“I remember when humor was gentle pokes. I used to call it 'arm around the shoulder' humor. Now they go for the jugular and they take no prisoners. It's mean, mean stuff.”

—  Robert Orben

Steve Lowery (October 23, 1993) "What's So Funny? Humor Comes Under Harsh Glare of Political Correctness", Press-Telegram, p. C1.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I remember when humor was gentle pokes. I used to call it 'arm around the shoulder' humor. Now they go for the jugular …" by Robert Orben?
Robert Orben photo
Robert Orben 40
American magician and writer 1928

Related quotes

Don Soderquist photo

“I hope humor is a part of your life, too.  It takes a positive attitude and a strong desire to enjoy life to see the humor around us, but having a little laughter sprinkled throughout your day is a great way to live.”

Don Soderquist (1934–2016)

Don Soderquist “ Live Learn Lead to Make a Difference https://books.google.com/books?id=s0q7mZf9oDkC&lpg=pg=PP1&dq=Don%20Soderquist&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false, Thomas Nelson, April 2006 p. 44.
On Keeping a Sense of Humor

“Humor gives presidents the chance to be seen as warm, relaxed persons. Humor reaches out and puts its arm around the listener and says, 'I am one of you, I understand,' and implicitly it promises, 'I will do something about your problems.”

Robert Orben (1928) American magician and writer

William Lowther (September 21, 1986) "Americans laugh at their presidents -- not with them", The Toronto Star, p. B3.

Bel Kaufmanová photo

“I had used my sense of humor; I had called it proportion, perspective. But perspective is distance.”

Part X, ch. 51 (Sylvia Barrett)
Up the Down Staircase (1965)

Jonathan Safran Foer photo
Joss Whedon photo
Lin Yutang photo
William Gibson photo

“Vasopressin makes you remember, I mean really remember. Clinically they use the stuff to counter senile amnesia, but the street finds its own uses for things.”

Burning Chrome (short story anthology, 1986)
Source: "Burning Chrome" (The Burning Chrome anthology was named after this short story, originally published in Omni, 1982)

James Thurber photo

“Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility.”

James Thurber (1894–1961) American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright

Quoted in New York Post (29 February 1960)
Letters and interviews

Hermann Göring photo

“If I didn't have a sense of humor, how could I stand this trial now?”

Hermann Göring (1893–1946) German politician and military leader

To Leon Goldensohn (27 May 1946)
The Nuremberg Interviews (2004)

Edgar Wilson Nye photo

Related topics