Never ever discount the idea of marriage. Sure, someone might tell you that marriage is just a piece of paper. Well, so is money, and what’s more life-affirming than cold, hard cash?

In this quip, Miller uses a deliberately blunt comparison to puncture the cliché that marriage is “just a piece of paper.” By pairing marriage with money—another “piece of paper” that society treats as powerfully real—he highlights how symbolic instruments can carry immense practical and emotional weight. The joke depends on irony: “cold, hard cash” is neither cold nor hard, yet it is undeniably life-shaping; likewise, a marriage certificate is a document, but it can represent commitment, social recognition, legal protections, and a chosen life structure. The line is also a satire of modern cynicism, suggesting that dismissing marriage as mere paperwork ignores how much human life runs on shared fictions made concrete by collective belief.