"I love the normalcy of Cleveland. There's regular people there!"
About this Quote
The follow-up - “There’s regular people there” - does a lot of quiet work. It draws a line between the entertainment economy (where every interaction is transactional, curated, and performative) and a city imagined as socially legible: people with shifts, mortgages, messy hair, errands. “Regular” doubles as a moral category. It implies decency without saying “good,” authenticity without saying “real,” and it flatters the audience by letting them occupy the higher ground over fame’s weirdness.
Context matters: Carey’s rise in the 1990s, with stand-up and The Drew Carey Show, helped mainstream a Midwestern, working-stiff sensibility at a moment when coastal cool dominated pop culture. The quote sells Cleveland as an antidote to celebrity alienation, but it also sells Carey himself: a star who hasn’t been fully absorbed by stardom. The charm is that it sounds like a throwaway line. The intent is anything but.
Quote Details
| Topic | Contentment |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Carey, Drew. (2026, February 19). I love the normalcy of Cleveland. There's regular people there! FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-love-the-normalcy-of-cleveland-theres-regular-49084/
Chicago Style
Carey, Drew. "I love the normalcy of Cleveland. There's regular people there!" FixQuotes. February 19, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-love-the-normalcy-of-cleveland-theres-regular-49084/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I love the normalcy of Cleveland. There's regular people there!" FixQuotes, 19 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-love-the-normalcy-of-cleveland-theres-regular-49084/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2026.


