"One of the best temporary cures for pride and affectation is seasickness; a man who wants to vomit never puts on airs"
About this Quote
Seasickness is Billings at his best: a low, bodily punchline aimed straight at a high social target. He takes pride and affectation - those carefully tailored performances of status - and pits them against a feeling so immediate and humiliating that it short-circuits the whole act. The comedy works because it collapses the distance between the person and the persona. When your stomach is staging a coup, there is no bandwidth left for elegance.
The intent is corrective, but not moralistic. Billings is selling a democratic truth: the body is the great leveler. In a culture where gentility was often performed through manners, speech, and self-control, vomiting becomes a kind of involuntary confession. You can fake refinement; you can't fake nausea. That is why "temporary" matters. This isn't a sermon about becoming humble forever. It's a reminder that much of what we call dignity is situational, dependent on comfort, stability, and an audience willing to be impressed.
The subtext is quietly cynical about social life. "Airs" are not just personal vanity; they're strategies in a status economy. Billings suggests that the quickest way to puncture them isn't debate or enlightenment but physics: tilt the horizon, shake the boat, watch the performance end. It's also a comedian's way of granting permission to laugh at the powerful without sounding revolutionary. He doesn't argue that pride is wrong; he shows it's fragile, and fragility is funnier - and truer - than virtue.
The intent is corrective, but not moralistic. Billings is selling a democratic truth: the body is the great leveler. In a culture where gentility was often performed through manners, speech, and self-control, vomiting becomes a kind of involuntary confession. You can fake refinement; you can't fake nausea. That is why "temporary" matters. This isn't a sermon about becoming humble forever. It's a reminder that much of what we call dignity is situational, dependent on comfort, stability, and an audience willing to be impressed.
The subtext is quietly cynical about social life. "Airs" are not just personal vanity; they're strategies in a status economy. Billings suggests that the quickest way to puncture them isn't debate or enlightenment but physics: tilt the horizon, shake the boat, watch the performance end. It's also a comedian's way of granting permission to laugh at the powerful without sounding revolutionary. He doesn't argue that pride is wrong; he shows it's fragile, and fragility is funnier - and truer - than virtue.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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