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Comedy Quotes

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Comedy Quotes

“It's a no-win situation with politics, it's always going to be stressful. I'm more into the comedy of life.”

Winning Situation Comedy Stressful

Author:Jordan Peele

“I don't do comedy. I think if a situation is funny you just play it for real and if it's funny, it's funny.”

Ifs Thinking Real Play Situation Comedy

Author:Morgan Freeman

“One of my favorite things about 'Star Trek' wasn't just the overt banter but the humor in that show about the relationships between the main characters and their reactions to the situations they would face; there was a lot of comedy in that show without ever breaking its reality.”

Character Shows Reality Faces Stars Situation Comedy My Favorite Reactions Favorites Things Banter Main Characters

Author:J. J. Abrams

“The myriad-minded man, our, and all men's, Shakespeare, has in this piece presented us with a legitimate farce in exactest consonance with the philosophical principles and character of farce, as distinguished from comedy and from entertainments. A proper farce is mainly distinguished from comedy by the licence allowed, and even required, in the fable, in order to produce strange and laughable situations. The story need not be probable, it is enough that it is possible.”

Source: Shakespeare, With Introductory Matter on Poetry, The Drama, and The Stage by S.T. Coleridge: Coleridge’s Essays and Lectures on Shakespeare and Other Old Poets and Dramatists

“The Monkees was a straight sitcom, we used the same plots that were on the other situation comedies at the time. So the music wasn't threatening, we weren't threatening.”

Used Situation Comedy Plot Threatening Sitcom

Author:Peter Tork

“Whereas Absurdism in Europe seemed a logical, almost inevitable response to the irrationality of war, the analogous elements that surfaced in American drama seemed more a response to a materialist society run amok. The American-style Absurdism seemed to spring full-blown out of television advertisements and situation comedies, which had become new myth-making machines.”

War Running Situation Comedy Style Television Drama Elements Spring Europe Machines Response Myth Inevitable Logical Advertisements Irrationality

Author:Arnold Aronson

“If you're playing things sincere in a really absurd, heightened situation, you'll achieve comedy as opposed to just saying funny lines and one-liners and stuff.”

Ifs Stuff Lines Situation Comedy Achieve Absurd Sincere One Liner Just Saying

Author:Jeff Baena

“Comedy is serious - deadly serious. Never, never try to be funny! The actors must be serious. Only the situation must be absurd. Funny is in the writing, not in the performing. If the situation isn't absurd, no amount of joke will help.”

Ifs Writing Trying Helping Actors Situation Comedy Serious Amount Jokes Absurd Performing

Author:Mel Brooks

“The more serious the situation, the funnier the comedy can be. The greatest comedy plays against the greatest tragedy. Comedy is a red rubber ball and if you throw it against a soft, funny wall, it will not come back. But if you throw it against the hard wall of ultimate reality, it will bounce back and be very lively. Very, very few people understand this.”

People Ifs Hard Play Reality Situation Comedy Serious Wall Red Ultimate Balls Tragedy Lively Bounce Rubber Ultimate Reality

Author:Mel Brooks

“A formula for comedy is comedy equals tragedy plus time. A difficult or uncomfortable situation takes place, and then you laugh about it later down the road.”

Difficult Situation Laughing Comedy Tragedy Uncomfortable Plus Formulas Down The Road Uncomfortable Situations

Author:Brian Regan

“Disasters are funny to me. As a comedian you learn from failure, so I'm always trying to put myself in a situation that does not seem ideal for my comedy and see how it works.”

Trying Doe Seems Situation Comedy Ideals Disaster Comedian Always Trying Learning From Failure

Author:Anthony Jeselnik

“In television, and especially in a situation comedy, you kind of play yourself, or at least the essence of yourself.”

Kind Play Situation Comedy Television Essence

Author:Shelley Long

“I asked Mr. Vann which O levels you need to write situation comedy for television. Mr. Vann said that you don't need qualifications at all, you just need to be a moron.”

Needs Writing Said Levels Situation Comedy Television Moron Qualifications

Book:Adrian Mole, from Minor to Major: The Mole Diaries : the First Ten Years

Source: Adrian Mole, from Minor to Major: The Mole Diaries : the First Ten Years

“The nice thing about 'Futurama' for me personally was that it was a way to honor some of the traditional ideas in literary science fiction, not so much movie or television science fiction - although we have that too, obviously. Our situation, a workplace comedy, led to all sorts of stuff.”

Way Ideas Stuff Fiction Situation Comedy Nice Television Honor Science Fiction Traditional Workplace Nice Things

Author:Matt Groening

“I think serious situations actually make for the best kind of belly laughs. But theyre also the hardest to convert into comedy at the outset.”

Thinking Kind Situation Laughing Comedy Serious Hardest Belly Belly Laughs

Author:Mike Birbiglia

“I think great humor lies in playing the truth of a situation. I see myself as a performer and that applies to a Greek drama or a modern comedy.”

Thinking Lying Situation Comedy Modern Drama Greek Performers Greek Drama

Author:Brendan Coyle

“I'd love to do situation comedy - it's the best job in show business.”

Shows Jobs Situation Comedy Show Business Best Job

Author:Patti LuPone

“And all the time - such is the tragic comedy of our situation - we continue to clamor for those very qualities we are rendering impossible. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.”

Men Quality Situation Laughing Virtue Comedy Impossible Honor Enterprise Tragic Midst Chests Shocked Traitor Rendering Clamor

Author:C. S. Lewis

“The embarrassment of a situation can, once you are over it, be the funniest time in your life. And I suppose a lot of my comedy comes from painful moments or experiences in life, and you just flip them on their head.”

Moments Situation Comedy Painful Over It Embarrassment Flip Painful Moments

Author:Miranda Hart

“It is easy to forget that the most important aspect of comedy, after all, its great saving grace, is its ambiguity. You can simultaneously laugh at a situation, and take it seriously.”

Important Humor Funny Easy Forget Situation Laughing Comedy Grace Laughter Aspect Excellence Saving Ambiguity Saving Grace

Author:Stephen Fry

“As a woman, she [Penelope Cruz] obviously has changed as she has become an adult. But, as an actress, I actually might say that she has not changed that much. And she has something great, especially in comedy, and she hasn't been exploited as much as she could be in comedy, but particularly in that mix between comedy and drama. She's got a very special quality about her. You can place her in very extreme situations, especially very painful situations, in terms of how her character interprets it. And sometimes, the deeper and more human that pain is, the better she is at it.”

Humans Sometimes Character Pain Term Quality Situation Comedy Special Changed Drama Adults Painful Deeper Extremes Actresses Cruz Painful Situations

Author:Pedro Almodovar

“Comedy is an intellectual affair, and deals chiefly with logic. Tragedy is an emotional affair, and deals chiefly with value. Horace Walpole once said that "life is a comedy to the man who thinks and a tragedy to the man who feels." Comedy is negative; it is a criticism of limitations and an unwillingness to accept them. Tragedy is positive; it is an uncritical acceptance of the positive content of that which is delimited. Since comedy deals with the limitations of actual situations and tragedy with their positive content, comedy must ridicule and tragedy must endorse.”

Thinking Men Feels Said Life Is Values Deals Situation Accepting Comedy Acceptance Emotional He Man Intellectual Negative Criticism Logic Tragedy Affair Limitation Ridicule

Author:James Kern Feibleman

“I think that if you're serving yourself before you're serving a story then that's where you end up being not funny. It's not about being funny, it's about telling a story and then the comedy comes out of the situation, I think.”

Ifs Thinking Ends Stories Situation Comedy Serving Being Funny

Author:Zooey Deschanel

“The secret to comedy is not playing the comedy, but actually playing the situation, playing the drama of it.”

Secret Situation Comedy Drama

Author:Nathan Fillion

“I love watching people be totally committed in a very real way to stupid situations. I find it's not so much trying to be funny, it's trying to be real in a messed up context. That's comedy to me.”

People Way Trying Real Situation Comedy Stupid Committed Being Real Messed Up

Author:Will Ferrell

“With comedy, you get an immediate response. I'm the whole kit and the kaboodle. I am the whole thing and can steer the whole situation how I want to. With film, you are basically in one area. Comedy is straight to it and the film is heavily shaped the camera and editing, so it's different.”

Want Different Whole Film Situation Comedy Areas Cameras Response Editing Steers

Author:Joe Torry

“Comedy itself is based upon very old principles of which I can readily name seven. They are, in short: the joke, exaggeration, ridicule, ignorance, surprise, the pun, and finally, the comic situation.”

I Can Names Situation Principles Comedy Ignorance Jokes Surprise Seven Comic Ridicule Exaggeration Pun I Can Read

Author:Jack Benny

“I really gravitate to the comedy of tonal contrasts. I hope that doesn't sound insufferably pretentious. What I mean is people having reactions to things that seem inappropriate, or being happy in an apparently unhappy situation.”

People Mean Seems Sound Situation Comedy Unhappy Reactions Contrast Pretentious Inappropriate

Author:Matt Nix

“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.”

Thinking Persons Form Sides Situation Comedy Serious Amusing Pompous Serious Person

Author:Peter Ustinov

“Comedy is an ability to observe and see what's funny in a situation and be able to forget yourself enough to do it.”

Enough Able Ability Forget Situation Comedy Forget You

Author:Madeline Kahn

“Comedy is probably a lot harder for me. Maybe it's because I've been doing drama for so long or maybe it's because... you don't want to search for a laugh; you can't try to be funny, you just have to naturally be funny or be in a situation that's funny.”

Want Trying Long Situation Laughing Comedy Drama Harder

Author:Nina Dobrev

“Comedy comes from a place of hurt. Charlie Chaplin was starving and broke in London, and that's where he got his character 'the tramp' from. It's a bad situation that he transformed into comedic one.”

Character Hurt Situation Comedy London Broke Transformed Starving Charlie Comedic Tramps Chaplin Bad Situations

Author:Chris Tucker

“One of my favorite sketches, and a popular comedy formula, is to put someone with a mental handicap in some kind of unlikely situation. For example: The retarded gynecologist, the retarded Jesus, the retarded Osama Bin Laden. It works. It's funny. Inappropriate? I dunno. I feel like I'm a pretty good judge of what crosses the line of good taste being that I am retarded. Socially perhaps, but severly retarded.”