Blood may be thicker than water, but it is still sticky, unpleasant, and generally nauseating.

The line riffs on the proverb “blood is thicker than water,” which usually elevates family loyalty above other ties. Garofalo’s twist concedes that kinship can be powerful (“thicker”) while undercutting the sentimental moral: blood is also literally messy—“sticky, unpleasant, and generally nauseating.” The humor depends on collapsing metaphor into physical reality, turning a warm cliché into an image of discomfort. As a piece of comic cynicism, it suggests that family bonds may be unavoidable and intense, but they can also be burdensome, emotionally fraught, and hard to handle—something you can’t simply idealize without acknowledging the mess that comes with it.