Quote Origin: I Told the Doctor I Was Overtired, . . . Constantly Depressed With Recurring Fits of Paranoia. Turns Out I’m Normal

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Jules Feiffer? Leonard Roy Frank? Apocryphal?

Two surveillance cameras from Unsplash

Question for Quote Investigator: Many years ago I encountered a comic strip presenting a humorous commentary about the modern condition. In a series of panels a person complained to a doctor about feeling overtired, anxious, depressed, and paranoid. The doctor simply replied that the person was perfectly normal. I do not recall the exact phrasing. I think the creator was cartoonist Jules Feiffer. Would you please help me to find a citation?

Reply from Quote Investigator: In January 1969 “The Village Voice” newsweekly of New York printed a six-panel comic strip by Jules Feiffer. Each panel contained one of the phrases below accompanied with the drawing of a face displaying an evolving sequence of unhappy expressions. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1

I TOLD THE DOCTOR I WAS OVERTIRED—
ANXIETY RIDDEN—
COMPULSIVELY ACTIVE—
CONSTANTLY DEPRESSED—
WITH RECURRING FITS OF PARANOIA..
TURNS OUT I’M NORMAL.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

In 2000 “Random House Webster’s Wit & Humor Quotationary” edited by Leonard Roy Frank appeared. Feiffer’s words were remembered:2

JULES FEIFFER (1929 — ). American cartoonist
I told the doctor I was overtired, anxiety-ridden, compulsively active, constantly depressed, with recurring fits of paranoia. Turns out I’m normal.

In 2004 quotation expert Mardy Grothe compiled and published “Oxymoronica: Paradoxical Wit and Wisdom from History’s Greatest Wordsmiths” which included the following entry:3

I told the doctor I was overtired, anxiety-ridden, compulsively active, constantly depressed, with recurring fits of paranoia. Turns out I’m normal. JULES FEIFFER

In conclusion, Jules Feiffer deserves credit for this quotation. It appeared within a comic strip in “The Village Voice” in 1969.

Image Notes: Picture of two surveillance cameras from Miłosz Klinowski at Unsplash. The image has been cropped.

Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Mardy Grothe whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Grothe knew the text of the comic and was told that the quotation appeared circa 1968 in a Jules Feiffer comic strip in “The Village Voice”. Many thanks to Ben Zimmer who precisely located the work in the January 30, 1969 issue of “The Village Voice”.

Update History: On May 8, 2024 the format of the bibliographical notes was updated. Also, the full article was placed on this website.

  1. 1969 January 30, The Village Voice, (Comic Strip by Jules Feiffer), Quote Page 4, Column 1, The Village Voice Inc., New York. (Google News Archive) link ↩︎
  2. 2000, Random House Webster’s Wit & Humor Quotationary, Edited by Leonard Roy Frank, Person: Jules Feiffer, Quote Page 85, Random House, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
  3. 2004, Oxymoronica: Paradoxical Wit and Wisdom from History’s Greatest Wordsmiths by Mardy Grothe, Quote Page 27, Publisher HarperCollins Publishers, New York. (Verified on paper) ↩︎
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