“The fellow who thinks he knows it all is especially annoying to those of us who do.”
— Harold Coffin, The Saturday Evening Post, 1961
I first encountered a version of this quote during one of the more humbling stretches of my professional life. A mentor of mine — someone who had spent forty years in journalism and never once raised his voice — slid a sticky note across the desk during a particularly tense editorial meeting. On it, in his cramped handwriting, were the words: “People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” He said nothing else. He just smiled and went back to his coffee. At the time, I was the youngest person in the room and, almost certainly, the loudest. The quote didn’t fully land until the drive home, when I realized — with a slow, sinking clarity — that I was the target, not the audience. That sticky note lived on my monitor for three years. Now, years later, I find myself tracing the actual origin of those words, because it turns out the history behind this deceptively simple joke is far richer — and far more contested — than anyone might expect.
The Earliest Known Appearance
The trail leads back, with reasonable confidence, to a single publication: The Saturday Evening Post, dated May 6, 1961. The line appeared as a filler item — one of those short, punchy remarks that editors tuck between longer features to fill column space. It read simply:
“The fellow who thinks he knows it all is especially annoying to those of us who do.”
— Harold Coffin
Filler items like this rarely get much attention. However, this one clearly resonated. Within days, the Minneapolis Morning Tribune reprinted the remark, crediting Coffin directly and citing the Saturday Evening Post as the source. That kind of rapid cross-publication pickup signals something important — the line struck a nerve immediately. It was funny, self-aware, and wickedly precise. Additionally, it required zero explanation. Everyone has met the person it describes.
Who Was Harold Coffin?
Harold Coffin worked as a humor columnist for the Associated Press news service throughout the 1960s and 1970s. He wrote a recurring feature called Coffin’s Needle, which delivered short, sharp observations on everyday life and human behavior. His style leaned toward the sardonic — the kind of wit that makes you laugh first and wince second.
Coffin died in 1981, and his New York Times obituary acknowledged his long career with the AP. Interestingly, researchers have not located the specific “knows it all” joke within his archived AP column writings. Therefore, it seems likely the line appeared in a standalone submission to the Saturday Evening Post rather than through his regular wire service work. That small gap in the paper trail has created just enough ambiguity for other attributions to creep in over the decades.
Despite that gap, Coffin remains the strongest candidate. No earlier printed version of this joke has surfaced anywhere. Furthermore, the 1961 Saturday Evening Post citation is contemporaneous — meaning someone credited him while he was still alive and actively writing. That matters enormously in quote attribution research.
The Long History of Mocking Know-It-Alls
Coffin didn’t invent the attitude behind the joke. Humans have been skewering arrogant overconfidence for centuries. Consider this line printed in a Staunton, Virginia newspaper back in 1867:
“Blessed are they that know nothing, for they are happy to think that they know everything.”
That remark carries the same essential energy — the gentle, devastating mockery of people who confuse confidence with competence. However, it lacks Coffin’s crucial twist. The genius of Coffin’s version is its structure: the punchline arrives in the second half, where the speaker reveals themselves as also claiming total knowledge. That self-implicating irony elevates the joke from observation to art.
Philosophers and satirists have always found fertile ground in human overconfidence. The Socratic tradition, after all, rests on the idea that wisdom begins with recognizing what you don’t know. Coffin’s quip flips that entirely — and the flip is what makes it memorable.
How the Quote Evolved Over Decades
Once a joke enters circulation, it mutates. This one proved especially adaptable. By 1965, the line appeared in a Cambridge City, Indiana newspaper column called “Smiles and Chuckles” — with no attribution at all. That anonymization is a classic first step toward misattribution. When a joke loses its author’s name, it becomes available for reassignment.
In 1967, a religion column in the Los Angeles Times published a notably different version:
“Let us remember that people who think they know everything are terribly irritating to those of us who do.”
— Emerson Unitarian Church Bulletin
The church framing is fascinating. Someone adapted Coffin’s secular punchline into a congregational benediction. As a result, the joke briefly wore religious clothing — which tells you something about the universal appeal of the underlying sentiment.
By 1971, the line had migrated to university bathroom walls. Robert Reisner’s book Graffiti: Two Thousand Years of Wall Writing included this version, attributed to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor:
“Those who think they know it all upset those of us who do.”
Graffiti attribution is, of course, essentially anonymous. However, the fact that this joke made it onto university walls confirms its cultural traction. Students recognized it. They wrote it down. They wanted others to read it.
The Comedians Who Claimed It
By the 1980s, professional comedians had folded the joke into their repertoire. Joey Adams — a prolific American comedian and author — included a version in his 1986 book Roast of the Town:
“People who think they know everything always annoy those of us who do.”
Three years later, Milton Berle — one of the most famous comedians in American television history — published his own version in Milton Berle’s Private Joke File:
“People who think they know it all always bug people who do!”
Neither Adams nor Berle credited Coffin. Additionally, neither claimed original authorship outright — they simply included the joke as part of larger collections. That practice was common in mid-century comedy publishing, where jokes circulated freely and attribution was often informal at best.
The Misattribution to Isaac Asimov
Here is where the story gets genuinely interesting — and a little frustrating. Isaac Asimov was one of the most prolific writers in history, producing hundreds of books across science fiction, science education, and humor. He had a well-documented wit and a reputation for intellectual confidence. Consequently, when this joke needed a famous name attached to it, Asimov became the obvious candidate.
The Asimov attribution appears to have entered circulation around 2001 — nearly a decade after Asimov’s death in 1992. A Usenet message posted in October 2001 attributed the line directly to Asimov, phrasing it as:
“Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.”
— Asimov
From there, the attribution spread rapidly. By 2006, Reader’s Digest’s Treasury of Wit & Wisdom had published the Asimov version as established fact. Reader’s Digest carries enormous cultural weight, and that publication effectively cemented the Asimov myth for millions of readers.
However, no researcher has found this line in any of Asimov’s actual writings, interviews, or documented speeches. The attribution almost certainly emerged because Asimov fit — his personality, his reputation, and his prolific output made him a plausible author. But plausibility is not evidence. Furthermore, Coffin’s 1961 citation predates Asimov’s supposed authorship by four decades. The math simply doesn’t work in Asimov’s favor.
A Family of Variants
One of the most telling signs of a genuinely popular joke is the emergence of variant families — slightly different phrasings that preserve the core structure while adapting the language. This quote generated an unusually large one. Here is a condensed look at the documented variants:
– “The fellow who thinks he knows it all is especially annoying to those of us who do.” — The original Coffin version, 1961. – “People who think they know everything are terribly irritating to those of us who do.” — The church bulletin variant, 1967. – “Those who think they know it all upset those of us who do.” — The university graffiti version, 1971. – “Those who think they know it all are very annoying to those who do.” — Attributed to Robert K. Mueller in a 1992 quote collection. – “People who think they know everything always annoy those of us who do.” — Joey Adams, 1986. – “People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — The version later misattributed to Asimov.
The core structure never changes: a claim of universal ignorance among the overconfident, immediately undercut by the speaker’s implied claim to superior knowledge. That paradox is the engine of the joke. Every variant preserves it.
Robert K. Mueller and the 1992 Attribution
One attribution deserves a brief detour. Source The 1992 quote collection And I Quote, published by St. Martin’s Press, credited the line to a Robert K. Mueller. This attribution has not gained significant traction in popular culture, and researchers have not definitively identified which Robert K. Mueller the editors intended. The name is common enough to complicate verification. However, the 1992 date places this attribution thirty-one years after Coffin’s original publication — making it almost certainly a secondary attribution rather than an independent origin.
Why This Quote Endures
Some jokes survive because they describe something timeless. Know-it-alls have existed in every era, every workplace, every family dinner table. The specific sting of this joke — its self-aware hypocrisy, its weaponized irony — makes it universally deployable. Additionally, it works equally well as a gentle self-deprecation or a pointed critique of someone else.
The joke also benefits from its structural elegance. Source It sets up an expectation — the speaker will complain about overconfident people — and then subverts it by revealing the speaker as equally overconfident. That twist arrives in under twenty words. Therefore, it sticks.
Modern usage has spread the quote across social media, motivational posters, and office humor collections. Unfortunately, most modern citations attach Asimov’s name rather than Coffin’s. That misattribution has become so widespread that correcting it now feels almost quixotic. However, the documented evidence is clear: Harold Coffin wrote this joke first, published it in a major national magazine, and received contemporaneous credit for it.
The Broader Lesson About Quote Attribution
This story illustrates a pattern that repeats constantly in quote history. A witty line appears in print, often in a modest context. It circulates without attribution. Eventually, someone attaches a famous name — usually someone whose personality fits the sentiment. The famous name sticks because it feels right, not because anyone checked. Meanwhile, the actual author fades from memory.
Harold Coffin deserves better than that. Source He crafted a genuinely funny, structurally brilliant joke that has made people laugh for over sixty years. His name should travel with it.
Next time someone confidently misattributes this quote to Asimov, you now have the full story. And frankly, correcting them with the actual history might be the most fitting possible use of a joke about people who think they know everything.
After all — some of us actually do.