Daily Inspiration Quote by Will Arnett

Will Arnett’s line reads like a preemptive defense of why audiences keep watching terrible people: don’t mistake proximity for endorsement. He’s sketching a world where deceit isn’t a twist, it’s the operating system, and where “flawed” doesn’t come with the soft-focus halo of trauma or relatability. The pointed caveat - “not in very sort of empathetic ways, either” - is doing heavy lifting. It rejects the prestige-TV reflex to launder cruelty through backstory, insisting instead on characters whose damage expresses itself as harm, not charm.

The repetition of “pretty awful” is deceptively casual. Arnett’s not offering moral philosophy; he’s describing a vibe. That informality functions like a wink: you’re allowed to be entertained, but you’re not allowed to pretend these people are secretly good. It’s the comedic actor’s version of an ethics label, the kind that fits shows built on narcissism, family warfare, or corporate bloodsport. The pleasure comes from watching the lie pile up, the social contract get stripped down to transactions, and the consequences land with a thud.

Subtextually, Arnett is also talking about performance itself. Actors playing monsters often rely on a breadcrumb of humanity to keep viewers invested. He’s saying: we’re not doing that. The intent isn’t to redeem; it’s to expose. In a culture obsessed with “relatable” protagonists, there’s something bracing about admitting some characters are simply adept at making each other worse - and that the honesty of that can be its own kind of hook.