"Just the other day, my assistant was on the line with Calvin Klein. Golly, I usually shop at Sears"
About this Quote
The joke works because it weaponizes sincerity. "Golly" isn't just a punchline; it's a performative innocence, a verbal flannel shirt. Thornton, long associated with Southern-inflected characters and a kind of scruffy authenticity, knows how easily audiences read "Hollywood" as contamination. So he offers a preemptive alibi: sure, Calvin Klein is calling, but don't worry - I'm still a Sears guy. It's humility as brand management, an attempt to keep cultural permission to be rich without seeming pretentious.
Context matters: actors are marketed as both aspirational and relatable, an impossible balancing act that forces them into ritual displays of normalcy. Thornton compresses that PR dance into two sentences, exposing the absurdity of trying to stay "down-home" while your assistant negotiates your relationship with fashion empires. The laugh lands because the contradiction isn't his alone; it's the entire celebrity economy's favorite disguise.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Thornton, Billy Bob. (2026, January 16). Just the other day, my assistant was on the line with Calvin Klein. Golly, I usually shop at Sears. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/just-the-other-day-my-assistant-was-on-the-line-139505/
Chicago Style
Thornton, Billy Bob. "Just the other day, my assistant was on the line with Calvin Klein. Golly, I usually shop at Sears." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/just-the-other-day-my-assistant-was-on-the-line-139505/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Just the other day, my assistant was on the line with Calvin Klein. Golly, I usually shop at Sears." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/just-the-other-day-my-assistant-was-on-the-line-139505/. Accessed 5 Feb. 2026.



