The End Of The F***ing World: 5 Funniest Quotes (& 5 Most Heartbreaking)

Known for its dark humor, this British television series caught the attention of many young fans with its unique charm and blunt characters. The End Of The F***ing World tells the story of James, a self-proclaimed psychopath, and Alyssa, who just wants out of her family.

Both of these teens are funny in their own ways, often without meaning to be, but they’re also blunt to the point of brutality. They learn a lot on their journey together and suffer heartbreak in every sense of the word. Here are 5 of the series’ funniest quotes, and 5 that are heartbreaking.

10. FUNNY: “I’m James. I’m Seventeen. And I’m Pretty Sure I’m A Psychopath.”

On the surface, this doesn’t seem like a very funny quote at all, but it’s how we first come to know James. Being a psychopath certainly isn’t funny, but it’s funny to hear a teenager introduce himself so matter-of-factly and go on to speak of other mundane topics. James is only playing the part of a psychopath because he thinks it’s what he should do.

As a child, he’s very caring, as we see in the duck-feeding scene. He shows empathy and sympathy for other characters and quickly comes to care for Alyssa. Most likely, he’s numb from the trauma he’s suffered in his childhood and doesn’t know how to deal with it. But that certainly doesn’t mean he’s a psychopath. When he introduces himself in this way, the quote is almost sweet in its childishness.

9. HEARTBREAKING: “That Was The Day I Learned That Silence Is Really Loud. Deafening. I Think Maybe My Dad Spent His Whole Life Trying To Avoid Silence. When You Have Silence, It’s Hard To Keep Stuff Out.”

James comes to this realization when Alyssa abandons him and he’s left alone. It’s the first time in the series that he really pauses to think about what he’s doing and what he’s done. He seems to be reevaluating his whole persona, now that he’s left with only his own thoughts.

As James’ voiceover plays in the background, we see a clip of his dad watching television — as James says, to avoid silence. Television is his distraction from facing reality, but now James is faced with his. He has no choice but to remember Alyssa covered in Clive Koch’s blood because, in this silence of his, he has nothing else to distract him.

8. FUNNY: “I Didn’t Know Where We Were Going Or When I Was Going To Kill Her, But I Punched My Dad In The Face And Stole His Car And That Felt Like A Good Place To Start.”

The first step of James and Alyssa’s great escapade is to find — or rather, steal — a car. James’ dad falls victim to circumstance and convenience when the pair decides to commandeer his car. Neither of them knows what they’re doing or where they’re going, as James says, but he feels that punching his dad in the face and stealing his car is a good place to start.

The fact that he doesn’t know when he’s going kill her clues the audience in on the fact that he’s never actually going to kill her at all, or he wouldn’t keep postponing it. The funniest part may be the offhanded yet dead-serious manner in which he delivers these lines.

7. HEARTBREAKING: “I’ve Just Turned Eighteen, And I Think I Understand What People Mean To Each Other.”

Season 1 comes to an abrupt end as the screen cuts to black and we hear a gunshot. James has just been running down the beach where Alyssa’s dad lives, pursued by armed police, and he finally realizes how much his relationship with Alyssa means to him. Unfortunately, his realization comes too late.

During the season, he’s learned a lot about people: his parents, Alyssa, Alyssa’s dad, Clive Koch, and the many people Alyssa and James meet on their journey. His revelation and acceptance of himself and his ability to feel is part of the season’s climax — but then it’s all cut rudely short. After struggling, learning, and growing for so long, it’s all for nothing; it’s the end of the world for James, Alyssa, and the series — or so we think.

6. FUNNY: “I Don’t Want To Have Sex With You.”

Alyssa seems to have an obsession with sex — at the beginning of the series, she constantly made sexual requests of James, and later she thinks she wants to have sex with the guy at Clive Koch’s house but then changes her mind. At this point, it becomes clear that she never really wanted to have sex, but only thought she did.

After she leaves James and is caught stealing from a shop, she feels a little worried in the back room alone with the manager, who’s older and larger than her, and asks to feel her body for any concealed stolen items. She tells him she doesn’t want to have sex with him, trying to appear brave, but he just looks at her weirdly and says he has sex with his wife. Alyssa’s tough facade momentarily crumbles and she seems very vulnerable and childlike in her assumption that everything is about sex.

5. HEARTBREAKING: “I Don’t Think It Works Anymore … I’m Sorry.”

James has just told Alyssa what happened in the years since he got shot since nobody ever told her. He’s about to reveal that her mother made him write that scathing letter, but he forgets this when Alyssa says that she wants to kiss him.

He’s caught off-guard, but then suddenly he tells her he doesn’t think he can have sex because of where he got shot. He dissolves into tears in one of James’ most vulnerable moments in the series. He feels inadequate, unworthy, and incomplete, especially compared to Alyssa’s new husband, but she comforts him and kisses him anyway. She values their emotional connection above a physical one.

4. FUNNY: “I Was Eating A Sandwich … It Was Just Like Something Out Of A Film.”

James has chosen to scatter his father’s ashes at the place where he met his wife. He tells Alyssa the story, intercut with a flashback of James’ dad telling it to him.

He says that she was walking her nana’s dog and he was sitting on a park bench, eating a sandwich. With a dreamy look in his eyes, he continues, “It was just like something out of a film.” Of course, it’s nothing near as romantic as a film, but back in the present, Alyssa says, “That’s nice.”

3. HEARTBREAKING: “It Was Different With Me.”

As Bonnie prepares to shoot Alyssa and James in the diner, they try to talk her down — although Alyssa seems to have accepted her fate anyway. Still, they try to convince Bonnie that Clive was not a good person and that he abused girls and women. Bonnie adamantly denies their claims since they have no proof. Also, she’s blinded by her own connection to Clive and what she thinks was love.

She’s deluded herself so much — and Clive has manipulated her so much — that she doesn’t even try to see past the veil of illusions that made up their relationship. She simply refuses to believe what Alyssa is telling her, and she wants to cling to the only relationship in her life that she thought meant something. Bonnie believes that she was special to Clive and that he truly loved her, even though every piece of evidence the audience has seen suggests otherwise.

2. FUNNY: “I’ve Seen You Skating. You’re Pretty Sh*t.”

This is Alyssa’s charming way of introducing herself to James. He replies, “F*** off.” But she’s not perturbed. She’s fascinated by him because he’s different, and she presents herself as a willing victim to his plans of killing someone.

Alyssa is utterly serious when she delivers this memorable quote, and that’s what makes it so funny. She continues this way for most of the series, remaining almost expressionless no matter the situation. It’s why other characters struggle to distinguish her sarcasm from her honesty.

1. HEARTBREAKING: “The Problem With A Person Having A Lack Of Love Is That They Don’t Know What It Looks Like, So It’s Easy For Them To Get Tricked … But Then I Guess We All Lie To Ourselves …”

Following on from the last heartbreaking quote, Bonnie decides not to kill James and Alyssa but tries to kill herself. Thankfully, they stop her immediately, but she breaks down in tears and doesn’t know what to do next. Cue Alyssa’s wise and sobering voiceover.

The truth about Bonnie is that she really doesn’t know what love is, and she’s lived her whole life without it. She’s had to convince herself that what she had with Clive was love. Her image of love is something she conjured up for herself, something she and Clive both tricked into her. Even sadder, though, is that Alyssa understands where she’s coming from in saying that people lie to themselves all the time — specifically about who they love and who loves them. Alyssa is most likely referring to her marriage, her experience with her father, and her mother’s relationship with Tony.

[Originally shared with ScreenRant.]