Quotes about comedy

A collection of quotes on the topic of comedy, people, tragedy, doing.

Quotes about comedy

“Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious.”

Peter Ustinov (1921–2004) English actor, writer, and dramatist

As quoted in Morrow's International Dictionary of Contemporary Quotations (1982) by Jonathon Green

“When we understand this we see clearly that the subject round which the alternative senses play must be twofold. And we must therefore consider the subject of this work [the Divine Comedy] as literally understood, and then its subject as allegorically intended. The subject of the whole work, then, taken in the literal sense only is "the state of souls after death" without qualification, for the whole progress of the work hinges on it and about it. Whereas if the work be taken allegorically, the subject is "man as by good or ill deserts, in the exercise of the freedom of his choice, he becomes liable to rewarding or punishing justice."”
Hiis visis, manifestum est quod duplex oportet esse subiectum circa quod currant alterni sensus. Et ideo videndum est de subiecto huius operis, prout ad litteram accipitur; deinde de subiecto, prout allegorice sententiatur. Est ergo subiectum totius operis, litteraliter tantum accepti, status animarum post mortem simpliciter sumptus. Nam de illo et circa illum totius operis versatur processus. Si vero accipiatur opus allegorice, subiectum est homo, prout merendo et demerendo per arbitrii libertatem iustitie premiandi et puniendi obnoxius est.

Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) Italian poet

Letter to Can Grande (Epistle XIII, 23–25), as translated by Charles Singleton in his essay "Two Kinds of Allegory" published in Dante Studies 1 (Harvard University Press, 1954), p. 87.
Epistolae (Letters)

Death, Justice, Exercises, Soul

“Yeah. The guy's up against massive challenges, dealing with consequences, and figuring how to get what he wants and what he believes is right. He's living his worst nightmare, and he's doing everything he can. He's a damn good lawyer and he knows the system, but he's having to pull jokers out of his sleeve and win certain things on sheer willpower and gamble and meddle, you know? So that's what dramas allow, more so than a comedy. It's real-life consequences. The blows, the punches really hurt. The bullets really land. The people really bleed. People really cry. People really enjoy victory. People really feel pain and defeat. You can love harder. You can cry harder. You can be more angry, harder. That's what dramas allow.”

Matthew McConaughey (1969) American actor

" Exclusive interview with Matthew Mcconaughey http://www.hollywood.com/news/movies/7774937/exclusive-interview-with-matthew-mcconaughey?page=all" on hollywood.com, March 18, 2011: On playing Mick Haller in the The Lincoln Lawyer

Love, Life, Pain, People

“Life is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel.”

Jean Racine (1639–1699) French dramatist

Life, Feeling, Thinking

“My favorite comedy is comedy where nothing is achieved and there is no point.”

Conan O'Brien (1963) American television show host and comedian

“What is our life? A play of passion;
our mirth: the music of division;
our mother's wombs: the tiring houses be
where we are dressed for this short comedy.
Heaven the judicious sharp spectator is
that sits and marks still who doth act amiss.
Our graves that hide us from the searching sun
are like drawn curtains when the play is done.
Thus march we playing to our latest rest,
only we die in earnest, that's no jest.”

Walter Raleigh (1554–1618) English aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer

"On the Life of Man" (1612)
Attributed

Life, Music, Search, Passion

“Though I have always made it my practice to be pleasant to everybody, I have not once actually experienced friendship. I have only the most painful recollections of my various acquaintances with the exception of such companions in pleasure as Horiki. I have frantically played the clown in order to disentangle myself from these painful relationships, only to wear myself out as a result. Even now it comes as a shock if by chance I notice in the street a face resembling someone I know however slightly, and I am at once seized by a shivering violent enough to make me dizzy. I know that I am liked by other people, but I seem to be deficient in the faculty to love others. (I should add that I have very strong doubts as to whether even human beings really possess this faculty.) It was hardly to be expected that someone like myself could ever develop any close friends—besides, I lacked even the ability to pay visits. The front door of another person’s house terrified me more than the gate of Inferno in the Divine Comedy, and I am not exaggerating when I say that I really felt I could detect within the door the presence of a horrible dragon-like monster writhing there with a dank, raw smell.”

Osamu Dazai book No Longer Human

The Third Notebook: Part One
No Longer Human

Love, Pain, Friendship, People

“Life is funny. Life isn't categorized into comedy, drama, action, is it? So I don't know why they try to categorize everything. It drives me crazy-why it would have to be just a romantic comedy or… I want to have a little integrity, a little story, you know?”

Jennifer Aniston (1969) television and film actress from the United States

Primetime interview (Jan 2004)

Life

“Comedy can be a cathartic way to deal with personal trauma.”

Robin Williams (1951–2014) American actor and stand-up comedian

"Robin Williams on Returning to TV, Getting Sober, and Downsizing in His 60s", Parade (12 September 2013) http://parade.condenast.com/154817/dotsonrader/robin-williams-on-returning-to-tv-getting-sober-and-downsizing-in-his-60s/

Way, Personality

“For any comedian, your life informs your point of view, the way you see the world. My comedy comes through the prism of race or class, because those are two worlds that collided for me growing up. And I guess that’s served me well, because those themes cross over countries and continents. We’re all still dealing with those issues today.”

Trevor Noah (1984) South African comedian

On how his upbringing informs his comedy in “Life’s Work: An Interview with Trevor Noah” https://hbr.org/2018/09/lifes-work-an-interview-with-trevor-noah in Harvard Business Review (September-October, 2018) Personal life

World, Life, Way, Country

“That's what I always loved about comedy, it is a way for us to just, you know, to numb the pain, to process what we're going through.”

Trevor Noah (1984) South African comedian

Source: Trevor Noah Was Low Key In Black Panther https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wC6V4gLAat4, June 2018

Way, Love, Pain, Making love

“The finest actor is he who play the comedy of life perfectly, as i aspire to do. To walk well, talk well, weep well, laugh well and die well, it is all pure acting, because in every man there is the dumb dreadful immortal spirit who is real- who cannot act, who-is and who steadily maintains an infinite though speechless protest against the body's lies”

Marie Corelli (1855–1924) British writer

Source: The Sorrows of Satan or The Strange Experience of One Geoffrey Tempest, Millionaire

Life

“Comedy is the blues for people who can't sing.”

Chris Rock (1965) American comedian, actor, screenwriter, television producer, film producer, and director

Miscellaneous

People, Singing

“LORD ILLINGWORTH: The soul is born old but grows young. That is the comedy of life.
MRS ALLONBY: And the body is born young and grows old. That is life's tragedy.”

Oscar Wilde A Woman of No Importance

Source: A Woman of No Importance

Life, Soul

“There's something vile (and all the more vile because ridiculous) in the tendency of feeble men to make universal tragedies out of the sad comedies of their private woes.”

Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher and philosopher

Men, Sadness, Universe

“There was never yet an uninteresting life. Such a thing is an impossibility. Inside of the dullest exterior there is a drama, a comedy, and a tragedy.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Life

“Life is a tragedy to those who feel and a comedy to those who think.”

Molière (1622–1673) French playwright and actor

Life, Feeling, Thinking

“Music and comedy are so linked. The rhythm of comedy is connected to the rhythm of music. They’re both about creating tension and knowing when to let it go. I’m always surprised when somebody funny is not musical.”

Conan O'Brien (1963) American television show host and comedian

Music

“Those American comics themselves were heavily influenced by Keaton’s comedies, Mack Sennett, those sorts of films from the golden age of comedy. The gagmen that appeared there, for example Roscoe Arbuckle or Ben Turpin, there were lots of comics that used their style, their faces just as is. Especially Chaplin with his bowed legs and over-sized shoes. Those sorts of features were used directly in comics. In that era, all American cartoonists imitated the stars of comedy. That is what I worked so hard at copying, and so that’s why my comics are bowlegged and big-shoed. At the level of content too I was deeply influenced by the strong social caricatures of Chaplin’s comedies, the tears mixed with the laughter. The biggest influence of all was the rhythm.”

Osamu Tezuka (1928–1989) Japanese cartoonist and animator

Source: http://www.tcj.com/tezuka-osamu-and-american-comics/ Tezuka Osamu and American Comics

Age, Shoe, Star, Tear

“These unhappy agents found what had already been found in abundance on Earth—a nightmare of meaningless without end. The bounties of space, of infinite outwardness, were three: empty heroics, low comedy, and pointless death.
Outwardness lost, at last, its imagined attractions.
Only inwardness remained to be explored.
Only the human soul remained terra incognita.
This was the beginning of goodness and wisdom.”

Kurt Vonnegut book The Sirens of Titan

Source: The Sirens of Titan (1959), Chapter 1 “Between Timid and Timbuktu” (p. 8)

Death, Wisdom, Soul, Imagination

“I have to be honest with you. Comedy is what I want to see at the movies these days. Life is frickin' hard, man. I want to go to the movies and see people happy and enjoying themselves and having some fun. I've made other kinds of movies, for sure. But it's pretty apparent to me that's what people want. That's what I want. I enjoy those kinds of movies.”

Reese Witherspoon (1976) American film actress and producer

Interview for Vogue magazine, November 2008.

Life, People, Happiness

“This other man I had dreamed
A drunken, vain-glorious lout.
He had done most bitter wrong
To some who are near my heart,
Yet I number him in the song;
He, too, has resigned his part
In the casual comedy;
He, too, has been changed in his turn,
Transformed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.”

W.B. Yeats book Michael Robartes and the Dancer

St. 2 Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921), Easter, 1916 http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1477/

Beauty, Dreams, Change, Heart

“A married philosopher belongs in comedy, that is my proposition-and as for that exception, Socrates-the malicious Socrates, it would seem, married ironically, just to demonstrate this proposition.”

Friedrich Nietzsche book On the Genealogy of Morality

Essay 3, Aphorism 7
On the Genealogy of Morality (1887)

“If the psychic energies of the average mass of people watching a football game or a musical comedy could be diverted into the rational channels of a freedom movement, they would be invincible.”

Wilhelm Reich book The Mass Psychology of Fascism

Source: The Mass Psychology of Fascism (1933), Ch. 1 : Ideology As Material Power, Section 4 : The Social Function of Sexual Suppression

People, Music, Game, Freedom

“A woman doing comedy doesn't offend me, but sets me back a bit. I, as a viewer, have trouble with it. I think of her as a producing machine that brings babies in the world.”

Jerry Lewis (1926–2017) American comedian, actor, film producer, writer and film director

Hey Laaaady: Jerry Lewis Isn't Laughing, CBS News, (2000) http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hey-laaaady-jerry-lewis-isnt-laughing/

World, Thinking, Baby

“This context enables us to understand the passionate affection in which the poets of the New Comedy held Euripides; so that we are no longer startled by the desire of Philemon, who wished to be hanged at once so that he might meet Euripides in the underworld, so long as he could be sure that the deceased was still in full possession of his senses.”

Friedrich Nietzsche book The Birth of Tragedy

Bei diesem Zusammenhange ist die leidenschaftliche Zuneigung begreiflich, welche die Dichter der neueren Komödie zu Euripides empfanden; so dass der Wunsch des Philemon nicht weiter befremdet, der sich sogleich aufhängen lassen mochte, nur um den Euripides in der Unterwelt aufsuchen zu können: wenn er nur überhaupt überzeugt sein dürfte, dass der Verstorbene auch jetzt noch bei Verstande sei.
Source: The Birth of Tragedy (1872), p. 55

Understanding, Sense, Passion

“Basically I'm a very serious person, but I think the form it takes with me is comedy. I see the amusing side of all potentially pompous situations.”

Peter Ustinov (1921–2004) English actor, writer, and dramatist

BBC obituary (2004)

Thinking, Personality

“If by "democracy" we mean the form which the Third Estate as such wishes to impart to public life as a whole, it must be concluded that democracy and plutocracy are the same thing under the two aspects of wish and actuality, theory and practice, knowing and doing. It is the tragic comedy of the world‑ improvers' and freedom‑ teachers' desperate fight against money that they are ipso facto assisting money to be effective. Respect for the big number—expressed in the principles of equality for all, natural rights, and universal suffrage—is just as much a class‑ ideal of the unclassed as freedom of public opinion (and more particularly freedom of the press) is so. These are ideals, but in actuality the freedom of public opinion involves the preparation of public opinion, which costs money; and the freedom of the press brings with it the question of possession of the press, which again is a matter of money; and with the franchise comes electioneering, in which he who pays the piper calls the tune. The representatives of the ideas look at one side only, while the representatives of money operate with the other. The concepts of Liberalism and Socialism are set in effective motion only by money. … There is no proletarian, not even a Communist movement, that has not operated in the interests of money, and for the time being permitted by money—and that without the idealists among its leaders having the slightest suspicion of the fact.”

Oswald Spengler book The Decline of the West

Source: Vol. II, Alfred A. Knopf, 1928, pp. 401–02 https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.49906/page/n893/mode/2up Der Untergang des Abendlandes, Welthistorische Perspektiven (1922) The Decline of the West (1918, 1923)

Democracy, Freedom, Money, Question

“Hegel once observed that comedy is in act superior to tragedy and humourous reasoning superior to grandiloquent reasoning. Although Lincoln does not possess the grandiloquence of historical action, as an average man of the people he has its humour.”

Karl Marx (1818–1883) German philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist and revolutionary socialist

Comments on the North American Events (1862)

People

“One always writes comedy at the moment of deepest hysteria.”

V.S. Naipaul (1932–2018) Trinidadian-British writer of Indo-Nepalese ancestry

As quoted in "V.S. Naipaul in Search of Himself: A Conversation" with Mel Gussow, The New York Times, (24 April 1994)

“My idea as far as comedy goes has always been to push the limits of what's acceptable for a woman to do or say or be. My hero in that would be Lenny Bruce, who teaches us that words have no meaning. It's the intent behind them that is what's important.”

Lea DeLaria (1958) American actress and singer

Interview http://www.breakupgirl.net/guest/9907.html, Breakup Girl (1999-07-15)

Idea

“Comedy is not pretty.”

Steve Martin (1945) American actor, comedian, musician, author, playwright, and producer

Comedy album "Comedy is Not Pretty"

“Human life is basically a comedy.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

15
1940s–present, Minority Report : H.L. Mencken's Notebooks (1956)
Context: Human life is basically a comedy. Even its tragedies often seem comic to the spectator, and not infrequently they actually have comic touches to the victim. Happiness probably consists largely in the capacity to detect and relish them. A man who can laugh, if only at himself, is never really miserable.

Life

“Being gloomy is easier than being cheerful. Anybody can say "I've got cancer" and get a rise out of a crowd. But how many of us can do five minutes of good stand-up comedy?”

P. J. O'Rourke (1947) American journalist

All the Trouble in the World (1994)

“Remember, this a comedy.”

Federico Fellini (1920–1993) Italian filmmaker

“Play your part in the comedy, but don't identify yourself with your role!”

Wei Wu Wei (1895–1986) writer

Why Lazarus Laughed: The Essential Doctrine, Zen — Advaita — Tantra (1960)

Parting

“Applaud my friends, the comedy is over…”

Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770–1827) German Romantic composer

on his death bed
Original: Plaudite, amici, comedia finita est.

Death

“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 (1925–1966) comedian and social critic

Art, Laughter

“Comedy is tragedy that happens to other people.”

Angela Carter book Wise Children

Source: Wise Children (1991), ch. 5 (p.213).

People

“Life is a comedy to those who think and a tragedy for those who feel.”

Horace Walpole (1717–1797) English art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and Whig politician

Letter to Anne, Countess of Ossory, (16 August 1776)
A favourite saying of Walpole's, it is repeated in other of his letters, and might be derived from a similar statement attributed to Jean de La Bruyère, though unsourced: "Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think". An earlier form occurs in another published letter:
I have often said, and oftener think, that this world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel — a solution of why Democritus laughed and Heraclitus wept.
Letter to Sir Horace Mann (31 December 1769)
Variant: The world is a comedy to those that think; a tragedy to those that feel.

Life, Feeling, Thinking

“Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor.”

Sholem Aleichem (1859–1916) Yiddish author and playwright

Motivational, Wise, Deep, Happy

“There are a lot of questions I keep asking myself about why I do comedy. I guess I laugh to keep from crying. And I guess if you ever get me crying, I might not stop. This is the way I look at tragedy or else I'll cry.”

Bob Newhart (1929) American stand-up comedian and actor

Way, Question, Cry

“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.”

Stephen Colbert (1964) American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor

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.

Time

“It's so laughable that it's somewhere beyond comedy and right into tragedy again.”

Libba Bray (1964) American teen writer

“once you laugh at you own weaknesses, you can move forward. Comedy breaks down walls. It opens up people. If you're good, you can fill up those openings with something positive. Mabye…….. combat some the ugliness in the world.”

Goldie Hawn (1945) American actress, film director, and producer.

People, World

“Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.”

Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977) British comic actor and filmmaker

As quoted in his obituary in The Guardian (28 December 1977)

Life

“In the creation of comedy, it is paradoxical that tragedy stimulates the spirit of ridicule; because ridicule, I suppose is an attitude of defiance: we must laugh in the face of our helplessness against the forces of nature - or go insane”

Charlie Chaplin book My Autobiography

Source: My Autobiography

Nature

“I simply regard romantic comedies as a subgenre of sci-fi, in which the world created therein has different rules than my regular human world.”

Mindy Kaling book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Source: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

World

“I love America and I hate it. I'm torn between the two. I have two conflicting visions of America. One is a kind of dream landscape and the other is a kind of black comedy.”

Bono (1960) Irish rock musician, singer of U2

Love, Hate, Dreams

“Although according to certain philosophers it is quite difficult to distinguish the jester from the melancholic, life itself being a comic drama or a dramatic comedy.”

Comte de Lautréamont (1846–1870) French poet

Source: Maldoror and the Complete Works

Life

“God writes a lot of comedy, Donna; the trouble is, he's stuck with so many bad actors who don't know how to play funny.”

Garrison Keillor (1942) American radio host and writer

Happy to be Here (1983), p. 259
Source: Happy to Be Here

God

“Everyone is a comedy. If people are laughing at you, they just don't quite understand the joke that is themselves.”

Matt Haig (1975) British writer

Source: The Humans

People, Understanding

“Life is a tragedy for those who feel and a comedy for those who think.”

Margaret Cho (1968) American stand-up comedian

Source: I Have Chosen to Stay and Fight

Life, Feeling, Thinking

“I was supposed to write a romantic comedy, but my characters broke up.”

Ann Brashares The Second Summer of the Sisterhood

Source: The Second Summer of the Sisterhood

“I blame Hollywood for skewing perspectives. Life is just a big romantic comedy to them, and if you meet cute, happily ever-after is a forgone conclusion.”

Jonathan Tropper (1970) American writer

Source: This is Where I Leave You

Life

“Life doesn't make any sense, and we all pretend it does. Comedy's job is to point out that it doesn't make sense, and that it doesn't make much difference anyway.”

Eric Idle (1943) British comedian, actor, singer and writer

Life, Sense

“People either have comedy or they don't. You can't teach it to them.”

Lucille Ball (1911–1989) American actress and businesswoman

People

“All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl.”

Charlie Chaplin book My Autobiography

Source: My Autobiography (1964), Ch. 10

Girl

“Plaudite, amici, comedia finita est. (Applaud, my friends, the comedy is over.)”

Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770–1827) German Romantic composer

Said on his deathbed, 1827

“Think about yourself at least once in your life otherwise you may miss the best comedy in this world.”

Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977) British comic actor and filmmaker

Life, World, Thinking

“The life of every individual, viewed as a whole and in general, and when only its most significant features are emphasized, is really a tragedy; but gone through in detail it has the character of a comedy.”

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher

Source: The World as Will and Representation, Vol 1

Life

“Life is a drama full of tragedy and comedy. You should learn to enjoy the comic episodes a little more.”

Jeannette Walls book The Glass Castle

Source: The Glass Castle

Life, Learning

“In this desperate way, I started many a comedy.”

Charlie Chaplin book My Autobiography

Source: My Autobiography

Way

“Comedy is the art of making people laugh without making them puke.”

Steve Martin (1945) American actor, comedian, musician, author, playwright, and producer

People, Art

“To me, tragedy is if I'll cut my finger, that's tragedy…Comedy is if you walk into an open sewer and die.”

Mel Brooks (1926) American director, writer, actor, and producer

The 2,000 Year Old Man (and sequels)
Variant: Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.

“There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt.”

Erma Bombeck (1927–1996) When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent le…

Heartbreaking, Hurtful, Pain, Laughter

“Laughter is wine for the soul – laughter soft, or loud and deep, tinged through with seriousness. Comedy and tragedy step through life together, arm in arm, all along, out along, down along lea. A laugh is a great natural stimulator, a pushful entry into life; and once we can laugh, we can live. It is the hilarious declaration made by man that life is worth living.”

Sean O`Casey (1880–1964) Irish writer

The Green Crow (New York: George Braziller, 1956) p. 226.

Life, Soul, Nature, Laughter

“Yeah, this comedy is all a part of my “Get Rich Slow” scheme… and it’s working.”

Mitch Hedberg (1968–2005) American stand-up comedian

Do You Believe in Gosh?

Parting

“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.”

Roger Ebert (1942–2013) American film critic, author, journalist, and TV presenter

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/napoleon-dynamite-2004 of Napoleon Dynamite (18 June 2004) Reviews, One-and-a-half star reviews

People, Truth, Feeling

“Then there was this extra on the set who runs up to me and says, "Oh, I know you! I know who you is, I seen you before. You that comedienne, Margaret Cho! I saw you at the Comedy Store. You was wearin' a kimono and you was bowin'." "No, that's the other one." "Oh, right! Now I remember. I just didn't recognize you because you've put on a little weight since your show." And it didn't piss me off that she said that, but it was that she said, "You put on a lot of *gestures* weight!" so I'll know exactly where I put it. And it pissed me off, so I just sort of talked about it to everybody for the whole day. The next day I come into work and the assistant producer comes over to me and says, "Uh, you know that lady from the other day? Well, don't worry. We took care of her."”

Margaret Cho (1968) American stand-up comedian

Oh my God! What did you do?! Suddenly I felt like I was running around like this tyrant, all drunk with power- "Nobody can call me fat on this set!"
From Her Tours and CDs, Drunk With Power CD

God

“[with Stephen Colbert, after presenting the award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series to Ricky Gervais and being informed that Gervais was not there] Ricky Gervais couldn't be here tonight, so instead we're going to give this to our friend Steve Carell.”

Jon Stewart (1962) American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian

Carell, who was among the nominees who had just lost to Gervais, then ran onto the stage, where the three of them group-hugged and jumped around screaming.
The 59th Primetime Emmy Awards (2007)

“Comedy is a game played to throw reflections upon social life, and it deals with human nature in the drawing-room of civilized men and women, where we have no dust of the struggling outer world, no mire, no violent crashes, to make the correctness of the representation convincing.”

George Meredith (1828–1909) British novelist and poet of the Victorian era

Prelude. The Egoist http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext99/egost11.txt (1879)

Life, Women, Men, World

“Punk: Tonight, the Straight-edge Society becomes the first ever Straight-edge World Unified Tag Team Champions. I came out here for a reason, I came out with a purpose. I'm here to lead my crusade, [Crowd chants you suck] and I've brought my disciples, Luke Gallows and the beautiful Serena with me.
Triple H: Punk, I have been watching Smackdown. And I gotta say, while I'm relieved to know that your straight, this whole I don't drink thing, I don't think anybody really gives a crap, do you know what I mean? [Crowd cheers]
Punk: You're looking at three people who give a crap, and don't try to pretend you know anything about me, or you know anything about Straight-edge, or you know anything about my society at all.
Triple H: No, no, no, no, you're right. I don't know anything about it, I don't get it, Punk, that's the thing. I don't get it, I mean you don't drink, you don't do drugs, you don't smoke. Okay, neither do I. But then again, I don't look like I've been on a week long crack binge with Amy Winehouse! [Serena shakes her head, Punk looks pissed] I'm just saying, have a little pride, man. Pick yourself up, clean yourself off. Maybe take them clippers out of the bag, shave that squirrel off you got on your chin. [Punk grabs his beard and mouths off] Hey, do yourself a favor. Grab a shower, cause I don't know if it's you, Lobotomy Man, or Britney Spears right there, but one of you's got a bad case of swamp butt!
Punk: Alright, are you done? Is amateur comedy hour over? Because I came here to claim those tag titles!”

Phil Brooks (1978) American professional wrestler and mixed martial artist

January 29, 2010
Friday Night SmackDown

People, World, Beauty, Drink

“The only thing as bad as bad comedy is bad action. Bad Boys II has plenty of both. In fact, those two things are all it has, unless you count the small helping of bad drama. When it comes to this movie, the word "bad" initially seems highly appropriate. But Bad Boys II isn't just bad — it's a catastrophic violation of every aspect of cinema that I as a film critic hold dear. It seems to have been constructed with terms like "unwatchable" and "godawful" as its slogans. There are motion picture failures every year — the resumes of Hollywood players are littered with them. But, when something this big — a would-be blockbuster with recognizable names in the cast and crew — collapses in such a spectacular fashion, it's worth taking note. Think of how many starving children could have been fed with the money that was poured into [director] Michael Bay's latest sinkhole.”

James Berardinelli (1967) American film critic

Review http://www.reelviews.net/php_review_template.php?identifier=293 of Bad Boys II (2002). Half-star reviews

Money, Children, Boy, Fashion

“I have seen here [in London] a play on Faust, the most diabolic thing imaginable. The Mephistopheles is a masterpiece of caricature and intelligence. It is Goethe's 'Faust', but adapted; the principle features are preserved. They have made it into an opera mixed with comedy and with everything that is most sombre. The scene in the church is given with the priest's chanting and the organ in the distance. Impossible to carry an effect further, in the theater.”

Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863) French painter

Quote in a letter (written in London, England) to J. B. Pierret, 18 June 1825; as quoted in Letters of the great artists – from Blake to Pollock, Richard Friedenthal, Thames and Hudson, London, 1963, p. 67
1815 - 1830

Imagination, Intelligence

“A tragedy can never suffer by delay: a comedy may, because the allusions or the manners represented in it maybe temporary.”

Horace Walpole (1717–1797) English art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and Whig politician

Letter 123 To Robert Jephson (13 July 1777)

Suffering

“My first exposure to Batman as a character was Batman the TV series. But honestly, I didn’t know it was supposed to be a parody or campy. I thought it was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. Of course, I was 5 at the time. But all in one fell swoop, I became an instant super hero fan. Later on, as I got older and started reading more comics and getting into the super hero scene, I realized that the Batman show was kind of a comedy. I was reading Neal Adams comics and thinking, "Batman is kind of cooler than that show, he’s kind of scary and mysterious." So my perception of Batman changed over time, and then I went through the periods with Frank Miller and the Tim Burton movies. So now I’ve got these warring Batmans in my head. I still love the Adam West/Batman show. I still love the Neal Adams take on Batman comics. I still love The Dark Knight. All of these things totally contradict each other, and yet it’s fine to me. I’ve said it over and over again, Batman as a character is such a strong concept, he’s the kind of character that you can take him in any number of ways and it still feels right.”

Bruce Timm (1961) Animator

ruce Timm Interview http://www.animationmagazine.net/home-entertainment/batman-under-the-red-hood-clip-and-bruce-timm-interview/ (June 25, 2010)

Love, War, Way, Feeling

“"I wended my way to the graveyard this evening," wrote Anne to Gilbert after she got home. "I think 'wend your way' is a lovely phrase and I work it in whenever I can. It sounds funny to say I enjoyed my stroll in the graveyard but I really did. Miss Courtaloe's stories were so funny. Comedy and tragedy are so mixed up in life, Gilbert. The only thing that haunts me is that tale of the two who lived together fifty years and hated each other all that time. I can't believe they really did. Somebody has said that 'hate is only love that has missed its way.' I feel sure that under the hatred they really loved each other… just as I really loved you all those years I thought I hated you… and I think death would show it to them."”

Lucy Maud Montgomery book Anne of Windy Poplars

Part 1, Ch. 6
Anne of Windy Poplars (1936)

Love, Life, Death, Hate

“It's like in most parts of America, where there was industry and there is no longer; there is cynicism mixed with sarcasm and some optimism. That's how my background influenced my comedy.”

Jim Gaffigan (1966) comedian, actor, author

Ben Fields (September 28, 2008) "Laugh Again with Gaffigan - Down-to-earth Gaffigan getting ready to bring 'Sexy' to the Keith", The Herald-Dispatch, p. 1.

Optimism, Parting

“When the war kicks off in Iran, I will be there. People ask me "Whose side are you going to fight on?" To these people I say "Fight? I'm not going to fight! I'm going to entertain!" Because let's face it, when they see my comedy, they won't have the will to fight. When the American and Iranian troops see the comedy of Omid Djalili, they won't have the will to live! The Daily Mail.”

Omid Djalili (1965) Iranian-British stand-up comedian

No Agenda (2007)

War, People, Fight

“If you feel irritated by the absurd remarks of two people whose conversation you happen to overhear, you should imagine that you are listening to a dialogue of two fools in a comedy.”

Arthur Schopenhauer book Parerga and Paralipomena

T. B. Saunders, trans., § 38
Parerga and Paralipomena (1851), Counsels and Maxims

People, Fools, Feeling, Imagination

“Very shortly the temple was once again a wonder of the world, and the Ephesian Church settled down to a long reign marked only by the usual bitter quarrels, heresies, and internal dissent through which all major faiths struggle.
Any religion begins in a moment of transforming truth. That moment quickly shatters into falsehood and shame and stagecraft, bitter comedy, sometimes murder. Thieves catch hold of any chance for power. The early years of a faith are best not too closely examined by its faithful.”

Kage Baker book The Life of the World to Come

Source: The Life of the World to Come (2004), Chapter 12, “Alec Solves a Mystery” (p. 201)

Truth, World, Faith, Religion

“Before seeing Truffaut's Small Change, I was afraid it was going to be one of those simple, natural films about childhood which I generally try to avoid — I'm just not good enough to go to them. But this series of sketches on the general theme of the resilience of children turns out to be that rarity — a poetic comedy that's really funny.”

Pauline Kael (1919–2001) American film critic

Review of Small Change, from When The Lights Go Down (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980, ISBN 0-030-42511-5).

Children, Nature, Change, Childhood

“I suddenly realized that comedy, for me, was just being honest, and playing it for real. I've seen so many wonderful actors who turn into creatures from another planet when they're told they are supposed to be playing comedy. I… was not too happy to suddenly take on this public role thrust upon me. They just assumed I was the Joan of Arc of the women's movement. And I wasn't at all. It put a lot of unnecessary pressure on me. I'd never even been to Wrigley Field. I never even enjoyed baseball that much, but I loved being there, the crowd was lovely, and they all sang with me!”

Bea Arthur (1922–2009) actress, singer, comedian

Interview, TV Legends, August 6, 2005

Love, Women, Happiness

“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

Imagination

“The film studios learned to our dismay but to their pleasure that if they spent $200 million making a film they could make half a billion on it. So they were not interested anymore in quality films… They can’t afford to be that risky at those prices. Consequently you’re getting a lot of remakes, sequels, dopey comedies full of toilet jokes…”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

BBC radio interview (2011) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef-JHO9BoJM.

Pleasure, Learning

“You have Mel Brooks and your Marx Brothers and your Larry David. So it's affected it enormously and really not at all. I don't think I've ever done anything comedically where the joke of it had to do with Judaism and Jewishness, but there's definitely a proud tradition of comedy in the Jews.”

Andy Samberg (1978) American comedian

Quoted in Monica Kim, "Andy Samberg on SNL, his hair and other things not in a box," http://www.northbynorthwestern.com/2008/04/9035/andy-samberg-on-snl-his-hair-and-other-things-not-in-a-box/ NorthbyNorthwestern.com (April 16, 2008).

Thinking

“[When asked if he varies the animals in his comedy depending on where he performs]”

Noel Fielding (1973) British comedian and actor

HermAphroditeZine, Autumn 1999

Animals, Dependency

“I can't help thinking that the whole of the Vietnam War was the blackest comedy that ever was, because it showed the way you can't teach humanity anything. We'd all learnt in the rest of the world that you can't now go around and put out your hand and, across seas, exercise power; but the poor Americans had not learned that and they tried to do it. The remoteness of Americans from German attack had made them feel confident. They didn't really believe that anything could reach out and kill them. Americans are quite unconscious now that we look on them as just as much beaten as we are. They're quite unconscious of that. They have always talked of Vietnam as if by getting out they were surrendering the prospect of victory, as if they were being noble by renouncing the possibility of victory. But they couldn't have had a victory. They couldn't possibly have won.”

Rebecca West (1892–1983) British feminist and author

Source: The Paris Review interview (1981), p. 13

War, World, Way, Feeling

“Comedy doesn't really have any meaning without sadness … The most meaningful comedy comes from some really serious pathos.”

Becky Stark (1976) American singer

As quoted in Lavender Diamond seeks world peace, by Jake Coyle in USA Today (27 April 2007)

Sadness

“As told in the final section of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour Christmas CD:
Jeff Foxworthy: Tell 'em the one you did.
Engvall: Aw, why'd you have to bring that up?
Foxworthy: Come on, share that one with the group.
Engvall: Alright. Well, nobody's immune from this, not even me.
Foxworthy: Not even Brainiac here.
Engvall: I'm in the car park at the mall, and there's this guy with a coat hanger inside his window… and I could not stop myself. I said, "You lock your keys in your car?"”

Bill Engvall (1957) American comedian and actor

Driver: No, just washed it, gonna hang it up to dry (dumbass). Here's your sign.
Here's Your Sign, "Here's MY Sign..."

Cars, Guy, Christmas

“… the judge in the Saddam trial appears to be wearing comedy specs and moustache.”

Eddie Mair (1965) Scottish broadcaster

From the PM Newsletter and Weblog Source: Headlines http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/pm/2006/08/balls.shtml at bbc.co.uk, 21 Augyst 2006.

Appearance

“The Pink Panther is supposed to use humor to uplift. Instead, I departed this movie feeling depressed. Lifeless comedies can suck the energy out of a viewer, especially when they sully the image of an cinematic icon.”

James Berardinelli (1967) American film critic

Review http://www.reelviews.net/php_review_template.php?identifier=810 of The Pink Panther (2006). One-star reviews

Feeling

“If you understand comedy, you understand life. Drama, death, tragedy – everybody has these. But with humour you've got all these, and the antidote. You have found the answer. It doesn't follow that because you are a good comedy writer, you're a happy fellow. I've got one of the most miserable faces in the world. I am only happy when I am working. If I'm not working, I get screwed up because my time is going, my life is slipping by.”

Eric Sykes (1923–2012) English actor and director

Quoted in The Guardian, Wednesday 4 July 2012 http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2012/jul/04/eric-sykes

Life, Death, World, Understanding

“The Times Square Incident wasn't a terrorist attack, it was a Jim Carrey movie. The terrorist locked the keys to the safe house he was going to escape to in the carbomb. And I love that he locked the carbomb. "Nobody's getting my Ipod." Then he left the keys to carbomb hanging out of the tailgate of the carbomb, and built the carbomb out of fertilizer that wouldn't explode. I have been doing comedy for 25 years and I have NEVER been that funny.”

Christopher Titus (1964) actor, writer, podcaster

Neverlution (2011)

Love, Time, Housing

“I don't know if there is a gene for comedy, but my dad was a very funny man. … He just didn't know it. He was a naturally funny character, and when my brother and I would laugh at things he said and did, he would say, 'What do you think is so funny?”

Jim Belushi (1954) American actor, comedian, singer, and musician

Source: Rick Kogan. " Belushis: Funny is in their bones: Jim, son Robert and stand-up Kyle Lane team up to create intimate Comedy Bar on Ontario Street http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-10-26/entertainment/ct-ae-1028-kogan-sidewalks-20121026_1_stand-up-comedy-improv-funny-guyThe," in: The Chicago Tribune, October 26, 2012.

Nature, Thinking

“Farce may often border on tragedy; indeed, farce is nearer tragedy in its essence than comedy is.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English poet, literary critic and philosopher

20 August 1833
Table Talk (1821–1834)

“Dicaepolis: Comedy too can sometimes discern what is right. I shall not please, but I shall say what is true.”

Aristophanés The Acharnians

tr. Athen. 1912, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Ach.+500 Acharnians, line 500-501 Acharnians (425 BC)

“I have spoken of the forceful sonnets of that tragic Portuguese, Antero de Quental, who died by his own hand. Feeling acutely for the plight of his country on the occasion of the British ultimatum in 1890, he wrote as follows: "An English statesman of the last century, who was also undoubtedly a perspicacious observer and a philosopher, Horace Walpole, said that for those who feel, life is a tragedy, and a comedy for those who think. Very well then, if we are destined to end tragically, we Portuguese, we who feel, we would rather prefer this terrible, but noble destiny to that which is reserved, and perhaps at no very remote future date, for England, the country that thinks and calculates, whose destiny it is to finish miserably and comically." …we twin-brothers of the Atlantic seaboard have always been distinguished by a certain pedantry of feeling, but there remains a basis of truth underlying this terrible idea — namely that some peoples, those who put thought above feeling, I should say reason above faith, die comically, while those die tragically who put faith above reason.”

Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) 19th-20th century Spanish writer and philosopher

The Tragic Sense of Life (1913), Conclusion : Don Quixote in the Contemporary European Tragi-Comedy

Life, People, Truth, Faith

“Great comedy is great comedy only if it has an element of truth in it.”

Rush Limbaugh (1951) U.S. radio talk show host, Commentator, author, and television personality

[Davis, E. Gene, Get 'Em Laughing: Public Speaking Humor, Quotes and Illustrations, Trafford Publishing, 2007-09-12, 68, 1425114334, 9781425114336]
Attributed

Truth