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Love & Passion Quote by Billy Joel

"There's nothing better than good sex. But bad sex? A peanut butter and jelly sandwich is better than bad sex"

About this Quote

Billy Joel’s line lands because it treats sex the way pop music treats romance: as both sacred and absurd, a high-stakes drama that can also be punctured with a well-timed joke. The first sentence offers the expected rock-star bravado, a clean, crowd-pleasing superlative. Then he yanks the floor out from under it. Not only can sex disappoint; it can disappoint so hard that a childlike lunch becomes the clear winner. The PB&J detail is doing serious work: it’s humble, familiar, low-effort, and reliably satisfying. In other words, it’s the anti-myth of erotic transcendence.

The subtext is a quiet correction to a culture that sells sex as an automatic upgrade to life. Joel isn’t moralizing or shaming; he’s demoting sex from destiny to experience. Good sex is great, sure. Bad sex is just another overhyped event you sat through because you thought you were supposed to. The joke also protects him from sounding preachy. He can say something socially awkward (sex isn’t always worth it) while keeping the tone genial, even affectionate toward the messy reality.

Context matters: coming from a mainstream musician with an everyman persona, the line reads less like locker-room boasting and more like working-class pragmatism. It’s not an avant-garde provocation. It’s a reminder, delivered with a punchline, that pleasure has quality control - and that sometimes the smartest move is choosing the simple, dependable option.

Quote Details

TopicWitty One-Liners
SourceHelp us find the source
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Joel, Billy. (2026, January 15). There's nothing better than good sex. But bad sex? A peanut butter and jelly sandwich is better than bad sex. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/theres-nothing-better-than-good-sex-but-bad-sex-a-142206/

Chicago Style
Joel, Billy. "There's nothing better than good sex. But bad sex? A peanut butter and jelly sandwich is better than bad sex." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/theres-nothing-better-than-good-sex-but-bad-sex-a-142206/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"There's nothing better than good sex. But bad sex? A peanut butter and jelly sandwich is better than bad sex." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/theres-nothing-better-than-good-sex-but-bad-sex-a-142206/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

More Quotes by Billy Add to List
Billy Joel: Peanut Butter and Jelly vs Bad Sex
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About the Author

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Billy Joel (born May 9, 1949) is a Musician from USA.

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