Humor & Life Quote by David Steinberg

A comedian’s best trick is to make you laugh, then realize you’ve been laughing at yourself. “We were the guys on the other side. It was hilarious” carries that double charge: breezy, almost throwaway phrasing that smuggles in a whole ethics seminar about power, perspective, and the pleasures of being the antagonist.

Steinberg’s “other side” is deliberately vague, which is the point. It could be cultural gatekeepers versus outsiders, old media versus the rabble, establishment politics versus protest, the straights versus the weirdos. The ambiguity lets the line function as a skeleton key for any moment when you discover you weren’t the rebels in your own story. Comedians are uniquely positioned to deliver that punch because comedy is built on reversals; the laugh is often the sound of a status switch happening in real time.

The subtext is less confession than complicity: we weren’t just observing the divide, we were staffed up on the far bank, enjoying the view. “Guys” makes it chummy, even a little adolescent, sanding down the moral stakes. Then “hilarious” spikes it. Not “interesting,” not “regrettable,” but funny - which tells you the laughter wasn’t innocent. It came from distance, from safety, from knowing you’re not the one getting hit.

Contextually, it fits Steinberg’s generation of show-business intellectuals who navigated shifting norms (religion, politics, censorship) while still benefiting from the rooms they were allowed into. The line works because it refuses tidy redemption. It’s a snapshot of the moment you notice the border, admit where you stood, and still hear the laugh track.