Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
This threat uses death as a premise for an unusual and absurd follow-up consequence.
In plain terms
If you kill me I will make sure you never work in this town.
What can you take from it?
Absurd threats often mix extreme outcomes with petty consequences.

Where it applies

  • conflict resolution
  • comedy writing
  • negotiation

Putting it to work

  • use absurdity to disarm tension
  • mix serious threats with petty ones

Questions to consider

  • What makes a threat funny?
  • How do you handle conflict creatively?

Another view

The threat is logically impossible if the speaker is dead.

More from Steve Martin

  1. All of a sudden I had to remember some words that Marlowe had told me over fifteen years ago: 'Dead men don't wear plaid.' Hmm... Dead men don't wear plaid. I …

    Permalink to quote #2

  2. A kiss may not be the truth, but it is what we wish were true.

    Permalink to quote #4

  3. The new phone book's here! The new phone book's here! This is the kind of spontaneous publicity I need. My name in print. That really makes somebody. Things ar…

    Permalink to quote #1

Related quotes

  1. I hope some historian will confirm that I was the first cartoonist to use the word 'booger' in a newspaper comic strip.

    Bill WattersonBill Watterson quote #1

  2. The name was a fluke. A joke. It started when I was doing A Christmas Carol in San Diego. We'd sit backstage and talk about names we'd never give our children,…

    Whoopi GoldbergWhoopi Goldberg quote #1

  3. Can you imagine some big bloke from Newcastle going [dons Geordie accent] I've got the baby reet 'ere. He's Dad's only a few metres away, If 'e comes any close…

    Adam HillsAdam Hills quote #1