Humor & Life Quote by Garry Shandling

A lesser comic would treat a late-night couch spot as a victory lap: recap the plot, plug the project, hit the same beats the publicist faxed over. Shandling opens by refusing that ritual, and the refusal is the joke. "First of all" promises structure, authority, maybe even sincerity, then immediately collapses into evasive filler: "and so forth and so on". He performs the very thing he claims to dislike: aimless, pre-packaged talk. The line is a tiny sabotage of the promotional machine, delivered in the language the machine runs on.

The specific intent is to seize control of the room. By announcing what he won't do, Shandling rewrites the contract between guest and audience: you're not getting marketing; you're getting meta. That move signals sophistication without sounding lofty. It's a comedian's version of clearing your throat before pulling a fire alarm.

The subtext is more pointed: entertainment culture loves the appearance of spontaneity, but much of it is scripted, reiterated, "rehashed". Shandling's genius was making that falseness visible while still being charming inside it. The stammering redundancy isn't weakness; it's a mirror held up to showbiz language, where everyone is always about to say something real and then retreats into safe phrasing.

Context matters because Shandling built a career on exposing the seams: It's Garry Shandling's Show literally talked to the audience about being a show. This line is that sensibility in miniature. It's not anti-story so much as anti-pretend. He isn't declining to rehash; he's turning the rehash into the bit.