If at first you don’t succeed, blame your parents.

This quip parodies the earnest proverb “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” by swapping perseverance for scapegoating. Its humor depends on the sudden shift from self-improvement to blaming one’s upbringing, genetics, or family circumstances—an exaggerated nod to how people sometimes externalize failure. Read lightly, it’s a satire of excuse-making and a jab at the temptation to locate responsibility anywhere but oneself. Read more broadly, it also gestures at the real influence of family environment on opportunity, while still framing the impulse to “blame your parents” as a comic overcorrection rather than a serious moral argument.