"Just when you're beginning to think pretty well of people, you run across somebody who puts sugar on sliced tomatoes"
About this Quote
A perfectly petty complaint that doubles as a philosophy of disappointment, Cuppy’s line weaponizes the smallest domestic horror imaginable: sugar on sliced tomatoes. The joke isn’t really about taste. It’s about how quickly your hard-won, reluctant faith in humanity can be capsized by one intimate encounter with someone else’s private logic.
Cuppy frames “pretty well of people” as a temporary lapse in judgment, not an enlightened stance. The sentence structure mimics that emotional arc: a cautious upswing toward optimism, then the sudden pratfall of “you run across somebody...” The “somebody” is anonymous, interchangeable - less a villain than a reminder that the world is crowded with baffling habits you didn’t consent to know about. Sugar becomes shorthand for all the tiny violations of your internal rulebook: manners, taste, judgment, sanity. It’s misanthropy made safe for polite company.
The subtext is social: liking people is easy at a distance and harder up close, when their quirks stop being charming and start being sticky, literal, and unforgettable. A tomato is fresh, savory, summery - sugar is the unnecessary civilizing project, the urge to “improve” what doesn’t need improving. Cuppy’s wit lives in that disproportion: the offense is trivial, but the feeling it triggers is real. He’s naming the modern curse of intimacy with strangers - the moment you learn one weird detail and can’t unlearn it, and your optimism quietly packs its bags.
Cuppy frames “pretty well of people” as a temporary lapse in judgment, not an enlightened stance. The sentence structure mimics that emotional arc: a cautious upswing toward optimism, then the sudden pratfall of “you run across somebody...” The “somebody” is anonymous, interchangeable - less a villain than a reminder that the world is crowded with baffling habits you didn’t consent to know about. Sugar becomes shorthand for all the tiny violations of your internal rulebook: manners, taste, judgment, sanity. It’s misanthropy made safe for polite company.
The subtext is social: liking people is easy at a distance and harder up close, when their quirks stop being charming and start being sticky, literal, and unforgettable. A tomato is fresh, savory, summery - sugar is the unnecessary civilizing project, the urge to “improve” what doesn’t need improving. Cuppy’s wit lives in that disproportion: the offense is trivial, but the feeling it triggers is real. He’s naming the modern curse of intimacy with strangers - the moment you learn one weird detail and can’t unlearn it, and your optimism quietly packs its bags.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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