Original artwork, not a still
We spend the first twelve months of our children's lives teaching them to walk and talk and the next twelve telling them to sit down and shut up.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
The joke runs on the whiplash every parent knows: the proudest early milestones are walking and talking, and within a year the main wish is for quiet and stillness. It fits the self-mocking, tired-household comedy Diller built her career on, and it keeps circulating because it is short, true and easy to attach to a photo of a toddler.
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In context
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Phyllis Diller (1917 to 2012) was an American stand-up comedian known for self-deprecating humor, wild hair and a cackling laugh, and this joke about children and parenting is widely credited to her. No original routine, book, interview or date for it has been found, so it should be treated as a line in her style that is attributed to her rather than a documented quotation. Versions of the joke with different wording circulate online.
Sources (1)
- Phyllis Diller, WikipediaLead paragraphsReference checked
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