Won't say I hate you–but my admiration for you is under control.

The line is a classic Fred Allen-style insult: it pretends to offer a civil, even complimentary sentiment (“admiration”) while immediately undercutting it with a cool qualifier (“under control”). The humor comes from the mismatch between the polite surface and the implied hostility beneath it—an example of Allen’s dry, urbane wit and his fondness for barbed epigrams. Read as social satire, it also pokes at the conventions of public niceness: instead of openly admitting dislike, the speaker performs restraint, suggesting that in certain settings contempt must be managed rather than expressed.