“Comedy is the art of making people laugh without making them puke.”
“We can laugh at comedies like this for two reasons: Because we feel superior to the characters, or because we pity or like them. I do not much like laughing down at people, which is why the comedies of Adam Sandler make me squirmy (most people, I know, laugh because they like him). In the case of Napoleon Dynamite, I certainly don't like him, but then the movie makes no attempt to make him likable. Truth is, it doesn't even try to be a comedy. It tells his story and we are supposed to laugh because we find humor the movie pretends it doesn't know about.”
Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/napoleon-dynamite-2004 of Napoleon Dynamite (18 June 2004)
Reviews, One-and-a-half star reviews
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Roger Ebert 264
American film critic, author, journalist, and TV presenter 1942–2013Related quotes
“I know why we laugh. We laugh because it hurts, and it's the only thing to make it stop hurting.”
Variant: I've found out why people laugh. They laugh because it hurts so much... because it's the only thing that'll make it stop hurting.
Source: Stranger in a Strange Land
Parade interview http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2007/edition_09-23-2007/AStephen_Colbert (23 September 2007)
Variant: You can’t laugh and be afraid at the same time—of anything. If you're laughing, I defy you to be afraid.
Context: Not living in fear is a great gift, because certainly these days we do it so much. And do you know what I like about comedy? You can’t laugh and be afraid at the same time—of anything. If you're laughing, I defy you to be afraid.
On Comedy
Source: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/11/03/anchor-woman
On his show Sunnyside in “Kal Penn Talks Putting A Twist On Immigration Narrative With ‘Sunnyside’ & Chances For Another ‘Harold And Kumar’ Movie” https://deadline.com/2019/09/kal-penn-sunnyside-nbc-immigration-comedy-harold-and-kumar-1202743466/ in Deadline (2019 Sep 26)
“Our comedies are not to be laughed at.”
Reported in Paul F. Boller, John George, They Never Said It (1990), p. 38-39.
Misattributed
“I like it when people laugh for no reason… like that lady over there.”
Do You Believe in Gosh?