“Shakespeare wrote great plays that we're still watching all these years later. Charlie Chaplin made great comedies and they are still as funny today as they ever were.” YearsMadeStillsPlayTodayComedyCharlieChaplinGreat Comedy Author:Leonard Maltin
“I love comedy and I would write things to myself as an exercise in writing. I didn't do well for years, and I quit. I started to break down why I was afraid and started to look at people I admired, like Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Freddie Prinze, George Carlin and all.” PeopleWritingYearsWellsLooksBreakComedyExerciseQuittingBreaking DownI QuitMurphy Author:George Lopez
“Wayne's World' is my all time favorite comedy. I used to watch it on VHS on repeat with my brother when I was ten years old.” WorldYearsUsedWatchesComedyBrotherTenAll TimeMy BrotherRepeatsWayneAll Time Favorite Author:James Lafferty
“I have never been jealous. Not even when my dad finished fifth grade a year before I did.” YearsFunnyFatherComedyDadMy DadFinishedJealousyGradesJealousGraduationHilariousFifthFunny GraduationJealousy EnvyFifth GradeLove JealousyLove And Jealousy Author:Jeff Foxworthy
“25, 30 years ago, that meant something, they were making some money. And they were doing all sorts of comedy, screaming at the audience, basically crowd control. And then there was the whole urban comedy scene.” YearsWholeAudienceComedySceneYears AgoCrowdsUrban Author:Bob Saget
“The right wing has had a radio apparatus for years and years, so they've had minor leagues - they've had local rightwing guys who've become national rightwing guys, and who build slowly, and that's how it goes. We haven't had that. It isn't like we have a farm team.” YearsGuyComedyTeamHavensWingsRadioLocalsLeagueFarmsMinorsRight Wing Author:Al Franken
“Yeah, we shot ourselves in the foot right out of the gate. The guy who ran it at first misled pretty much everybody about how much capital we had. He said we had enough to go three years without making money, and we had enough to go three weeks.” YearsFirstsSaidEnoughGuyThreeComedyWeekFeetShotsYeahMaking MoneyRanGatesThree YearsHad EnoughMisled Author:Al Franken
“British comedy - which has been a big inspiration to me for many years - is very different to Australian comedy and different again to American comedy.” YearsHas BeensDifferentBigsInspirationComedyBritishAustralianBritish Comedy Author:Jason Gann
“I played a lot of serious parts in a lot of TV movies and early miniseries but what happens is that you get sort of locked into "Oh no, he's a serious actor." Well, I was a serious actor for nine years or 10 years and then I get into comedy and everybody said, "Oh no, he's funny. He can do comedy," and then all of a sudden, you're just a comedy guy.” YearsWellsSaidHappensGuyActorsCan DoComedySeriousTvsNineLockedNine Years Author:Barry Bostwick
“When I first graduated college, I told my parents I'd try to pursue comedy for the first year or two, and if it didn't work out, I'd put my nose to the grindstone and try to find a job somehow. I went to UCB, and it clicked with me.” IfsTryingYearsFirstsTwoJobsParentComedyCollegeWork OutPursueNosesGrindstone Author:Ben Schwartz
“I'm trained as an actor for the stage - classically trained, believe it or not - and I worked closely with Stella Adler for years. People don't know that much about it. They just think I am these people. But I've been in this comedy racket, because it's just how everybody wants to see me.” PeopleThinkingKnowsWantYearsBelieveActorsComedyStageRacketStellaAdler Author:Michael Richards
“There have been 15 or 16 screenplays over the years, including one by me, but none of them has gotten made because Paramount is a huge studio. The Dice Man is an anti-establishment cult novel and you don't normally make studio films from such dark comedy material.” MenYearsHas BeensMadeFilmDarkNovelComedyMaterialsHugeIncludingStudiosEstablishmentCultScreenplaysDiceParamountDark Comedy Author:Luke Rhinehart
“Big L is my favorite rapper of all time. He got killed quite a few years ago now but I think he's amazing and he kind of inspires me like his style inspires me. I don't think there's been anyone better since. I mean, Biggie Smalls is definitely on the top of the list but Big L is like the underdog, I like to give him the edge.” ThinkingGivingYearsKindMeanBigsComedyStyleInspireYears AgoMy FavoriteEdgesListsAll TimeRapperUnderdogBiggie Author:Andy Milonakis
“Paul is Starsky, and I met him before shooting. He was very kind and encouraged us to go with what we wanted to do. It was very sweet to see them back with the car after 25 years.” YearsKindWantedComedyCarSweetMetsShootingVery Sweet Author:Ben Stiller
“Well, this movie I've been working on for a while. I had the idea for the movie like twenty years ago when I was doing 'Empire of the Sun' in 1987 because at that time that's when all these Vietnam movies were being made and my friends and I were going on auditions for these Vietnam movies and my friends were getting them and going away to fake boot camps.” YearsWellsMadeIdeasSunComedyMy FriendsYears AgoTwentiesFakeEmpiresGoing AwayCampsVietnamBootsAuditionsBoot CampEmpire Of The Sun Author:Ben Stiller
“I’ve come in and out of America for… well, I’ve lived here for 15 years. And I’ve played here for nearly 30 years. On and off. But I’ve always played to my fan base. And I can come and do two or three nights in New York or two or three nights in L.A., and all that. But when I go away, nobody knows I’ve been gone. You know, I don’t get reviewed or anything like that. So that’s why I’ve come back and done a longer time in a smaller place, in New York. It’s always the people who live here that get a chance to know me.” PeopleKnowsYearsWellsI CanTwoDoneAmericaNightThreeChanceGoneComedyFansNew YorkGoing AwayKnow MeNobody KnowsAnd Off Author:Billy Connolly
“Because of the spin-meisters and the focus groups and the way politics is run now. It's run by polls and focus groups. So it's even more true today, I think, than it was some 40 years ago.” ThinkingWayYearsRunningTodayComedyFocusGroupsYears AgoPollsFocus Groups Author:Bob Newhart
“I gave up accounting. I went in for about six months writing ad copy. I was fired from that, and then another guy and I did a kind of poor man's Bob and Ray kind of syndicated radio show. Then I decided to stick it out and see what happened. I'd give it a year, a year became two years, and then two years became three years, and then along came the record album.” MenGivingWritingYearsKindTwoShowsGuyThreePoorRecordsComedyHappenedMonthsSixDecidedSticksRadioAlbumsTwo YearsCopiesRaysAdsThree YearsBobSix MonthsGave UpOther GuysAccountingPoor Man Author:Bob Newhart
“The stuff that made me mad 20 years ago doesn't really make me mad any more.” YearsMadeHumorFunnyStuffComedyYears AgoMad Author:Jeff Foxworthy
“I grew up in a house that liked to be funny. Everybody liked to be funny. My family's been...we've been enjoying each other's comedy for years.” YearsHouseEnjoyComedyGrewGrew UpMy Family Author:Adam Sandler
“I'd spent ten years in London, writing and performing my own comedy shows. They gave me the Cheers [scenes], and I thought it was the springboard for chatting about the show, because in England, that's what you do. So I walk in, and I'm looking around, and Jimmy Burrows said, "What are you looking at? You're not here to have a conversation; you're here to audition."” WritingYearsSaidShowsMy OwnWalksComedySceneTenConversationEnglandLondonPerformingCheerAuditionsJimmyChattingComedy ShowsSpringboards Author:Shelley Long
“I have admired Melissa Pritchard's writing for several years now for its wisdom, its humble elegance, and its earthy comedy.” WritingYearsComedyHumbleEleganceMelissa Author:Rick Moody
“Stand-up is not just an American thing anymore. It's global. In some places, stand-up comedy is brand new. South Africa has only had a scene for 15 years.” YearsComedySceneSouthBrandsSouth AfricaBrand NewStand Up Comedy Author:Gabriel Iglesias
“I started doing stand-up at the age of 20. This was back in 1976, around the time (coincidence?) that the first comedy clubs were starting. The young comedians of today gasp when I tell them how many shows I did that first year: 500. Five nights a week.” YearsFirstsShowsAgeTodayYoungNightFiveComedyWeekStartingClubsComedianCoincidenceComedy ClubsAge Of 20 Author:Emo Philips
“I think 'Glee' was a freshman comedy, and I think whenever it's your debut season, you get compared a lot to the other shows, regardless if there's any sort of overlap in content or tone or anything, just because you came out in the same year.” IfsThinkingYearsShowsComedySeasonsToneGleeDebutFreshman Author:Gillian Jacobs
“If it really was Queen Elizabeth who demanded to see Falstaff in a comedy, then she showed herself a very perceptive critic. But even in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Falstaff has not and could not have found his true home because Shakespeare was only a poet. For that he was to wait nearly two hundred years till Verdi wrote his last opera. Falstaff is not the only case of a character whose true home is the world of music; others are Tristan, Isolde and Don Giovanni.” IfsWorldYearsTwoCharacterHomeLastsFoundWaitingCasesComedyWifePoetHundredCriticsQueensOperaMerryQueen ElizabethTrue HomeWindsorFalstaffVerdi Author:W. H. Auden
“My gift was in comedy. I found out I could make jokes. I could tell jokes. I could write them. So over the years, that's what I've done.” WritingYearsDoneFoundComedyJokes Author:Woody Allen
“Many of the people I've worked with over the years came from a sketch-comedy background or an improv background, and I've learned a lot from them.” PeopleYearsComedyBackgroundsI've LearnedSketch Comedy Author:Megan Mullally
“I just always wrote songs as a side hobby. So it was sort of a natural thing to write comedy songs. But when I started writing songs, I wrote very serious songs. Or things that a 13-14 year-old would think are very serious issues.” ThinkingWritingYearsSongSidesNaturalIssuesComedySeriousHobbiesWriting SongsNatural ThingsSerious Issues Author:Kyle Dunnigan
“Everything in comedy's got to be exactly right, which is why making a comedic film is kind of a difficult process, because, for most of the two years of shooting it and editing it and reshooting and all of that, it's not quite right. And it's only when you just at the end, you put the final polish on it, it becomes really funny again.” YearsKindTwoEndsFilmProcessDifficultComedyFinalsShootingTwo YearsEditingPolishComedic Author:John Cleese
“So are all the kids on the East Coast repeating school next year? Get ready to see a lot of hairy eighth graders. Storm brain drain.” YearsKidsSchoolNextCommunityBrainEducationComedyGenerationsReadySocial MediaStormEastCoastNext YearDrainsEast CoastBrain Drain Author:Olivia Wilde
“We have reached a very cynical era of comedy. The Muppets have proven, for 40 years, that you can get laughs without ever doing it at someone else's expense, and I think that that's a really important thing for kids to realize.” ThinkingYearsImportantKidsRealizingLaughingComedyImportant ThingsErasExpensesCynicalProvenMuppet Author:Jason Segel
“Comedy today is not what it was years ago. It's always changing, in particular to female comics. No longer are certain subjects considered to be a male preserve. Women can talk about sexuality and their bodily functions and it can be very, very entertaining. It's changed the impact of comedy acting.” YearsTodayCertainActingComedySubjectsChangedParticularFemaleYears AgoFunctionImpactMalesSexualityPreservesEntertainingBodily Functions Author:Patrick Stewart
“I love comedy. I suppose comedy is my first love, in a way. I did a lot of acting, funnily enough, unprofessionally, as a kid. From when I was 10 years old until I was about 19, I was always doing little sketches with my friends, and doing different accents and voices. Probably about 3/4 of those were comedic, in some way, and the other 1/4 was more serious stuff or more action or more dramatic little pieces that I would make. But, I tend to lean towards comedy.” WayYearsFirstsLittlesDifferentEnoughKidsActionStuffVoiceActingComedyPiecesSeriousMy FriendsDramaticAccentsFirst LoveComedic Author:Sharlto Copley
“I've wanted to be an actor since I was eight years old and I did TV commercials when I was a kid. When I was eleven Saturday Night Live came on and I thought, "Oh God, I'd love to do that." I saw the Pink Panther movies and thought, "God, I'd love to have a comedy series; I'd love to have a character I'd created that becomes a series." I've now pretty-much done everything I've wanted to do since I was eight years old and it's a wonderful feeling, I've got to say.” YearsDoneCharacterFeelingsKidsWantedNightActorsSawsComedyWonderfulTvsSeriesEightSaturdayElevenSaturday NightSaturday Night LivePanthersTv CommercialPink Panther Author:Mike Myers
“I do an act, and I've been doing an act for 50 years. I do a variety show, which is a musical comedy show. I do comedy, and I do singing, Broadway show tunes and different songs that I like. Been doing it for many, many years.” YearsDifferentShowsSongComedySingingMusicalVarietyTunesBroadwayBroadway ShowsComedy ShowsShow Tunes Author:Debbie Reynolds
“I wrote, I think, half a dozen films that were completely out of genre. Comedies, love stories, even one serious film about Vietnam, and we couldn't get backing for any of it. And we both sort of drifted from making, at that time, serious money on Last House to going through it all in the course of almost three years and only getting offers to do something scary again.” ThinkingYearsStoriesLastsFilmThreeCoursesHouseHalfComedySeriousOffersScaryLove StoryGenreVietnamThree YearsDozen Author:Wes Craven
“When you start out in comedy, or probably in a lot of things, you want it to happen fast. You don't want to see yourself having to do this for seven years before you start to get some feedback.” WantYearsHappensComedySevenFeedbackSeven Years Author:Mitch Hedberg
“With comedy, you never know until you put it in front of an audience. You shoot it and a year later you have no idea if it's going to work. And then you get the response. It's great when it's good.” IfsKnowsYearsIdeasAudienceComedyFrontsResponseNo IdeaGoing To Work Author:Steve Martin
“I did Scottish footballer of the year this year, attempted to do some comedy at that. Not the brightest people in the world. There were seven O-Levels in that room, and they were all mine.” PeopleWorldYearsHumorFunnyLevelsRoomsComedyMinesSevenFootballerScottish Author:Frankie Boyle
“One time I was at a swimming pool with my kids, a public pool. I had my daughter, my six year old, on my arm like this. She was like clamped on, and she's kicking. ... And then she got off and another random child just clamped on. It's like a rat. "Get off of me." "But I love you." "I don't know you, kid."” KnowsYearsChildrenKidsFunnyComedyLove YouArmsSixDaughterMy DaughterSwimmingPoolOne TimeRatsKickingSix Year OldsSwimming Pool Author:Louis C. K.
“For years, Blockbuster Video has edited movies. Like The Bad Lieutenant, when he's masturbating while the girls in the car are doing the thing. I rented it from Blockbuster and sped to that scene, and it was gone. I called up Blockbuster, and I'm like, "I got an erection, and the scene's not there."” YearsFunnyGirlGoneComedyCarSceneVideoEditedBlockbusterLieutenantsSped Author:Louis C. K.
“The arresting officer, who I had literally known, all my life. You know what I mean? This guy lived four doors down the street me, in a town of less than four hundred people. *We've met.* Now, he takes me to jail, and he asks me if I have any aliases. And I was just being a smartass, and I said, "Yeah. They call me, "Tater Salad!" Seventeen years later, I'm handcuffed on a bench in New York with blood coming out of my nose, and this cop goes, "Are you Ron 'Tater Salad' White?"” PeopleIfsKnowsYearsMeanSaidFunnyGuyAsksWhiteKnownComedyFourDoorsBloodMetsTownsYeahCome UpAsk MeNosesStationsCall MeOfficersComing OutCopJust BeingThis GuySaladBenchesSeventeenArrestingSmartassAliases Author:Ron White
“As soon as you meet him [james Corden], within five minutes you'll want to sleep with him. He presented me with my award for Comedy Actress of the Year at the Glamour Awards and he said such lovely things. He's so charming and he listens to you and he's funny and sensitive and adorable. I can totally see why all the women fall for him.” WantYearsSaidI CanFallSleepFiveComedyMinutesActressesLovelySensitiveAwardsCharmingFive MinutesGlamourAdorableLovely ThingsWant To Sleep Author:Joanna Page
“I don't know if it's a romantic comedy but I'm in the beginning of the first of the season of "The West Wing." We shot it last year. I don't know. If anyone asks me to be in one, I'll jump on it.” IfsKnowsYearsFirstsLastsAsksComedyShotsSeasonsWingsWestAsk MeLast Year Author:Jason Isaacs
“I'm a huge romantic comedy fan and have been in this business for 17 years and I think for all 17 I'd hoped and dreamed and wished to some day be in a romantic comedy myself.” ThinkingYearsHas BeensComedyFansHuge Author:Katherine Heigl
“I came to The United States to see what would happen in 2000 after working for 20 years in Australia and asked my agent to look out for the nasty roles because I'd become famous for playing the nicest man in Australia. So I wanted to play bad guys. But I've been doing that now for 13 years so when I was offered the chance to do some comedy, I grabbed it.” MenYearsLooksStatesPlayHappensWantedGuyChanceUnitedRolesUnited StatesComedyAgentsAustraliaNastyBad Guys Author:Alan Dale
“Just look at the cinema itself: It's comprised of lots of movies about graphic novels, and if you're not 20 years old and wearing a cape and a mask and white, you're out of business. Today's cinema is a proliferation of comedies, which are in some ways creating caricature images. They're one-dimensional.” IfsWayYearsLooksTodayWhiteNovelComedyCreatingCinemaMaskGraphicCaricaturesProliferationCapesGraphic Novels Author:Danny Glover
“Dane Cook is one of the most exciting comedy stars to emerge on the scene in many years, and his ability to connect with audiences is truly remarkable. HBO will be able to give this gifted performer the broadest, most unrestricted showcase for his talent, and we're delighted to welcome him to the network.” GivingYearsAbleStarsAbilityAudienceComedyTalentSceneExcitingWelcomeCooksRemarkablePerformersGiftedDelightedHboShowcase Author:Chris Albrecht