"The problem with winter sports is that - follow me closely here - they generally take place in winter"
About this Quote
The subtext is pure Dave Barry: Americans romanticize discomfort when it comes with gear, branding, and a little hero mythology. Strap a board to your feet, buy the jacket engineered by NASA, call it “fresh powder,” and suddenly freezing becomes character-building rather than miserable. Barry punctures that alchemy. His line is a tiny act of consumer skepticism, aimed at the way leisure industries sell hardship as enrichment.
Context matters: Barry built a career as a newspaper columnist translating middle-class anxieties into absurd clarity. Winter sports are perfect material because they’re voluntary suffering with a social payoff. You pay money to be cold, then recount the ordeal as a story of triumph or taste. The dash-and-parenthetical rhythm mimics a stand-up beat, delaying the punchline just long enough to sharpen the anticlimax.
Underneath the silliness is a critique of prestige behavior: we overcomplicate things to make them feel meaningful. Barry’s punch is that meaning evaporates the moment you state the plain fact out loud.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
|---|---|
| Source | Verified source: SNOW ANGLES (Dave Barry, 1995)
Evidence: THE PROBLEM WITH winter sports is that -- follow me closely here -- they generally take place in winter.. This line appears as the opening sentence of Dave Barry’s Washington Post piece titled “SNOW ANGLES,” dated January 7, 1995 (Washington Post archive URL uses /1995/01/08/ but the article dateline shown on the page is Jan. 7, 1995). I did not find credible evidence (in primary sources) of an earlier publication than this Post piece during this check; many quote-collection sites repeat it without attribution. Other candidates (1) All Is Well: The Art (and Science) of Personal Well-Being... (Marilynn Preston, 2022)95.0% ... The problem with winter sports is that - follow me closely here - they generally take place in winter . " -Dave B... |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Barry, Dave. (2026, February 17). The problem with winter sports is that - follow me closely here - they generally take place in winter. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-problem-with-winter-sports-is-that-follow-6199/
Chicago Style
Barry, Dave. "The problem with winter sports is that - follow me closely here - they generally take place in winter." FixQuotes. February 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-problem-with-winter-sports-is-that-follow-6199/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The problem with winter sports is that - follow me closely here - they generally take place in winter." FixQuotes, 17 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-problem-with-winter-sports-is-that-follow-6199/. Accessed 22 Feb. 2026.
