep paying. “Antidote” lands like a punchline and an accusation. The stand isn’t selling lemonade; it’s selling relief from a harm the seller caused.
Context matters: Philips’s persona is the wide-eyed, sing-song innocent who says monstrous things with a straight face. The joke plays on that tension, smuggling a critique of predatory capitalism into a nursery scene. It’s also a compact parody of addiction economics, subscription traps, and “free trial” culture: the product isn’t the drink, it’s the dependency.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Philips, Emo. (2026, January 17). At my lemonade stand I used to give the first glass away free and charge five dollars for the second glass. The refill contained the antidote. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/at-my-lemonade-stand-i-used-to-give-the-first-52919/
Chicago Style
Philips, Emo. "At my lemonade stand I used to give the first glass away free and charge five dollars for the second glass. The refill contained the antidote." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/at-my-lemonade-stand-i-used-to-give-the-first-52919/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"At my lemonade stand I used to give the first glass away free and charge five dollars for the second glass. The refill contained the antidote." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/at-my-lemonade-stand-i-used-to-give-the-first-52919/. Accessed 19 Feb. 2026.









