In his heyday, Steve Martin created some memorable lines:
“We’re two wild and crazy guys!”
“Always…no wait…never…”
“I thought yesterday was the first day of the rest of my life, but it turns out today is.”
“A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.”
“Boy, those French! They have a different word for everything.”
My favorite, from his 1977 album Let’s Get Small, is when he would refer to making a grievous mistake and slough it off with an extended, “Well, excuuuus me.” I stole borrowed it when I emceed high school football pep rallies that fall – even appearing with an arrow through my head – and received big laughs.
Now 46 years later it seems way too often folks use that approach to justify behavior that most would find unacceptable. From politicians, to clergy, to CEOs, egregious mistakes are explained away as ‘oopsies’ that attempt to minimize the impact of actions.
Perhaps the rest of us could learn something from the legendary comic that would discourage such behavior: “I’ve heard lots of people lie to themselves but they never fool anyone.”
