Chicanos never say congratulations when people do well. "I got a job over at the hospital." "'S about time." Do we say good luck? No, we say, "Don't fuck it up like last time." Or, "So now you think you're all bad, or what?" Go to the Hallmark store and look for that card. "Do you have a Now-You-Think-You're-All-Bad card?"

This line comes from George Lopez’s stand-up comedy about growing up Mexican American (Chicano) and the distinctive, often teasing communication style he associates with his family and community. In his routines, Lopez frequently contrasts mainstream American norms of encouragement and sentimentality (e.g., Hallmark-style congratulations cards) with a more ribbing, tough-love mode of support expressed through sarcasm and mock put-downs. The joke is framed as observational comedy: he stages a familiar “I got a job” scenario and then heightens it by imagining a greeting-card aisle that would cater to that culturally specific, backhanded way of acknowledging success.

Lopez uses exaggeration to argue that affirmation can be communicated indirectly: what sounds like discouragement (“’S about time,” “Don’t mess it up”) functions as a culturally coded form of intimacy and expectation. The humor depends on incongruity—placing blunt, profane, competitive-sounding remarks into the sentimental commercial world of Hallmark. Beneath the punchline is a comment on class, masculinity, and immigrant-family pressure: praise may be scarce, but standards and vigilance are constant. The bit also satirizes how mass-market culture assumes a single emotional register for celebration, while real communities often express pride through teasing rather than overt congratulations.