Steven Universe self-help guide How To Talk To People is one of the show's best throwaway jokes - and offers some profoundly simple advice. Cartoon Network's Steven Universe first aired back in 2013 and follows the title character, a young boy who lives in Beach City with an alien race called the Crystal Gems. Steven is half-gem himself and he learns to use his powers and take responsibility for defending his home town from threats as the series progresses.
Steven Universe was created by Rebecca Sugar - who also worked on Adventure Time - and the show has been praised for its great characters, fantastic music numbers and for tackling mature topics like gender and sexuality. The show itself seems to be on hold following the dramatic events of season 5 finale "Change Your Mind," but Steven Universe: The Movie is set to air on Cartoon Network on September 2019.
While Steven Universe is a total blast it's the show's great big heart that attracted such a large fanbase. One of the series best gags was a relative throwaway moment from the season 2 episode "Sworn To The Sword." The story involves Steven convincing Pearl to teach his best friend Connie how to sword fight. It's a surprisingly emotional episode and features one of Steven Universe's best songs with "Do It For Her." It also finds Steven reading a how-to guide called How To Talk To People, and the only advice revealed onscreen shows two simple steps. Step One is "Think of what you want to say" and Step Two is simply "Say it."
It's hardly Steven Universe's most complicated gag but there's something about the deadpan simplicity of How To Talk To People that just makes it work. This one gag would later inspire a few memes of its own, including one that replaced the guide's second step with Shia LaBeouf's yelling "Just do it!" from his odd 2015 motivational speech.
"Sworn To The Sword" is a great standalone episode of Steven Universe regardless, but the How To Talk To People gag is just icing on the cake. While the future of the Steven Universe TV series has yet to be confirmed, it will be interesting to see how Steven Universe: The Movie evolves the story. It will take place two years after the events of the season 5 finale, with a new alien villain coming to Beach City to kill Steven for unknown reasons. Knowing the TV series, the movie spinoff should be another emotional journey.