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Daily Inspiration Quote by Marilyn Monroe

"I don't mind making jokes, but I don't want to look like one"

About this Quote

A punchline with teeth: Monroe draws a clean line between agency and spectacle. “I don’t mind making jokes” frames humor as craft, something you choose and control. Then the turn - “but I don’t want to look like one” - snaps the camera back onto her public image, where women, especially “blonde bombshells,” were routinely treated as the joke itself. She’s not rejecting comedy; she’s rejecting humiliation dressed up as entertainment.

The subtext is professional self-defense. Monroe knew how the industry worked: it could sell her as playful, sexy, a little ditzy, then use that packaging to deny her seriousness. The line exposes the trap of being rewarded for self-deprecation until the self is all that’s left to deprecate. It’s a quiet complaint about power: who gets to be witty, and who gets turned into a meme before memes existed.

Context matters because Monroe lived inside a machine that profited from her image while insisting it was “just fun.” Her performances often hinged on comedic timing and vulnerability, but tabloids and studio publicity blurred the character with the person. This quote reads like a boundary-setting move from someone who understood that laughter can be affectionate or cruel, and that a woman’s “sense of humor” is often demanded as proof she’ll tolerate disrespect.

It works because it’s simple, almost offhand, yet it indicts an entire gaze: laugh with me, not at me.

Quote Details

TopicWitty One-Liners
Source
Later attribution: If Ignorance Is Bliss, Why Aren't There More Happy People? (John Lloyd, John Mitchinson, 2009) modern compilationISBN: 9780307460677 · ID: clxksg4zcZkC
Text match: 95.00%   Provider: Google Books
Evidence:
... I don't mind making jokes , but I don't want to look like one . MARILYN MONROE Sandy : Shouldn't I stop making movies and do something that counts , like , like helping blind people or becoming a missionary or something ? Alien : Let me ...
Cite

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Monroe, Marilyn. (2026, February 9). I don't mind making jokes, but I don't want to look like one. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-dont-mind-making-jokes-but-i-dont-want-to-look-24854/

Chicago Style
Monroe, Marilyn. "I don't mind making jokes, but I don't want to look like one." FixQuotes. February 9, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-dont-mind-making-jokes-but-i-dont-want-to-look-24854/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I don't mind making jokes, but I don't want to look like one." FixQuotes, 9 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-dont-mind-making-jokes-but-i-dont-want-to-look-24854/. Accessed 22 Feb. 2026.

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I Don't Mind Making Jokes, But I Don't Want to Look Like One
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About the Author

Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe (June 1, 1926 - August 5, 1962) was a Actress from USA.

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