What is the meaning of this butterfly quote: "The caterpillar does all the work but the butterfly gets all the publicity." - George Carlin.

Question

anonymous · Answer

Maybe it means that the caterpillar is the one doing all the work for the transformation to take place for it to become a beautiful butterfly and they don't realize that a butterfly wasn't beautiful before.

anonymous · Answer

The butterfly gets all the credit for the hard work the caterpillar has put in.

It's meant to be humorous. (As in this case the caterpillar and the butterfly are the same creature.)

anonymous · Answer

Credit is given to the butterfly because of its beauty and the metaphors associated with the freedom it has once at the end of the coccooning process. It is not (necessarily) to imply that the caterpillar is ugly; but it is to say that there are many steps and much patient time involved for the caterpillar to evolve and gain its new found freedom.