“It is impossible to insult their intelligence.”
Okay, that’s Oscar Wilde territory, there. “Believe me sir, a joke on your lips is no laughing matter.”
Mark Twain: A German joke is nothing to laugh at.
James O’Neil Whistler was a friend of Oscar Wilde and came out with a clever witticism on one occasion. Wilde responded, “I wish I had said that.” to which Whistler replied, “You will, Oscar, you will.”