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Lewis Black Quotes

Lewis Niles Black is an American stand-up comedian, author, playwright, social critic, and actor. He is best known for his angry demeanour and belligerent comedic style, in which he often simulates having a mental breakdown. His comedy routines often escalate into angry rants about history, politics, religion, or any other cultural trends. He hosted the Comedy Central series Lewis Black's Root of All Evil and made regular appearances on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart delivering his "Back in Black" commentary segment. When not on the road performing, he resides in Manhattan. He also maintains a residence in Chapel Hill, N.C. He is also a spokesman for the Aruba Tourism Authority, appearing in television ads that first aired in late 2009 and 2010, as well as the voice of Anger in 2015's Pixar film, Inside Out. He was voted 51st of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians of all time by Comedy Central in 2004; he was voted 5th in Comedy Central's Stand Up Showdown in 2008 and 11th in 2010.

Black has served as an "ambassador for voting rights" for the American Civil Liberties Union, since 2013.



✵ 30. August 1948
Lewis Black photo

Works

Nothing's Sacred
Nothing's Sacred
Lewis Black
Nothing's Sacred
Nothing's Sacred
Lewis Black
Lewis Black: 58 quotes0 likes

Famous Lewis Black Quotes

“Writing is thinking and thinking is hard work.”

Lewis Black

“A republican stands up in congress and says 'I GOT A REALLY BAD IDEA!!' and the democrat stands up after him and says 'AND I CAN MAKE IT SHITTIER!!”

Lewis Black

Nothing’s Sacred (2005)
Context: The only thing dumber than a Democrat or a Republican is when those pricks work together. You see, in our two-party system, the Democrats are the party of no ideas and the Republicans are the party of bad ideas. It usually goes something like this. A Republican will stand up in Congress and say, "I've got a really bad idea." And a Democrat will immediately jump to his feet and declare, "And I can make it shittier."

“It’s absolutely stupid that we live without an ozone layer. We have men, we’ve got rockets, we’ve got saran wrap – FIX IT!!!”

Lewis Black

“We are all shitty little snowflakes dancing in the universe.”

Lewis Black

Source: Me of Little Faith

“That's the funny thing about religion: it doesn't matter what you say, you're going to upset.”

Lewis Black

Source: Me of Little Faith

“Americans continue to rapidly homogenize ourselves into a neutered oblivion. For a country founded on the protection of the unique, we relish our sameness.”

Lewis Black book Nothing's Sacred

Source: Nothing's Sacred

Lewis Black Quotes about time

“Some of these people have come up with some very elaborate arguments [for not paying taxes]. For instance, there were these guys, in Indiana and Nebraska, and they argued that Indiana and Nebraska weren't states, which was a pretty valid argument in the late 1700s. But in 1995 and '96, well, I saw a map and at that time, trust me, Indiana and Nebraska are shitholes, but they're states. I saw them! They were right there in the middle someplace. I may not be able to point them out immediately, but I know they're there.”

Lewis Black

Taxed Beyond Belief (2002)

“I was home alone watching George Bush speak on television. So it was just really the two of us. And as I listened to him, I realized, that one of us… was nuts! And for the first time ever, I went "Wow, it's not me!"”

Lewis Black

Red, White, and Screwed (2006)

“People go to Vegas, and they don't know what to do; here's what you do. You go to the casino in your hotel. On your arrival, you get $100 in quarters. Take that $100 back to your hotel room and stare at it for a long, long time. Why? Because you're never going to see them again. Then you take those quarters to the bathroom and you flush them, one by one by one. And the nice thing about that is that every so often the toilet will back up, and you'll feel like a WINNER!”

Lewis Black

The White Album (2000)

“If I wanted to be bored by 6,000 pages of unreadable dreck, I'd read War and Peace four times.”

Lewis Black

Taxed Beyond Belief (2002)

“Here's why I think there's something a little odd with George [Bush]. Because a lot of the times when he speaks, his words don't match his face. Something is askew. You can't talk about the war with a smile on your face. He does it constantly. If you're the President, you should go "We're going to talk about the war, I must have a frowny face." The only time you can smile when you're talking about the war in Iraq is when you go, "Well, two Iraqis walk into a bar, hahaha."”

Lewis Black

Red, White, and Screwed (2006)

“Christians… get Christmas under control. Seriously. It won't stop! It doesn't stop, does it? It's always Christmas now! Make it the whole year! It's the only time you pricks are happy!”

Lewis Black

Last Laugh ‘06 (2006)

Lewis Black Quotes about people

“[On Las Vegas audiences] Those audiences are wonderful. Talk about the most bitter group of people on the planet Earth! For one brief shining moment, I am Mr. Happy!”

Lewis Black

Anticipation (2008)

“There are no fights in Ireland, people just get so drunk they go, "GODDAMN, YA SONOFABITCH!" and pass out. And there's no Alcoholics Anonymous there, because if there's a meeting, it's always at the bar,”

Lewis Black

Rules of Enragement (2003)

“If anyone is as angry as I am, it's the good people of Detroit.”

Lewis Black

Stark Raving Black (2010)

“The argument we have about abortion is not about abortion. It's about when life begins. And we argue it, and we argue, and we argue! And I say we take all the people who think they know and yell and scream and they're sure when life begins and they're sure when life ends, and we lock them in a room. And we tell them to figure it out. And they don't come out until they do. And if they can't, then we kill them.”

Lewis Black

Last Laugh ‘05 (2005)

“There are people who believe that dinosaurs and men lived together, that they roamed the Earth at the same time. There are museums that children go to, in which they build dioramas to show them this. And what this is, purely and simply, is a clinical psychotic reaction. They are crazy. They are stone. Cold. Fuck. Nuts.”

Lewis Black

I can't be kind about this, because these people are watching The Flinstones as if it were a documentary.
Red, White, and Screwed (2006)

“I love Wisconsin, I love coming here. I've performed here a lot because I've discovered that you people apparently have some sort of federal grant for drinking. [audience cheers] It's–you're insane! You pay less for liquor than anybody I know anywhere in the country. Nobody pays any less for liquor than you. What're you–what're you–HOW?! I don't know if you're using that farm subsidy money, or if you're just hijacking liquor trucks, but this is fucking insane. [audience member shouts something] Is it volume? It's unbe–fucking–lievable, it's staggering! I come here because basically if I spend four days here drinking, and even with the plane ticket, it's cheaper than drinking in New York. How do you know when it's New Year's? That's the big mystery to me. What's the difference? I've been in bars here and it's like New Year's every fucking night! "Uh, New Year's, that's when we–we drink with hats on."”

Lewis Black

Source: The White Album (2000)

Lewis Black: Trending quotes

“Who knew that the devil had a factory where he made millions of fossils, which his minions distributed throughout the earth, in order to confuse my tiny brain?”

Lewis Black

Source: Me of Little Faith

“If you stop eating donutes you will live 3 years longer. It's just 3 more years that you want a donut. <. )
<.”

Lewis Black

“You don't want to go to Miami. Everybody's always delighted with it--no! Listen! The temperature down there is always over ninety and the humidity--and here's the problem--is way over 100%, way. And you know how it's over 100% humidity? When you're walking down the street for five minutes thinking to yourself, "You know, I should have put deodorant on my balls."”

Lewis Black

That's over a hundred. Because that's not something you'd think of on your own.
The White Album (2000)

Lewis Black Quotes

“Then there was the man who declared in court, he wasn't a person. "Excuse me, sir, why haven't you paid your taxes." "Well, as you can clearly see, I am not a person." "Well, you look like a person."”

Lewis Black

"No it's all done with mirrors, trust me!"
Taxed Beyond Belief (2002)

“Well first of all, I'd just like to say that 2005 was a great year, if you like swimming through crap.”

Lewis Black

Last Laugh ‘05 (2005)

“When they [N'Sync and Aerosmith] played, it wasn't music. It was the sound of chaos. I knew it was the sound of chaos because you could hear pigs being slaughtered. Women were weeping and men were gnashing their teeth, and there were sounds so horrible that I cannot repeat them to you, or you would flee from this room in horror!”

Lewis Black

The End of the Universe (2002)

“In four days, I experienced five seasons. It was thirty, it was sixty, it was ninety, then it was TWELVE! And on the last day, there was thunder, lightning, and snow--together! And I hadn't done drugs.”

Lewis Black

The White Album (2000)

“I should have known earlier about President Bush, but I gave him some rope - a lot of rope, and then he hung all of us with it. I should have known it when I heard him say "When it comes to evolution, the jury is still out."”

Lewis Black

What jury, where? The Scopes Trial is over.
Red, White, and Screwed (2006)

“This book is dedicated to all of my friends who helped me get to where I am today - you know who you are…. and when I find you I am going to kill you.”

Lewis Black

Nothing’s Sacred (2005)

“The toughest thing about performing here is, where do you go from here? Next week, I'm at the Fort Lauderdale Performing Arts Center.”

Lewis Black

The Carnegie Hall Performance (2006)

“Everyone of you has a health that is unique and totally different from everybody else. Completely! Because we… are all like snowflakes.”

Lewis Black

Black on Broadway (2004)

“I lost my virginity to a [record] skip. "Lay Lady Lay--Lay Lady Lay--Lay Lady Lay". We didn't even get to the big brass bed part.”

Lewis Black

Anticipation (2008)

“Now, most of the time you couldn't be too sure of the quality of the drug. Although, in my experience the stuff was always of a very high quality, because back then we didn't have business majors peddling lower-quality stuff in an effort to increase profits.”

Lewis Black

Nothing’s Sacred (2005)

“North Korea is the country that the monkeys in The Wizard of Oz came from.”

Lewis Black

Red, White, and Screwed (2006)

“Now, maybe you thought you could get clever by adding an "-ing" to your favorite curse word. Well, the bill also prohibits "compound use, including hyphenated compounds … and other grammatical forms including verb, adjective, gerund, participle, and infinitive forms." Fortunately for me, they didn't include the pluperfect subjunctive. So all you stuffed shirts can just have been having had to bite me.”

Lewis Black

The Daily Show (2004-3-24), &quot;Back in Black,&quot; regarding H.R. 3687 http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h108-3687, intended to expand the definition of &quot;profane broadcasts.&quot;

“They've gotta stop reporting wind chill. That's nonsense. It really is. I don't know where they came up with it, why they came up with it, but it's a lie. They come on, "Well, it's 27 degrees today, but with the wind chill, it's minus 3." … WELL, THEN IT'S MINUS 3, ASSHOLE! I don't need to know what the weather was like if the conditions were perfect!”

Lewis Black

Rules of Enragement (2003)

“You don't want another Enron? Here's the law: If you have a company, and it can't explain, in one sentence… what it does… it's illegal!”

Lewis Black

Luther Burbank Performing Arts Center Blues (2005)

“Normally, in February, in Boston and in most of the country, the weather is gray, rainy, gray, sleet, snow, gray; every day it just gets grayer and grayer and grayer! You wake up one day and you go 'I'm not coming into work today!' Your boss goes, 'Why not? You sick?' 'No! Its too gray!' Then you wake up and its the grayest day you've ever seen! And the next day it's even grayer! And that's usually Valentine's Day, and that's the day you look at your wrists and go, 'Hey, maybe I should slit 'em to see color!”

Lewis Black

The White Album (2000)

“I don't believe pumpkin pie is even made from pumpkin. I mean, how can something that smells that shitty make a pie so sweet? There's not enough sugar in the universe.”

Lewis Black

Nothing’s Sacred (2005)

“It [The Weather Channel] is the most watched cable channel in America. I'll repeat that. It is the most watched cable channel in America. They were worried about the terrorists immobilizing us, and a portion of our countrymen watch weather. 'Kay, you don't get any more immobile than that… unless you're in a goddamn coma. That means you're saying, "I'd go to the window, but it's too far." If you want to know what the weather is you go to a window and stick your hand out and if you want to know what the temperature is you drive by a bank.”

Lewis Black

The End of the Universe (2002)

“We always feel better in anticipation. You don't think about something and think "Aw, it's gonna be shitty." NO! You say "This is gonna be the greatest weekend ever! Sonuvabitch!" And then, by Monday, you're throwing up and you're thinking "You know, I always thought those guys were pricks!"”

Lewis Black

Anticipation (2008)

“If you are an adult, and you are planning to dress up on Halloween…don't. I will find you. I will hurt you.”

Lewis Black

The Carnegie Hall Performance (2006)

“You are an adult, and you can dress up whenever you want to. You don't need permission anymore! If you wake up next Tuesday, and you feel like being Batman, go for it! And then you go to work, and your boss will look up and go "who are you," and you can say…"I am Batman. That's who I am, who are you?"”

Lewis Black

The Carnegie Hall Performance (2006)

“I believe that the way in which we should truly live is we should think about what we're going to do, and then not do it. Your boss comes in on Monday and goes, "Hey! You're my go-to guy — I need a report by Friday." You go, "I'll get right on it, chief!" And then you head back to your desk and you put your feet up and you spend the week thinking about it. And then he comes in on Friday and goes, "Where's my report?" And you say, with a big grin on your face, "I didn't do it!" And he goes, "Why not?"”

Lewis Black

and then you say, "Because I didn't want to disappoint you!"
Anticipation (2008)

“[about solar energy] If you ask your congressman why, he'll say "Because it's hard. It's really hard. Makes me want to go poopie." You know why we don't have solar energy? It's because the sun goes away each day, and it doesn't tell us where it's going!”

Lewis Black

Red, White, and Screwed (2006)

“[about how the Earth was created] And then there are fossils. Whenever anybody tries to tell me that they believe it took place in seven days, I reach for a fossil and go "Fossil!" And if they keep talking, I throw it just over their head.”

Lewis Black

Red, White, and Screwed (2006)

“You know what would help the instruction form? Verbs! Verbs would be nice! Because they help you get to the end of a thought!”

Lewis Black

Taxed Beyond Belief (2002)

“There is no better moment than this moment, when we're anticipating the actual moment itself. All of the moments that lead up to the actual moment are truly the best moments. Those are the moments that are filled with good times. Those are the moments in which you are able to think that it is going to be perfect, when the moment actually happens. But, the moment is reality, and reality always kinda sucks!”

Lewis Black

Anticipation (2008)

“The one thing I think we learned this year is that the Democrats and the Republicans are completely worthless.”

Lewis Black

Last Laugh ‘05 (2005)

“How our government works… it doesn't.”

Lewis Black

Nothing’s Sacred (2005)

“[on Public Works Projects] You see what I felt they should have done for our first public works project is build a giant wall across the entire border of Canada…because THAT'S where the cold air comes from!”

Lewis Black

Black on Broadway (2004)

“Arnold Schwarzenegger is the governor of your state. How am I, as a comedian, supposed to create a reality that encompasses that?”

Lewis Black

Luther Burbank Performing Arts Center Blues (2005)

“If it weren’t for my horse, I wouldn’t have spent that year in college.”

Lewis Black

The White Album (2000)

“Or… if you actually waited until you were married to lose your virginity, because you are so much a better person than the sniveling snot that we are, you were able to do that, because you were able to wait through everything, through all those feelings, all those hormones, all of that, you could wait, until that night to make love to (for the first time) to the person that you are gonna make love to for the rest of your life, because you are a gambler on a level that I have never fuckin' imagined! My hat is off to you! Wow! What courage!”

Lewis Black

Anticipation (2008)

“Can somebody explain to me why Pepsi and Coke advertise? Are we missing something? Seriously, everyone in this room has drank enough Pepsi and Coke in their lifetime they could piss it for a week.”

Lewis Black

The End of the Universe (2002)

“FEMA? I always thought it was a bone here in your ass.”

Lewis Black

Red, White, and Screwed (2006)

“Maybe there are a group of gay banditos… who, every night climb into a van and go from village to dell, from community to community. They wander, and as the sun is coming down, just setting over a suburban village, the gays drive in. And there in a cul-de-sac, there in the light of a house, you can see a young American family, sitting down for their evening meal. And those gays… put on their masks and their festive colored robes, and sneak slowly into the house… and begin to FUCK EACH OTHER IN THE ASS! AND ANOTHER AMERICAN FAMILY IS DESTROYED!”

Lewis Black

The Carnegie Hall Performance (2006)

“Wise men say that time is like a river. I say time is like a river of SHIT… and as you float down that river in your little canoe, your paddles are getting smaller and smaller.”

Lewis Black

Last Laugh ‘06 (2006)

“CONGRATULATIONS, SAN FRANCISCO! YOU’VE RUINED PIZZA! FIRST THE HAWAIIANS, AND NOW YOU!”

Lewis Black

Source: Inside Out (2015)

“Can I say that curse word now?”

Lewis Black

Inside Out (2015)

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