There is less in this than meets the eye.

Attributed to Tallulah Bankhead, the line is a wry inversion of the familiar reassurance that there is “more than meets the eye.” Read straight, it suggests that an apparently dramatic situation, person, or story may actually be simpler, hollower, or less consequential than it first appears. In Bankhead’s idiom—often quoted for her barbed, theatrical one-liners—it can also function as a deflating put‑down: a way of puncturing hype, glamour, or self-importance by implying that the surface is doing most of the work. The humor depends on reversal and understatement, turning suspicion into a punchline.