"I can remember the first face-lift show that came on. I rang up everyone - Are you watching? I'm watching"
About this Quote
The intent is classic Saunders: a bright, chatty confession that doubles as critique. The line is built on compulsive repetition - “are you watching? I’m watching” - a breathless loop that mimics the addict’s self-justification. She doesn’t claim moral distance; she places herself right in the viewing frenzy. That complicity matters. Saunders made a career (especially in Absolutely Fabulous) out of satirizing aspirational culture from the inside, where the shame and the thrill share the same champagne glass.
Subtext: body anxiety isn’t just private insecurity; it’s a social activity, something you bond over in real time. Calling “everyone” turns surgery into appointment television, as if the operating room were a stage and the audience had a stake in the transformation. The context is late-90s/early-2000s reality TV, when “makeover” programming recast invasive procedures as uplifting narratives with commercial breaks. Saunders’s wit lands because she captures the unsettling moment when self-improvement stopped being a personal project and became a genre.
Quote Details
| Topic | Nostalgia |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Saunders, Jennifer. (2026, February 18). I can remember the first face-lift show that came on. I rang up everyone - Are you watching? I'm watching. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-can-remember-the-first-face-lift-show-that-came-69390/
Chicago Style
Saunders, Jennifer. "I can remember the first face-lift show that came on. I rang up everyone - Are you watching? I'm watching." FixQuotes. February 18, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-can-remember-the-first-face-lift-show-that-came-69390/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I can remember the first face-lift show that came on. I rang up everyone - Are you watching? I'm watching." FixQuotes, 18 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-can-remember-the-first-face-lift-show-that-came-69390/. Accessed 22 Feb. 2026.




