A silver cloche on a plate with a lime-green tentacle curling out from under the lid and a fork beside it, on a charcoal background.

Original artwork, not a still

Sen. Lillian DeHaven

If a cannibal used a knife and fork, would you call that progress?

— G.I. Jane  ·  1997

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The speaker uses a rhetorical question to argue that polished manners do not change the nature of an act. A cannibal with cutlery is still a cannibal, so refinement in method is not real moral progress. The dark humour lies in treating table etiquette as an absurd measure of civilisation.

Context reviewed

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