Quotes from Richard Herring

Sometimes my jokes are meant to be tasteless.

My dad is a retired headmaster and my mum is an ex-teacher. I was taught by both of them.

If you are a stand-up you can hone your material over successive performances, based on the audience response. Changing a single word or altering the pace or emphasis can make a previously failed witticism work.

There is a rhythm to a good joke, a certain pacing.

There aren't many opportunities to be a comedian on TV anymore, it's a lot of panel shows. You don't get much stand-up.

I like any European city where you can sit outside, have a beer and watch the world go by.

Personally, I find it very hard to absent myself from any situation, due to overwhelming self-consciousness. There's always a voice in my head passing comment and making sure nothing can be enjoyed for what it is.

Nobody at school would have expected me to be involved in anything that might have been perceived as cool. I was trying to make people laugh all the time, but my dad was the headmaster and I was quite swotty.

Watching Billy Connolly at the Hammersmith Apollo in the late 90s was a masterclass of long-form comedy.

If something's true you should be able discuss it or ask whether it's true. It helps me as a comedian. But it doesn't necessarily help my personal life.

I was surprised that 'The Peter Serafinowicz Show' didn't get a second series. There are things like that that get stifled at birth and you wonder why they didn't happen.

The show that first massively impacted on me was 'Tiswas,' with people like Lenny Henry, Chris Tarrant, John Gorman and the Phantom Flan Flinger. I loved that kind of surrealist, anarchic humour.

As I remember it, we pitched 'Fist of Fun' as a sort of adult version of the kids' show 'Why Don't You?' We wanted to overload it with information, really pile it on.

Writing is one per cent inspiration and 99 per cent prevarication.

I love it when people try to manufacture an injustice out of a position of clear superiority.

I've run a marathon - I think that's the most surprising thing about me.

I can't be the only one who watches 'Footloose' and hopes that John Lithgow will stop Kevin Bacon ever dancing again.

There are a lot of great disabled comedians.

Coming from a comprehensive school in Somerset, entertainment didn't seem like something that was open to you.

On one podcast, I attempt to antagonise and lose listeners by commentating on myself playing snooker against myself in my basement. Most people are baffled, confused, even angry about it.

Comedy is a downward slicing sword sometimes, looking down and laughing at people.

People tend to be surprised when they realise I'm only 5ft 6in. Now I tell them on my website. I think you have to point out your own deficiencies if you're emphasising everyone else's for a living.

I've said on one of my shows that I'd like to marry the character Amy Pond, not the actress who plays her.

I am increasingly excited about the artistic possibilities of the Internet.