[Davis, E. Gene, Get 'Em Laughing: Public Speaking Humor, Quotes and Illustrations, Trafford Publishing, 2007-09-12, 68, 1425114334, 9781425114336]
Attributed
"Yvonne De Carlo Reminds The World There Was Life Before Lily Munster" (1987)
“Comedy has to be done en clair.”
You can't blunt the edge of wit or the point of satire with obscurity. Try to imagine a famous witty saying that is not immediately clear.
Letter, March 11, 1954, to Malcolm Cowley. Collecting Himself (1989)
Letters and interviews
“My favorite comedy is comedy where nothing is achieved and there is no point.”
“There's so much comedy on television. Does that cause comedy in the streets?”
Mocking the TV-violence debate, as quoted in Life, Vol. 18 (1995), p. 8 http://books.google.com/books?id=bNcxAQAAIAAJ&q=%22There's+so+much+comedy+on+television.+Does+that+cause+comedy+in+the+streets?%22&dq=%22There's+so+much+comedy+on+television.+Does+that+cause+comedy+in+the+streets?%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=I23qTvzhLsWgtwfNmJCUCg&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAA
Source: Words and Things (1959), p. 138
Comedy album "Comedy is Not Pretty"
“The only rules comedy can tolerate are those of taste, and the only limitations those of libel.”
"The Duchess and the Bugs", 'Lanterns & Lances (1961). The piece was "a response" to an award Thurber received from the Ohioana Library Association in 1953.
From Lanterns and Lances
“Our comedies are not to be laughed at.”
Reported in Paul F. Boller, John George, They Never Said It (1990), p. 38-39.
Misattributed
“Comedy is easy. Intrigue is hard.”
Source: Fugitives of Chaos (2006), Chapter 3, “Circuitous Acts” (p. 52)
