"Well, you might as well imitate your own program because if you don't, someone else will"
About this Quote
There is a comic sting to Sherman’s advice: originality isn’t a halo, it’s a moving target with terrible security. If you’ve built a “program” - a style, a persona, a comedic lane - the world will happily counterfeit it for you. Sherman frames imitation not as a moral failure but as an inevitability, even a business model. The punchline is the inversion: instead of begging to be “authentic,” you proactively plagiarize yourself. Keep your own act in motion so copycats are always chasing yesterday’s version.
The intent feels practical and a little bruised, the way show-business wisdom usually does. Sherman came up in mid-century American entertainment, where television and records scaled a gag or a voice instantly, and novelty music thrived on recognizable formulas. His own career - breakout success, then the fickleness of taste - makes the warning land as lived experience rather than abstract theory. If you pause, the market doesn’t; it repackages your signature as someone else’s “fresh” thing.
Subtext: artistic identity is also intellectual property, but the real protection isn’t lawyers, it’s momentum. Sherman treats the performer like a brand before “personal brand” became a LinkedIn prayer. The line is funny because it’s cynical and oddly liberating: stop pretending you can control imitation. Control your output. Be the first to raid your own bag of tricks, update your pattern, and make the imitation look like what it is - late.
The intent feels practical and a little bruised, the way show-business wisdom usually does. Sherman came up in mid-century American entertainment, where television and records scaled a gag or a voice instantly, and novelty music thrived on recognizable formulas. His own career - breakout success, then the fickleness of taste - makes the warning land as lived experience rather than abstract theory. If you pause, the market doesn’t; it repackages your signature as someone else’s “fresh” thing.
Subtext: artistic identity is also intellectual property, but the real protection isn’t lawyers, it’s momentum. Sherman treats the performer like a brand before “personal brand” became a LinkedIn prayer. The line is funny because it’s cynical and oddly liberating: stop pretending you can control imitation. Control your output. Be the first to raid your own bag of tricks, update your pattern, and make the imitation look like what it is - late.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
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