Humor & Life Quote by James Thurber

Thurber’s line is a miniature farce about taste: not just what we drink, but what we pretend to know when we drink it. Calling the wine “naive” and “domestic Burgundy” is already a joke with a knife inside it. Burgundy is French, pedigreed, canonized by connoisseurs; “domestic” is the American understudy in a costume that almost fits. Then comes “without any breeding,” a class metaphor smuggled into the glass. The wine hasn’t merely failed to mature; it lacks the aristocratic lineage the speaker has been trained to treat as destiny.

The comic engine is the pivot to politeness: “but I think you’ll be amused by its presumption.” Thurber turns judgment into entertainment, giving the host a way to serve something second-rate while keeping social dignity intact. The guest is invited to laugh with the speaker at the wine’s audacity, not at the host’s limitations. It’s snobbery disguised as conviviality, a survival tactic in rooms where money, knowledge, and performance are constantly being tallied.

The subtext is wider than wine. Thurber is pricking at American aspiration itself: the domestic version of European refinement, trying hard, overreaching, and therefore becoming ridiculous and oddly charming. “Presumption” is the key word; it names the crime (pretending) and the charm (trying). That double vision is Thurber’s specialty: affection for human striving, paired with a cool eye for the absurd rituals we build to make striving look like inevitability.