"Humor comes from self-confidence"
About this Quote
“Humor comes from self-confidence” is a deceptively tidy sentence that smuggles in a whole theory of power. Rita Mae Brown isn’t talking about wit as a party trick; she’s naming a psychological precondition. The confident person can afford to misstep, to be misunderstood, to risk looking foolish. That risk is the engine of comedy. Without it, “humor” collapses into safer substitutes: cruelty (punching down), deflection (jokes as armor), or desperation (performing for approval).
Brown’s background matters here. As a writer who moved through feminist and queer political worlds where credibility was constantly contested, she understood how laughter can be both liberation and liability. Self-confidence isn’t mere ego; it’s the internal permission slip that lets you tell the truth slant, admit your own ridiculousness, and still stay standing. The joke lands because the speaker doesn’t seem to be begging for the audience’s mercy. That steadiness creates a strange intimacy: if you can laugh at yourself, you’re implicitly telling everyone else they can breathe.
The subtext is also a warning against the counterfeit version of humor that thrives on insecurity: the brittle joke that needs a scapegoat, the snark that signals sophistication while avoiding vulnerability. Brown’s line pushes comedy back toward agency. Real humor requires a self sturdy enough to be temporarily destabilized. It’s not that confident people are always funny; it’s that sustained funny usually requires someone who can survive the moment the room doesn’t.
Brown’s background matters here. As a writer who moved through feminist and queer political worlds where credibility was constantly contested, she understood how laughter can be both liberation and liability. Self-confidence isn’t mere ego; it’s the internal permission slip that lets you tell the truth slant, admit your own ridiculousness, and still stay standing. The joke lands because the speaker doesn’t seem to be begging for the audience’s mercy. That steadiness creates a strange intimacy: if you can laugh at yourself, you’re implicitly telling everyone else they can breathe.
The subtext is also a warning against the counterfeit version of humor that thrives on insecurity: the brittle joke that needs a scapegoat, the snark that signals sophistication while avoiding vulnerability. Brown’s line pushes comedy back toward agency. Real humor requires a self sturdy enough to be temporarily destabilized. It’s not that confident people are always funny; it’s that sustained funny usually requires someone who can survive the moment the room doesn’t.
Quote Details
| Topic | Confidence |
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