I hate housework! You make the beds, you do the dishes–and six months later you have to start all over again.

Joan Rivers (1933–2014) built much of her stand-up persona around sharp, self-deprecating observations about domestic life, marriage, and the expectations placed on women—especially in mid-to-late 20th-century American culture. This line is typical of her comedy about the drudgery and repetitiveness of household labor, delivered in the cadence of a punchy one-liner: a familiar complaint (“I hate housework”) followed by an absurdly understated time frame (“six months later”) that heightens the joke. The quote circulates widely in quotation collections and is generally attributed to Rivers’ stand-up material rather than a single, easily citable publication.

The joke turns on the mismatch between the real rhythm of housework (daily, often invisible, and never truly finished) and the speaker’s mock complaint that it only has to be repeated after “six months.” Rivers uses exaggeration to spotlight how domestic labor can feel thankless and cyclical: the work produces no lasting monument, only temporary order that quickly collapses back into mess. Beneath the humor is a critique of how routine household maintenance is undervalued and how it can consume time without recognition. The line also plays with comic resentment—transforming ordinary chores into a Sisyphean task—while inviting the audience to share in the recognition.