A celebrity is a person who works hard all his life to become well known, then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized.

Fred Allen (1894–1956) was one of America’s sharpest radio-era humorists, famous for satirizing show business, advertising, and the manufactured nature of fame. The line reflects the mid-20th-century entertainment world in which performers and publicists increasingly cultivated “celebrity” as a commodity, while the press and fans demanded constant access. Allen’s comedy often targeted the contradictions of public life—how performers chase attention to build careers yet resent the loss of privacy that attention brings. The joke also anticipates a modern trope: the famous person adopting disguises (dark glasses, hats) to move through public spaces unnoticed.

The quip exposes celebrity as a self-defeating pursuit. Allen frames fame as something earned through relentless effort—only for the “reward” to become an inconvenience requiring concealment. The dark glasses symbolize both literal anonymity and the performative management of public image: even attempts to hide can become part of the celebrity persona. The humor depends on irony—wanting recognition and fleeing it—and it critiques a culture that equates being known with being valued. Implicitly, Allen suggests that celebrity is less a stable achievement than a trap: once visibility becomes your currency, privacy becomes a luxury you can no longer easily afford.

1) “A celebrity is a person who works hard all his life to become known, then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized.”
2) “A celebrity is someone who works hard to become well known and then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized.”