“In general, I think there are some things that require time before you can talk about them. Some stuff that happened over the summer, for instance - the Philando Castile shooting, Alton Sterling, the police officers in Dallas - there was no room for jokes. But there are, of course, the policies that have given us those events. Now, there's a lot of room for jokes there. When you're looking at something difficult to talk about, there's always a sideways way in that feels a little less personal to people. That's where the joke lives.” PeopleThinkingDifficultPolicySummerJokesPolicePolice OfficerSideways Author:Negin Farsad
“I'm not making fun of it because I want to make fun of it. I'm making fun of it so I feel better. I don't want people to think any time there's a tragedy that I'm going to make a joke about it. It's only funny to me because it's personal to me. And that was always the goal. It wasn't to be this insult person.” PeopleThinkingFunGoalJokesTragedyInsultFeel Better Author:Pete Davidson
“I think people take Blink-128 more seriously now than they did before. And it's largely our fault because we called our records Enema of the State and Take Off Your Pants and Jacket. We were always kind of the underdogs, especially critically. People wrote us off as this joke band. But the people who listened to Blink knew that we were silly and whatever, but we wrote songs about divorce and suicide and depression. Those kids that were listening to Blink are now the ones that control all these outlets that used to just write us off.” PeopleThinkingWritingKindKidsSongListeningJokesSuicideDivorceSillyBlinkUnderdog Author:Mark Hoppus
“We see how popular Bernie Sanders was, and it might have mattered. It might have made that Democrat ticket a little bit more unified, and mollified the anger that the Bernie Sanders people felt when they learned that his whole campaign was a joke because he's been cheated and they had engaged in fraud.” PeopleJokesDemocratFraudCheated Author:Rush Limbaugh
“I've always wanted to entertain people, or make them smile, or tell a joke that would make them laugh. I don't think there was this deep down burning passion to be an actor.” PeopleThinkingPassionLaughingJokes Author:Chris Demetral
“Jessica Biel is a really interesting case. She actually called us after the table read and said, "You guys should go meaner." She pitched us, and said, "Look, I know there are a lot of things to make fun of me about. I don't want people to think you're pulling punches. Please, dive in." We asked, "Could we tell a joke about your friend and mentor Stephen Collins?" And she said, "Well maybe not so much in that area. As long as the jokes were about me, I'm game for everything."” PeopleThinkingLongGuyFunInterestingJokesMentorReally Interesting Author:Raphael Bob-Waksberg
“Somebody who opposes Trump is wound so tight, they're not funny people anyway, that they don't get his humor. They really believe when he tells these jokes that that's dead serious stuff. There's not enough laughter on the left. Even their comedians are angry. Their comedians, the humor they shoot for is all personal put-down kind of humor where it used to not be that way. But Trump's humor, even the stuff that's not subtle, they miss, they take it literally and are frightened to death by it. It's incredible.” PeopleBelieveKindEnoughMissingSeriousLaughterJokesIncrediblesWoundsComedianFunny People Author:Rush Limbaugh
“I'd like to think I'm a little more memorable or specific now. People laugh at me in a way they wouldn't laugh at another comedian, rather than being like, "Okay, who's the next joke-slinger? Give me some jokes so I may laugh and go about my day!"” PeopleThinkingGivingLaughingJokesOkayComedianMemorable Author:Christian Finnegan
“I really like intimate venues because it feels like everyone in the audience is in on all our inside jokes. We could say things and people will catch them. That couldn't happen at a festival because nobody would catch it. I also like that in a smaller space people can be talking to each other and listening to the music; they don't have to be watching you the whole time.” PeopleAudienceListeningJokesIntimate Author:BØRNS
“People are in denial all the time, hiding things. If I tell you a racist or dirty joke and you laugh, you're telling me something about yourself, which you don't want to reveal. Accessing that hidden side is what good acting is all about. And there are only a handful of people in the entire United States who interest me as actors, who surprise me. Even people who write about it, don't know anything about good performance. At least when you work at General Motors, you know something about cars.” PeopleWritingInterestActingLaughingCarJokesSurpriseDenialDirtyRacistHidingAbout YourselfMotorSurprise MeGeneral MotorsDirty Jokes Author:Martin Landau
“There are certain things that are probably too mean. I don't particularly like fat jokes. Those kind of bother me. But I guess what I was trying to say is, if I said I would never laugh at this, you could probably dig around and find a situation where I did laugh. I try not to be a hypocrite with that one. I find when there's a controversy about someone saying something offensive, I usually take the angle of, "Well, I don't know if that was offensive; it just wasn't funny." I generally don't gasp, "Oh my God!" I think people have been getting raked over the coals lately.” PeopleThinkingTryingKindMeanSituationLaughingJokesBotherOffensiveControversyHypocrite Author:Todd Barry
“Twitter is just a great joke laboratory. You go in there and there are so many witty people that I know any joke I make is going to have a response with at least 10 great jokes coming back.” PeopleJokesResponseWittyLaboratory Author:Michael Kupperman
“There is a resentment and rejection of liberal culture. That culture is not available to many people in America. And the liberal coastal elite, who may never have been to rural America, just think everyone there is racist and homophobic and judge them to be terrible people. They think there is nothing wrong to be making jokes about 'meth heads', who are actually a group of people with poverty-related drug issues. They don't see their own hypocrisy. I think this is a huge issue and one that cannot be ignored.” PeopleThinkingCultureJudgingTerribleDrugJokesRejectionHypocrisyRacistResentmentIgnoredHomophobic Author:Erika M. Anderson
“I think it's a slightly crazy time actually, it's very difficult to satirise because each of politicians is in their own way enacting a commentary on the world of politics anyway. To then comment on them just feels like adding another layer. I find it very difficult to do jokes about current politics because for me it's all about... I actually genuinely want people to be involved properly, you know? I mean, the number of people who don't vote... Frightening, really.” PeopleThinkingWorldMeanDifficultCrazyPoliticianJokesVoteCommentFrightening Author:Armando Iannucci
“I'm not big on fat jokes. That's a little beneath me. I'm not a huge fan of making a joke completely at someone else's expense. Even though I think he does it better than anyone else, I don't love... Well, it's different with Sacha Baron Cohen, but that whole thing where you're "punking" people? I don't like that. I don't like doing it, and I don't particularly find it funny when the joke is on a person who doesn't know they're being set up.” PeopleThinkingDifferentJokes Author:Michael Showalter
“Speaking for myself, I try to go out there on the stage and make jokes with people, so I'm not really thinking about the impact anything I have. If it does resonate with people, that's really great.” PeopleThinkingTryingJokesReally Great Author:Samantha Bee
“In Germany, people are saying, "George W. Bush is an asshole. Osama Bin Laden is an asshole." But then I make jokes about Auschwitz, and how the Germans are lederhosen-wearing sausage freaks - and they hate me for this! And I'm like, "You all are sitting there because you want to relax and have a nice evening, and now you're pissed because I put also a mirror in front of you."” PeopleHateNiceLike YouJokesRelaxFreakBin LadenHate MeOsama Bin LadenAuschwitz Author:Uwe Boll
“You don't need any courage today in Germany to make a movie about the Nazi time. You get all the subsidies, you get the TV stations, you get the good reviews. But you need courage to kick in the balls all the people that are still hiding under the blanket, and to say, "Oh, Adolf Hitler was maybe not so bad." And with my little Nazi jokes in Postal, I offended the Germans in a harsh time.” PeopleTodayJokesHidingHarshNaziOffendedBlanket Author:Uwe Boll
“It's really surreal when I play shows, I'll have three or four people who are in the front row who are singing every word to my songs. The first time I experienced that I was like,"Are they mocking me? Is this a joke?" But it's not a joke. They actually identify with my music and that is something that I'm getting used to.” PeopleSongSingingJokesFirst TimeSurreal Author:Zella Day
“I just tell jokes, and I think a lot of people take it too seriously. It's not that I don't have things that I'm angry about in the world, and I think most decent human beings are upset about things, and even upset about things in their own country, but I'm not a particularly unhappy fellow.” PeopleThinkingWorldCountryJokesUnhappyUpsetDecent Author:Aaron McGruder
“I really get a little bit confused by all this "angry angry angry" talk when all I do is tell jokes and at least some people find it funny.” PeopleJokesConfused Author:Aaron McGruder
“The good thing about being in advertising was a lot of the skills cross over: you have to be accountable for your jokes; you have to tell a story quickly. It's the most expensive filmmaking foot-for-foot in the world, so it does teach you how to use all of the machines and how to think of things in terms of the physical process of capturing the images. And you have to sell your work. You have to walk into whatever it is and stand up in the middle of a conference room with a storyboard in your hand and make people laugh.” PeopleThinkingWorldTermTeachLaughingJokesGood ThingsAdvertisingOver YouFilmmakingMaking People Laugh Author:Victor Levin
“When people come in to act on the show, we say, "Just be extremely dry and not funny. Let the idea be the joke." That holds true through a lot of our stuff.” PeopleJokes Author:Tim Heidecker
“I find myself being quite cynical - and I think we all kind of are - towards the idea that it's associated with being a musician; you know... the kind of rock-star attitude. So, I hope that people know it's a joke.” PeopleThinkingKindAttitudeMusicianJokesAll KindsCynical Author:Thomas Powers
“Nothing comes easy. I know that people joke all the time and try to figure out, you know, what it is that I do, but I work really hard. I get up every day at 5 a.m. and start my day. I think as long as you work really hard and figure out what you want to do and stay motivated and have a plan and stay committed - just don't be lazy. That's my best advice. It's the most simple advice, but it really worked for me. I think that for some reason, I see people that think things will come easy and it doesn't really come easy.” PeopleThinkingTryingLongReasonEasySimpleAdviceJokesCommittedLazyMotivatedBest Advice Author:Kim Kardashian
“I think most of the actors that I know that I think are good are kind of funny people. There's just something about being alive to the truth of a moment that makes a good joke that also makes a good actor.” PeopleThinkingKindMomentsJokesFunny People Author:Clark Gregg
“People would say, "Oh, you say you just do jokes." I don't just do jokes. I do jokes. Jokes are important. They saved my life when I was younger. Hopefully we're making things nicer at the end of the day for people. That's the entire goal, and that's the touchstone and the North Star for the tone.” PeopleImportantGoalJokesHopefully Author:Stephen Colbert
“I always wanted to strip. I'm sort of one of those people who would walk past a strip club and while everybody else might give it a passing glance or cracks a joke, I'd be like pressing my face up against the window trying to see in. I was very curious always.” PeopleGivingTryingPastJokesWindowCurious Author:Diablo Cody
“I used to see a lot of cocaine. There were journalists who used cocaine and didn't write about it and I didn't write about it. I would never do drugs, so I would always get the same response from people: "Smart kid, more for me." Whether it was a joke or sincere or both, but I was just happy not to be in there partying with the band like some of these other journalists.” PeopleWritingKidsPartyDrugSmartJokesResponseJournalistSincereCocaine Author:Cameron Crowe
“There are practical things which contribute to a joke's funniness. People will find a joke funnier if they are sitting closer together, if it's cold, if they've paid and if they are told it's funny beforehand.” PeopleTogetherColdJokes Author:Ben Miller
“What I always look for is someone that really knew how to lean up against a bar, get a drink, sit on a barstool. When people are in bars they're relaxed. No real right angles - it's slow moves, it's slow conversations. You can tell a loud joke, but everyone's very relaxed. I never would pick somebody nervous or twitchy. If I found guys with beards, I'd ask them, don't trim the edges, don't go in and manicure yourself up. I always look for people that look like they're comfortable in their own skin, that wouldn't feel like it was the first time they were ever in a bar.” PeopleRealMovingGuyDrinkJokesFirst TimeSkinsNervousBeard Author:Matthew McConaughey
“I think when people watch a lot of artists, they're expecting this showiness, and I'm cracking jokes with people. I'm heckling back. I'm interacting.” PeopleThinkingArtistJokesExpecting Author:Caitlin Rose
“I would say that Futurama: Bender's Big Score requires a lot of concentration to watch. It's a very complicated time-travel story. Part of the joke on that was just that the complexity would be over the top. This one is a more straight-forward science-fiction story, I would say. Alien invasion and people running in terror, that kind of thing, with a slight twist of there being an inappropriate physical relationship with the big octopus monster. We've got a straight-up science-fiction movie.” PeopleKindRunningJokesTerrorComplicatedAliensComplexityConcentrationInappropriate Author:David X. Cohen
“Scripts are a house of cards and you can't just reach in the middle and pull out the middle card because the house of cards will fall down. But at a certain point you almost have to allow that house of cards to get knocked down a few times because you need to make it sturdier. How many times do you hear, "No, that doesn't make sense," or "Why would this happen?" That was a mistake. You shouldn't have those moments, because the moment you're knocked out of the story, then you're dead. And all you can go is moment to moment,or joke to joke. And that's gonna wear people out.” PeopleMomentsFallHouseMistakeJokesMake SenseFalling Down Author:Paul Feig
“Jerry Seinfeld, he was doing Letterman show all the time, so he kind of had an excuse, that people know the jokes already. He didn't have time to do stand-up. A guy like me, I have no excuses.” PeopleKindGuyJokesExcuseNo ExcusesJerryLetterman Author:Dave Chappelle
“Comedy can be silly and gross and offensive, as long as there's sort of a point. You can make a joke that, on the face of it, is racist. Ostensibly someone can appear to be racist, but if you know you're making a point about race, and not just being pig-headed, then you can do that. I think some people who don't understand comedy will have a knee-jerk reaction to some stuff, and will always be offended by it because they don't understand it. Some people react to it in a vociferous way, which is unsophisticated, but there's always going to be those people out there.” PeopleThinkingLongComedyJokesSillyRacistOffensiveOffendedGrossBeing Silly Author:Steve Coogan
“I make the joke, all the time, that if you have the word "man" and a number in the title, like Batman 2, Spider-Man 2 or Iron Man 12, you'll get it made. The kind of movies I make, studios don't make them. I've made a lot of movies, and at Castle Rock, we've made 125 movies. None of them get made at a studio. I've got to scrounge around for money, every time. I just like to tell stories. I'm a storyteller, so I want the most people to see it.” PeopleMenKindJokesStorytellerIron Man Author:Rob Reiner
“You've noticed that same joke told by two different people, once works, and the other time doesn't, simply because how the person edits it. The silences, the pauses, what they neglect, what they emphasize - all of this matters.” PeopleDifferentSilenceJokesNeglect Author:Abbas Kiarostami
“When I worked at The Independent newspaper, I had colleagues who would laugh and say that whenever they picked up the phone to my dad and heard his accent, they thought they were about to hear a five-minute warning to get out the building. People in Britain have always thought it acceptable to make racist remarks about the Irish. The prejudice underlying that supposed joke was everywhere.” PeopleLaughingBuildingDadJokesPrejudiceIndependentMy DadRacist Author:Maggie O'Farrell
“At some point, you realize that people might be laughing at your jokes because they're afraid not to laugh.” PeopleRealizingLaughingJokes Author:Tina Fey
“Laughter is something we have against oppression and oppressive people. Dictators hate people who laugh at them. It's easy for them to destroy people who resist them. But if you create jokes against them, write funny poems or articles against them, then they feel helpless and desperate. They can't do anything.” PeopleWritingHateEasyLaughingLaughterJokesOppressionDesperateDictatorHelplessHate People Author:Burhan Sonmez
“When I meet people I try to make a joke out of my occupation, explaining that what I do all day is sit alone in a darkened room, flicking through some pages, jumping on a treadmill now and then. I keep my serious work as a writer private, but that doesn't mean it's not serious work - quite the opposite.” PeopleTryingMeanSeriousJokesNow And Then Author:Lauren Groff
“I always joke about letting the haters motivate you. Everybody has that in their life, people who doubt them or make them feel less than they are. It just takes faith and belief in yourself, and you've got to dig deep into that. That has to come from you - nobody's going to give you that.” PeopleGivingFeelsBeliefDoubtJokesDig DeepBelief In Yourself Author:Jennifer Lopez
“I became the storyteller of South Side Chicago. I used an old Kiwi liquid shoe polish as a microphone. I'd go around the house interviewing everybody, telling stupid jokes, doing voices. I mimicked Sidney Poitier, Sammy Davis Jr., people on 'Laugh-In,' Flip Wilson.” PeopleUsedHouseSidesVoiceLaughingStupidJokesSouthShoesChicagoStorytellerPolishFlipLiquidMicrophonesWilsonKiwiSammy DavisStupid JokesSammy Davis Jr Author:Bernie Mac
“Stand up is really fun because if I think of a joke or a funny idea, then I can just go and tell some people and if they laugh, they laugh right away.” PeopleIfsThinkingI CanIdeasFunnyFunLaughingJokes Author:Demetri Martin
“When I was very young, I didn't really write my own material. I just memorized other peoples' jokes. Established comics, like Stanley Myron Handelman and people like that. And then, for every comic, you develop your own style after a while.” PeopleWritingYoungMy OwnStyleMaterialsJokesComicStanley Author:Kevin Nealon
“It's not like we have a formula, but I think one of the reasons this show has survived is that it has a big heart at its center. Other cartoon shows have people crap on each other and make racist jokes. But I don't think people tune in for that. I just don't think a show lasts for 10 years without a heart.” PeopleThinkingYearsHeartReasonShowsBigsLastsJokesTunesRacistFormulasCrapSurvivedCartoonBig HeartCartoon ShowsRacist Jokes Author:Trey Parker
“People make jokes about my bosoms, why don't they look underneath the breasts at the heart? It's obvious I've got big ones and if people want to assume they're not mine, then let them.” PeopleIfsWantLooksHeartBigsMinesJokesAssumingObviousBreastsBosoms Author:Dolly Parton
“People make a lot of jokes about the empty nest. Let me tell you, it is no laughing matter. It is really hard.” PeopleMatterHardLaughingJokesEmptyLet MeNestsEmpty Nest Author:Michelle Pfeiffer
“You can't build a plot out of jokes. You need tragic relief. And you need to let people know that when a lot of frightened people are running around with edged weaponry, there are deaths. Stupid deaths, usually. I'm not writing 'The A-Team' - if there's a fight going on, people will get hurt. Not letting this happen would be a betrayal.” PeopleIfsKnowsNeedsWritingHappensWould BeRunningFightingHurtTeamStupidJokesBetrayalReliefTragicPlotFrightenedWeaponry Author:Terry Pratchett