Humor & Life Quote by Dave Foley

Foley’s line lands like a seatbelt click right before a comedic crash: a reminder so obvious it becomes necessary only because we keep forgetting it. “The important thing to remember” is mock-serious phrasing, the language of parental warnings, HR trainings, and solemn public-service announcements. He borrows that tone to introduce a fact no sane adult disputes. The joke lives in that mismatch. If you have to remind someone that bugs don’t talk, you’re already describing a world where people are treating a cartoon premise as actionable reality.

The intent isn’t to dunk on animation; it’s to puncture the emotional blackmail stories can pull when they anthropomorphize everything with eyes. Talking insects are a shortcut to empathy: once the roach has opinions, you’re negotiating ethics instead of reaching for a shoe. Foley’s deadpan pushes back against that cultural reflex, restoring the hierarchy between sentiment and sanitation. It’s funny because it’s a relief. You’re allowed to opt out of the Hallmark version of nature.

Contextually, Foley comes out of a tradition (Kids in the Hall, sketch comedy broadly) that treats “common sense” as a costume you can put on to expose how unhinged a conversation has become. The subtext is a warning about media logic bleeding into real life: don’t let a story’s cute metaphor rewrite your judgment. It’s also a sly comment on audiences who demand realism in absurd places and suspend it in important ones. Bugs don’t talk; people do. The real problem, as Foley implies, is what we choose to believe anyway.