"If I ever had an out-of-body experience - I'd try to come back to a different one"
About this Quote
The joke works because it flips the expected direction of escape. An out-of-body experience is usually framed as leaving the body to discover something bigger than the body. Wilson’s speaker isn’t seeking enlightenment; he’s shopping. The punchline isn’t “I saw the universe,” it’s “Can I exchange this model?” That consumerist subtext feels pointed: even our most spiritual fantasies get reframed as a chance to upgrade, optimize, rebrand.
As a cartoonist, Wilson is speaking from a tradition where one sentence has to do the work of an essay: announce a premise, puncture it, and reveal a small ugly truth. The intent is comedy, but the payload is recognition. We live with a constant background noise of self-editing - diets, filters, reinventions, the curated “better me” - and the line exposes how quickly that impulse colonizes even the supernatural. It’s cynical without being cruel, a shrug that says: if liberation ever shows up, our first instinct might still be to ask for a different body instead of a different life.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Wilson, Tom. (2026, January 16). If I ever had an out-of-body experience - I'd try to come back to a different one. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-i-ever-had-an-out-of-body-experience-id-try-117595/
Chicago Style
Wilson, Tom. "If I ever had an out-of-body experience - I'd try to come back to a different one." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-i-ever-had-an-out-of-body-experience-id-try-117595/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"If I ever had an out-of-body experience - I'd try to come back to a different one." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-i-ever-had-an-out-of-body-experience-id-try-117595/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
