QuoteProject
Seeing a murder on television can help work off one's antagonisms. And if you haven't any antagonisms, the commercials will give you some.
Alfred Hitchcock
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Hitchcock humorously suggests that violent content can alleviate one's frustrations, or that advertisements can create new ones.

In this quote, Alfred Hitchcock is reflecting on the darker aspects of television consumption. He implies that witnessing violence on screen, while unsettling, can paradoxically have a cathartic effect, allowing viewers to release pent-up frustrations. Moreover, he adds a satirical twist by suggesting that even viewers lacking such frustrations can find them stirred up by the incessant barrage of advertisements, highlighting the manipulative nature of media.

Themes

TelevisionViolenceFrustrationMediaHumor

In practice

Example use cases

During a film analysis discussion on the impact of media on emotions.

More from Alfred Hitchcock

Dialogue should simply be a sound among other sounds, just something that comes out of the mouths of people whose eyes tell the story in visual terms.
Alfred HitchcockRead
Luck is everything... My good luck in life was to be a really frightened person. I'm fortunate to be a coward, to have a low threshold of fear, because a hero couldn't make a good suspense film.
Alfred HitchcockRead
I can't read fiction without visualizing every scene. The result is it becomes a series of pictures rather than a book.
Alfred HitchcockRead
I am a typed director. If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach.
Alfred HitchcockRead
There is something more important than logic: imagination
Alfred HitchcockRead
One must never set up a murder. They must happen unexpectedly, as in life.
Alfred HitchcockRead

Similar quotes

Humor distorts nothing, and only false gods are laughed off their earthly pedestals.
Agnes RepplierRead
The arrival of a good clown exercises a more beneficial influence upon the health of a town than twenty asses laden with drugs.
Thomas SydenhamRead
I am not gay, but if I were, I would be the first one running out of the closet.
Dolly PartonRead
On my tombstone, I want written: 'He never did 'Love Boat!''
Orson WellesRead
A sense of humor is the ability to understand a joke - and that the joke is oneself.
Clifton FadimanRead
I have always felt that humor was a wonderful vehicle to let us become connected with each other and ourselves… I try to portray the similarities and polarities in men and women, so that we_x000D_ can acknowledge and embrace our collective consciousness.
Lily TomlinRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.