Humor & Life Quote by Ernie Wise

There’s a whole class system smuggled into that breezy little sentence, and Ernie Wise knows it. “Things really began to move for us” sounds like the standard showbiz upswing line, the showman’s version of a victory lap. Then he lands the punch: not a sports car, not a villa, not even a flashy “made it” detail, but the moment he “could afford to marry Doreen.” The joke isn’t that he married her for money; it’s that mid-century Britain made marriage itself feel like a purchase, a major capital expense you couldn’t responsibly take on until your payslips said you could.

Wise’s intent is quietly double-edged. On one level, it’s affectionate and practical: love exists, but rent exists louder. On another, it’s a sly commentary on what success looks like when you’re not born into comfort. The line turns upward mobility into something domestic and slightly unglamorous, which is exactly why it works. It punctures the myth of the comedian as carefree entertainer and replaces it with a working-class reality where stability is the real luxury.

The context matters: 1953 sits in postwar austerity’s long shadow, when “getting on” meant steady work, predictable income, and the social permission to start a household. By naming Doreen, Wise also slips sentiment past the guard of understatement. It’s romance reframed as solvency, intimacy measured in weekly wages. The laugh catches because it’s true: the dream wasn’t fame, it was the right to build an ordinary life without fear.