"I get bitter, angry and disbelieving, and I tell my kids there a lot of idiots out there. I also want them to know that being successful is not the real world - that their parents get treated better because they're on TV"
About this Quote
The line about telling his kids "there a lot of idiots out there" is deliberately unvarnished, almost pedagogically crude. He is not trying to curate optimism; he's inoculating them. The subtext is that celebrity parenting comes with a unique hazard: children can confuse their household's treatment as proof the world is fair, or that their parents are inherently exceptional. Roker refuses that lesson. He reframes fame as an artifact of the media economy, not a reliable measure of competence or goodness.
"Being successful is not the real world" lands as a quiet rebuke of American merit-talk. Success, in his telling, is an alternate lane with better customer service, softer consequences, and a halo effect that can make strangers more compliant. When he says they get treated better "because they're on TV", he is naming power in its most casual form: doors opening, doubts dissolving, rules bending. The intent is protective realism - teaching his kids to recognize privilege as situational and unearned, and to prepare for a world that won't automatically clap for them when the cameras aren't rolling.
Quote Details
| Topic | Parenting |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Roker, Al. (2026, February 18). I get bitter, angry and disbelieving, and I tell my kids there a lot of idiots out there. I also want them to know that being successful is not the real world - that their parents get treated better because they're on TV. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-get-bitter-angry-and-disbelieving-and-i-tell-my-61627/
Chicago Style
Roker, Al. "I get bitter, angry and disbelieving, and I tell my kids there a lot of idiots out there. I also want them to know that being successful is not the real world - that their parents get treated better because they're on TV." FixQuotes. February 18, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-get-bitter-angry-and-disbelieving-and-i-tell-my-61627/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I get bitter, angry and disbelieving, and I tell my kids there a lot of idiots out there. I also want them to know that being successful is not the real world - that their parents get treated better because they're on TV." FixQuotes, 18 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-get-bitter-angry-and-disbelieving-and-i-tell-my-61627/. Accessed 22 Feb. 2026.








