Humor & Life Quote by Fred Allen

Allen’s joke lands because it flips the civic halo around “committee” into a punchline about distributed cowardice. Individually, the members “can do nothing” not because they’re literally incapable, but because their power is procedural: they exist to process problems, not solve them. Then comes the sharper turn: together they don’t become stronger; they become an instrument for declaring impotence official. The group’s signature act is consensus that absolves everyone.

The intent is less anti-democratic than anti-bureaucratic. Allen is mocking a particular kind of modern authority that hides behind minutes, motions, and “stakeholder alignment.” A committee, in this framing, isn’t a gathering of expertise; it’s a machine for laundering responsibility. The subtext is psychological: risk aversion scales beautifully. Add more people and you don’t just add opinions, you multiply incentives to protect reputations, avoid blame, and keep options open until the moment has passed. “Nothing can be done” isn’t a fact, it’s a verdict.

Context matters. Allen worked in an era when corporations, government agencies, and wartime administrations ballooned, and the committee became the emblem of managerial culture: rational, documented, slow. Comedy was one of the few places you could say out loud what the paperwork made hard to admit - that “process” often functions as a substitute for courage. The line endures because it captures a permanent institutional trick: if no one is responsible, everyone is safe, and nothing changes.