"Show me a friend in need and I'll show you a pest"
About this Quote
Lewis came up in a hard-nosed nightclub era when comedy was less about confessional warmth and more about armored one-liners. In that context, the line reads like self-protection turned into entertainment: if you preemptively downgrade neediness to nuisance, you never have to admit your own limits, or your fear of being used. The laugh is a release valve for an uncomfortable recognition: plenty of us like the idea of being the good friend more than we like the actual work of it.
The subtext is also a jab at moral storytelling. Proverbs promise that character reveals itself in crisis; Lewis suggests crisis mainly reveals our impatience. By choosing the word "pest", he sharpens the indictment: not "burden" or "problem", but something you’d swat away. It’s funny because it’s sharp, and sharp because it’s uncomfortably plausible.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Lewis, Joe E. (2026, January 15). Show me a friend in need and I'll show you a pest. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/show-me-a-friend-in-need-and-ill-show-you-a-pest-169489/
Chicago Style
Lewis, Joe E. "Show me a friend in need and I'll show you a pest." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/show-me-a-friend-in-need-and-ill-show-you-a-pest-169489/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Show me a friend in need and I'll show you a pest." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/show-me-a-friend-in-need-and-ill-show-you-a-pest-169489/. Accessed 8 Feb. 2026.









