"To attract men, I wear a perfume called "New Car Interior.""
About this Quote
Rita Rudner’s joke lands because it treats dating like a consumer test drive, then picks the most absurd “product feature” imaginable: that chemically plush, vaguely plastic smell dealers pump into our brains as desire. “New Car Interior” isn’t sensual; it’s aspirational. It’s the scent of a purchase you’re still justifying, the thrill of novelty, the fantasy that this time you won’t spill coffee all over the upholstery. Rudner hijacks that cultural script and says: if men are moved by status and newness, why bother with roses when you can smell like a showroom?
The intent is a clean, subversive exaggeration. She’s not really offering a pickup tip; she’s mocking the market logic that sneaks into romance. The subtext is sharp but not cruel: attraction gets treated like branding, and women get told to optimize themselves like products. Rudner flips the direction of the gaze. Instead of “women wear perfume to please men,” it’s “men will respond to whatever signals ownership, freshness, and a little power.” The specificity is the joke’s engine. If she said “expensive cologne,” it would be predictable. “New Car Interior” is funny because it’s almost anti-erotic, yet instantly recognizable as a modern fetish.
In context, it’s classic Rudner: a poised, understated delivery that makes the premise sound reasonable, which lets the punchline do the violence. The joke doesn’t scold; it smirks. It tells you the romance industry and the auto industry might be selling the same dream, just in different bottles.
The intent is a clean, subversive exaggeration. She’s not really offering a pickup tip; she’s mocking the market logic that sneaks into romance. The subtext is sharp but not cruel: attraction gets treated like branding, and women get told to optimize themselves like products. Rudner flips the direction of the gaze. Instead of “women wear perfume to please men,” it’s “men will respond to whatever signals ownership, freshness, and a little power.” The specificity is the joke’s engine. If she said “expensive cologne,” it would be predictable. “New Car Interior” is funny because it’s almost anti-erotic, yet instantly recognizable as a modern fetish.
In context, it’s classic Rudner: a poised, understated delivery that makes the premise sound reasonable, which lets the punchline do the violence. The joke doesn’t scold; it smirks. It tells you the romance industry and the auto industry might be selling the same dream, just in different bottles.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
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