“The only honest art form is laughter, comedy. You can't fake it… try to fake three laughs in an hour -- ha ha ha ha ha -- they'll take you away, man. You can't.”

—  Lenny Bruce

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The only honest art form is laughter, comedy. You can't fake it… try to fake three laughs in an hour -- ha ha ha ha ha …" by Lenny Bruce?
Lenny Bruce photo
Lenny Bruce19
comedian and social critic 1925–1966

Related quotes

Carole King photo

“And it's too late, baby, now it's too late
Though we really did try to make it
Somethin' inside has died and I can't hide
And I just can't fake it.”

Carole King (1942) Nasa

Though King wrote the music for "It's Too Late", the lyrics were entirely written by Toni Stern.
Misattributed

William S. Burroughs photo

“Cheat your landlord if you can and must, but do not try to shortchange the Muse. It cannot be done. You can't fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal.”

William S. Burroughs book The Western Lands

Source: The Western Lands (1987), ch. 2

James Thurber photo

“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.”

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

Letter, March 11, 1954, to Malcolm Cowley. Collecting Himself (1989)
Letters and interviews

John Fante photo

“Afraid of a woman! Ha, great writer this! How can he write about women, when he's never had a woman? Oh you lousy fake, you phony, no wonder you can't write! No wonder there wasn't a woman in The Little Dog Laughed. No wonder it wasn't a love story, you fool, you dirty little schoolboy.”

John Fante book Ask the Dust

Ask the Dust (1939)

Sarah Dessen photo

“You could just tell when a person belonged somewhere. That is something you can't fake, no matter how hard you try”

Sarah Dessen book What Happened to Goodbye

Source: What Happened to Goodbye

Kurt Schwitters photo

“So I spit back at you, Huelsenbeck
But where you spit venom, I spit art
I laugh at you -- HA HA --
I laugh at you”

Kurt Schwitters (1887–1948) German artist

1920s, Huelsendada', Kurt Schwitters, 1920

“You can't condemn me for wanting you, unless you condemn every other man who has."

-Clayton Westmoreland”

Judith McNaught book Whitney, My Love

Source: Whitney, My Love

L. S. Lowry photo

“An artist can't produce great art unless he has a philosophy. He can't say something unlee he has something to say.”

L. S. Lowry (1887–1976) British visual artist

Interview tapes Cotton & Mullineux

William Faulkner photo

“Be scared. You can't help that. But don’t be afraid. Ain’t nothing in the woods going to hurt you unless you corner it, or it smells that you are afraid. A bear or a deer, too, has got to be scared of a coward the same as a brave man has got to be.”

William Faulkner (1897–1962) American writer

"The Bear” in The Saturday Evening Post (9 May 1942)

Joseph Beuys photo

“I think art is the only political power, the only revolutionary power, the only evolutionary power, the only power to free humankind form all repression. I say not that art has already realized this, on the contrary, and because it has not, it has to be developed as a weapon, at first there are radical levels, then you can speak about special details.”

Joseph Beuys (1921–1986) German visual artist

Quoted in: Robert C. Morgan (1978). The Role of Documentation in Conceptual Art: : An Aesthetic Inquiry. p. 176.
1970's, I Am Searching For Field Character,' 1973/74

Related topics