I have no more pleasure in hearing a man attempting wit and failing, than in seeing a man trying to leap over a ditch and tumbling into it
Interpretation
The quote expresses that failing at wit is as unpleasing as failing at a physical task, highlighting the disappointment in both cases.
In this quote, Samuel Johnson suggests that watching someone fail at attempting humor is just as uncomfortable and disappointing as witnessing someone physically attempt a risky action, like jumping over a ditch, and failing. Both scenarios evoke a sense of sympathy and frustration for the person's effort, suggesting that failure in any form, whether in wit or physical endeavors, is generally unpleasurable to witness.
In practice
During a comedy show, a comedian references this quote when a joke doesn't land.
To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example.
He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood.
To let friendship die away by negligence and silence is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to throw away one of the greatest comforts of the weary pilgrimage.
Fly-fishing may be a very pleasant amusement; but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.
When any anxiety or gloom of the mind takes hold of you, make it a rule not to publish it by complaining; but exert yourselves to hide it, and by endeavoring to hide it you drive it away.
A fishing rod is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other.
New Rule: Food companies must face the facts: One container equals one serving. Look, we’re Americans, and that means once we open the bag, there’s no stopping us until we’re licking stray bits of powdered cheese off the carpet. So stop trying to give us nutritional information based on a fraction of the package. It assumes a talent for two things that we’re really not capable of: restraint and math.
Some minds are like soup in a poor restaurant—better left unstirred.
We laugh a lot. That's for sure. Sure beats the alternative, doesn't it?
You know you're getting old when the candles cost more than the cake.
Philanthropist, n.: A rich (and usually bald) old gentleman who has trained himself to grin while his conscience is picking his pocket.
"Fussy eater" is a euphemism for "big pain in the ass."
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