These people are amazing. It’s so emotional I was thinking about wearing waterproof mascara.

The line uses dry, self-aware humor to convey genuine emotion while maintaining composure. By pairing praise (“These people are amazing”) with the practical, celebrity-coded detail of “waterproof mascara,” Beckham signals that she is moved—possibly to tears—yet frames it in a controlled, image-conscious way. The joke works because it acknowledges the public-facing performance expected of her (looking polished) even in moments of authentic feeling. It also functions as a light, relatable shorthand for being overwhelmed: instead of describing tears directly, she implies them through a cosmetic precaution.