Quotes About Comedy

We're never going to please everyone, but all the great Jewish comics have succeeded through irreverence and self deprecation.

I would not have succeeded as a comedian had I not had some hugely lucky breaks.

Early on in my career, when I had basically been a sitcom actor for all of these years, and I made my first movies, and they were comedies, and they were successes, it was very important for me to stretch, and 'Parenthood' was one of those films. Even though it was a comedy, there was a great deal of authentic drama in the piece as well.

'SNL' after-parties are sort of like a time to celebrate your successes and drown your sorrows, depending on how the show went for you.

I can't imagine a successful comedy movie without a successful comedy performance at the heart of it.

The most successful people in comedy do seem to be the most funny.

I don't think 'Shooting Stars' has ever successfully been replaced.

I enjoy watching sitcoms where the team behind it have successfully created a whole alternate reality that you can enter into for half an hour every week.

In general, I think comedy is more difficult to write, to direct, and to act successfully.

I was very influenced by the musicals and romantic comedies of the 1930s. I admired Gene Harlow and such, which probably explains why, since the end of my marriage, I've dated nothing but a succession of blondes.

I live for comedy. I've been doing it for such a long time. Comedy is hard in itself.

Lots of people said that I have been a comic actor for such a long time, but as a director I was very serious.

We started off in improv and sketch comedy, and with improv the most important thing is to listen and make sure you're not stepping over someone, so we've been trained for such a long time doing that.

There used to be such a thing as a sick joke, or laughing at misfortune, because comedy and laughter are a way of coping. And there is a kind of cruelty to it, but you can separate finding something horrible funny, and what you really think of it.

I feel really comfortable with going for the reality of the drama, but I'm not much for the comedy of it. You have to make people laugh, or you have to be true to the character in such a way that makes people laugh. It's a whole different thing.

Many, many years ago, I stood on the stage and told bad jokes and did Sophie Tucker as an impersonation, and nobody looked up; and suddenly, I looked down and said, 'Sir, I'm getting fed up with you. Either you watch, or I'm going to suck your neck,' or words to that effect, and suddenly people started to laugh.

I'm a sucker for a good movie.

I'm a sucker for a good sense of humor.

I'm a sucker for 'When Harry Met Sally' and all that romantic stuff.

I love the Comedy Cellar. The audience has no expectations because they don't know me. It's great. It's only winning - if I bomb, they just say, 'Oh, the French guy sucks.' But if I do well, then they remember me.

Let's face it: families behind closed doors are the funniest thing ever - the way people talk to each other, the way you fight for 30 seconds, and then all of a sudden you're crying. Families are just ripe for comedy.

I knew since third grade I wanted to be Jim Carrey. His freedom, his goofiness, his crazy, loud, sudden energy. I told my family I was going to be a pediatrician, but in the back of my mind, I was like, 'Nope, I'm going to be the biggest movie star ever.'

At Second City and improvising at iO, you're creating a character in an instant. All of a sudden, you're creating this history and this past for your character, and you're discovering it while you're doing it, and that's part of the fun of it.

It was just us lampooning our own peer group, saying, well hey, where did this stuff come from? And where does British guys get to be so good at it suddenly?