Bill Mauldin Quote

The American public highly overrates its sense of humor. We're great belly laughers and prat fallers, but we never really did have a real sense of humor. Not satire anyway. We're a fatheaded, cotton-picking society. When we realize finally that we aren't God's given children, we'll understand satire. Humor is really laughing off a hurt, grinning at misery.


As quoted in TIME magazine (21 July 1961)


The American public highly overrates its sense of humor. We're great belly laughers and prat fallers, but we never really did have a real sense of...

The American public highly overrates its sense of humor. We're great belly laughers and prat fallers, but we never really did have a real sense of...

The American public highly overrates its sense of humor. We're great belly laughers and prat fallers, but we never really did have a real sense of...

The American public highly overrates its sense of humor. We're great belly laughers and prat fallers, but we never really did have a real sense of...