If at first you don't succeed . . . so much for skydiving.

Henny Youngman (1906–1998) was a vaudeville-trained stand-up comic best known for rapid-fire one-liners. This joke riffs on the familiar proverb “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again,” a staple of American self-help and moral instruction. Youngman’s comedy often worked by taking a wholesome maxim and puncturing it with a blunt, literal twist. Here, he applies the proverb to skydiving—an activity where a first failure would be fatal—turning motivational optimism into dark, practical absurdity. The line circulated widely as a stand-up one-liner and in joke collections attributed to Youngman.

The humor comes from collision between inspirational cliché and real-world stakes. The proverb assumes repeated attempts are possible and desirable; by choosing skydiving, Youngman exposes that assumption as context-dependent. The punch line (“so much for skydiving”) is a deadpan concession that perseverance is meaningless when there is no second chance. Beyond the gag, the line satirizes motivational platitudes: advice that sounds universally wise can become nonsensical—or dangerous—when applied without judgment. It’s a compact example of Youngman’s style: economy of wording, reliance on shared cultural sayings, and a sudden turn to literal, dark logic.

If at first you don’t succeed, then skydiving definitely isn’t for you.