Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.

Heller’s line is a comic inversion of Malvolio’s famous boast in Shakespeare’s *Twelfth Night* (“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ’em”). By swapping “greatness” for “mediocrity,” the quote satirizes modern anxieties about status and achievement: instead of aspiring to exceptionalism, people often find themselves settling into ordinariness—by temperament, by effort that never rises above the average, or by circumstances that limit ambition. The humor carries a sting, suggesting that mediocrity can be as fated and socially imposed as “greatness” is mythologized to be, and that cultural narratives of merit may mask how frequently outcomes are merely average.