Quotes About Comedy

'Suddenly Susan' is my life.

Comedy is like music - there are genres and styles for every taste. Katy Perry is there for people who like frothy pop music. Metallica is there for people who like head-banging metal. And Susan Boyle is there for... well, I don't who the hell is listening to that freak of nature, but that's not the point. In art, there's something for everybody.

When I'm overseas, I suspect I look like Mr. Bean.

If we started thinking, 'Why's this funny?' we might start incorporating rules into it. I'd be suspicious that it would change the nature of what we do.

In Raja Chanda's 'Ley Halua Ley,' I essay Locket's miser husband, who is suspicious of his beautiful wife. He is ready to go to any extent to protect his wife. The script of this film is hilarious.

There is that stereotype of a nerd with the high pants and pocket protector and that kind of thing. That can sustain comedy for maybe a movie - hence the 'Revenge of the Nerds' franchise - but not for hopefully years on the air. It's a sight gag, not a story.

I've done a lot of comedy recently, so I would really like to explore something else. I am hankering after a really meaty, dramatic role... like Natalie Portman's part in Black Swan.'

What I find funny are peoples' blind spots. That's the funniest thing about anybody - when they just don't realize who they are. What's funny about seeing a hippo do ballet is it thinks it's a swan.

My goal as a comedian is to sway people's opinion. It's not my only goal and it's not the only way I measure myself.

There's an assumption that my audience is all these bearded twats from Dalston. But actually, quite a lot of older people go. For them, it's like pre-alternative comedy, when there was Dave Allen or Jackie Mason or someone. Also, weirdly, because I don't really swear, they're not scared off.

In all my content I don't really swear or use profanity, because I believe comedy can just be pure.

Making comedies, you end up knowing people that you would swear would be the funnest people ever in the whole world. And they're not. They're really mean and depressed and hideous people.

I'd rather get a good clean laugh with good material, than an easy laugh by swearing or shocking. That's not clever or comedic, anybody can get a laugh that way, it's too easy.

'Backwash' is an old-school, slapstick-y romp between three eccentric loser friends who inadvertently rob a bank, armed solely with a salami and a sweat sock, and then find themselves on the run pursued by singing cops. It's kind of a classic piece, a sophisticated piece, if you will.

H. Jon Benjamin

I think the premises of my comedy are Cosby-esque, but I don't come out with a sweater. I come out with a Metallica shirt.

I love sketch; it's my favorite form. But if it's all improv, they're either very good, and it's annoying how good they are, and it makes you feel bad, or they're not too good; then you're sweating for them.

Baldness is visually enough of a stigma as it is without a big sweaty bloke on stage pointing it out.

No disrespect to Sweden: I didn't think of them as the comedy universe.

I did a tour of Sweden with Eddie Izzard in our early days, and he said, 'I'm thinking of talking about being a transvestite on stage. You should talk about being a Catholic.' I said, 'I think audiences will be more accepting of you being a transvestite than me being a Catholic.'

By making the gay character funny and sweet but above all normal, you make a far better, longer lasting statement than you would if you had an entirely gay comedy.

When someone goes, 'Oh, this group is really pissed off at what you said,' there's not a piece of my body that goes, 'Sweet!' That means I did it wrong. I'm just trying to make people laugh.

'Damadamm!' is a sweet comedy, and there is always room for watching a feel-good entertainer on Diwali.

I want to do a romantic comedy. Like a 'When Harry Met Sally' romantic comedy... A really sweet, show-my-vulnerability kind of role.