Quotes About Humor

The funny thing is that I write and I act a lot about being Jewish, but I don't really think about it as a regular person.

Comics are regularly asked to perform for impossible rooms. They're called 'hell gigs.'

I like the idea of being out there regularly with an audience and with a funny gang of people. That's what I grew up with - doing television, doing shows every week.

When you're reinterpreting the same material eight shows a week, it's impossible to lock in the 'ideal' performance. Things that felt great in previews can feel forced three months in; jokes that got big laughs in the rehearsal room may suddenly fall flat in front of a paying audience.

Rehearsals are for gags.

Elton wanted a garden. They were building all afternoon while we were rehearsing. And then they built a fountain for Elton. And he said, I was only joking!

In theater, one of the biggest problems when you're rehearsing comedy over and over again is that you stop laughing at each other.

I'd love to teach Roman Reigns how to work. Just kidding.

Bill Maher fancies himself the reincarnation of Lenny Bruce.

I avoid writing about sex out of a certainty that no matter how grown up and matter-of-fact I might try to be, there is a snickering yet nun-terrorized 12-year-old-boy inside me who would at some point be certain to grab the reins in his hairy palms.

I think there's an interesting contradiction of having a young face and an old soul. There's something funny about it, and it also allows you to reinvent being old.

Like, I feel like I'm funny, despite the fact that I keep getting rejected by people less funny than me.

Save your rejections so that later when you are famous you can show them to people and laugh.

The rejection that we all take and the sadness and the aggravation and the loss of jobs and all of the things that we live through in our lives, without a sense of humor, I don't know how people make it.

I think audiences can relate to the guys I'm playing, those large-and-in-charge idiots. Or maybe I just make them feel better about who they are, or who they're dating.

I definitely relate so much to a lot of women in comedy, but I don't love segregating the genders. I'm just as influenced by male comedians as I am female comedians.

The beauty of comedy is you can really push things. Hopefully, you're with people with a sense of humor and can relate to it.

The average comedian is kind of an observer looking at everyday things that everyone could relate to and then trying to find the exaggeration in those things.

Comedy's about opening up and being unique, but to a point where the audience can relate to what you're saying.

If I can relate to the joke, it's going to be funny.

Through the years, I have been overwhelmed by the number of people who have shared how much they relate to my 'Sordid Lives' family, and how many gay men and women used it to come out to their conservative families through the humor of the film.

I think that laughter and death are closely related: comedy is the quintessential human reaction to the fear of death. It's probably linked with the fact that we are the only animals who know we must die.

Obviously, it's the Lucille Balls of the world who helped make humor accessible to women and in a voice that women related to. I just wanted to continue that.

Back in elementary I used to tell all the girls I was related to Michael Jackson. But as I got older I think it worked for me less and less.