Comedy Quotes - Page 24

• Because I'm around comedians all the time, in my downtime I tend not to watch comedy. Something the whole family enjoys is 'You've Been Framed!' It satisfies all of us. It's universal, and we all laugh a lot.

  Nina Conti

  Laughing, Comedian, Watches

  "The Simpsons, You've Been Framed, The Muppets: Nina Conti's favourite TV" by Gwilym Mumford, www.theguardian.com. May 13, 2013.

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• since piety has become the fashion at Court, dramatic authors imagine that their pieces would be more welcome if they added in a little devotion. At first their plan succeeded, but now no one can bear their comedies.

  Elisabeth Charlotte d'Orleans

  Fashion, Would Be, Pieces

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• I guess what I always found funny was the human condition. There is a certain comedy and pathos to trouble and accidents. Like, when a driver has parked his car crookedly and then wonders why he has the bad luck of being hit.

  John Prine

  Country, Car, Luck

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• If the existence of human beings leads to nothing, what is all this comedy about?

  Camille Flammarion

  Life, Existence, Humans

  Camille Flammarion (1922). “Death and its mystery: before death, proofs of the existence of the soul”

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• The thing is to be brave and move the audience with you, instead of cater to the lowest common denominator, you know, slipping on a banana peel and falling on your ass. You got to move the audience a little further ahead in terms of their appreciation of what is comedy. It's complicated.

  Mel Brooks

  Appreciation, Moving, Fall

  "Mel Brooks on how to play Hitler, and how he almost died making Spaceballs". Interview with Steve Heisler, www.avclub.com. December 13, 2012.

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• If you purposefully look to shock people, it isn't funny. That's what 50 million dollar Hollywood comedies do; try to be shocking and dirty. They aren't really. It isn't enough to shock. It's easy to shock. Real surprise is what I'm after. Those early movies, we had drugs, which you weren't supposed to show. You weren't supposed to shoot up. We would make fun of hippies. I think that we were punk before there was punk.

  John Waters

  Fun, Real, Hippie

  "John Waters Takes It All". Interview with Colleen Kelsey, www.interviewmagazine.com. August 28, 2014.

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• What ignited the rocket that sent you up into the vast regions of comedy, and why? I would say, for me, that philosophical treatise about having black beginnings and wanting love to compensate for that, wanting audiences and wanting attention - I say, "Au contraire." Completely opposite. I want the continuation of my mother's incredible love and attention to me.

  Mel Brooks

  Mother, Philosophical, Opposites

  "Mel Brooks on how to play Hitler, and how he almost died making Spaceballs". Interview with Steve Heisler, www.avclub.com. December 13, 2012.

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• I thought I'd be living a much more bohemian life and be very poor. I never thought I'd do comedy or be married living in the suburbs. Every time I try to plan my life out it just doesn't come to pass, and I think that's a great experience.

  Michael Ian Black

  Thinking, Trying, Married

  "The Best-Laid Plans Of Michael Ian Black". Interview with Royal Young, www.interviewmagazine.com. February 27, 2012.

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• Comedy doesn't come easy for me. I've only done 2 movies that are really comedy-style films and I have to work at them. And they're just as scary in a way. I hate labeling all these things; comedy, love stories, dark drama, whatever.

  Channing Tatum

  Hate, Drama, Dark

  Source: www.shockya.com

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• I always knew that someone was going to come at me with a script to play God. It's just one of those things, the way your career is unfolding and all the talk about gravitas etc etc, so I had a strong feeling that someone was going to offer me the part of God. I was totally prepared to say, 'Thanks but no thanks,' unless it was a comedy.

  Morgan Freeman

  Strong, Play, Careers

  "Fox411 QA: Morgan Freeman on why he believes he is God and which successful film he hated making". Interview with Nicki Gostin, www.foxnews.com. July 6, 2012.

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• Doing stand-up comedy is in the middle of a traffic jam getting everybody moving again.

  Jon Stewart

  Moving, Jam, Middle

  "Jon Stewart, Faking It and Making It". "Fresh Air" with Dave Davies, www.npr.org. July 22, 2005.

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• A lot of stand-up specials for cable are meant to glorify the comedian. They put you in a really beautiful theater, and sometimes they even blow a little smoke in there to make it misty and sweet. They make the guy look like he's a big rock star. But comedy's not really glamorous. It doesn't enhance comedy for it to look good.

  Louis C. K.

  Beautiful, Sweet, Stars

  Source: pitchfork.com

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• I'm not a comedian. I don't do stand-up. I don't tell jokes. I'm a comedic actor, and approach my work that way. The comedy comes through the character.

  Eugene Levy

  Character, Comedian, Actors

  Source: www.foxnews.com

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• I was open to anything. That doesn't mean I would do anything, it just means I was open to anything. I've met for dramas, single camera comedy, multi-camera comedy. I take each script as an individual project.

  Skylar Astin

  Drama, Mean, Cameras

  Source: www.etonline.com

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• Like every human we have to categorize ourselves, so you kind of start to build a mythos 'cause I had no information about [ biological mother]. So you have to build a mythos around yourself. And so my mythos included me not being wanted or me being a wretched person, which is just great fertilizer for comedy.

  Keegan-Michael Key

  Mother, Information, Causes

  Source: www.npr.org

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• The world has wanted me to speak differently than I speak. You know, I speak like my mom; I speak like, you know, like the whitest white dude; I speak like a Def Comedy Jam comedian doing an impression of a white guy.

  Jordan Peele

  Mom, White, Guy

  "For Key And Peele, Biracial Roots Bestow Special Comedic 'Power'". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. November 20, 2013.

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• I think that doing comedy and playing Dwight is a service. Not to get grandiose about it, but I have a talent for playing oddball characters and I can make people laugh and that can help bring families together and people will really enjoy it and it puts a smile on their face and I think that is a really great thing.

  Rainn Wilson

  Character, Thinking, Laughing

  Source: bigthink.com

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• I really like the stuff that is very absurd and very real at the same time. I think Anton Chekhov is the greatest comedy writer of all time. I think he would make a great addition to The Office staff. If you look through Chekhov plays there is a lot of awkward pauses in there. His mixture of pathos, absurdity, truthfulness and whimsy is just mixed together perfectly.

  Rainn Wilson

  Real, Thinking, Play

  Interview with David Hirschman, bigthink.com. November 11, 2010.

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• You can only be embarrassed if you allow yourself to be embarrassed. If you embrace it and just accept that you're kind of a klutz, and you're able to make it into comedy gold.

  Stephen Merchant

  Gold, Able, Kind

  Source: www.esquire.com

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• If a great comedy landed on my doorstep, I would find it hard to say no.

  Eric Bana

  Doorstep, Hard, Ifs

  "Eric Bana reflects on 'Munich' controversy". Interview, www.today.com. May 12, 2006.

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• As a woman, she [Penelope Cruz] obviously has changed as she has become an adult. But, as an actress, I actually might say that she has not changed that much. And she has something great, especially in comedy, and she hasn't been exploited as much as she could be in comedy, but particularly in that mix between comedy and drama. She's got a very special quality about her. You can place her in very extreme situations, especially very painful situations, in terms of how her character interprets it. And sometimes, the deeper and more human that pain is, the better she is at it.

  Pedro Almodovar

  Pain, Drama, Character

  "Pedro Almodóvar Talks I’M SO EXCITED, the Role of Sex and Death in His Work, Making the “Gayest Film” He’s Done in 20 Years, and More" by Sheila Roberts, collider.com. June 24, 2013.

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• I think it would be so fun to do some kind of comedy, something - I'm not exactly sure, but something like I just did Moliere's "Tartuffe" in class, and wow, what a stretch. Why go to classes? I get to play in Moliere's "Tartuffe," and I could never - nobody would ever think that they would be, I'd be right for that.

  Eva Mendes

  Fun, Thinking, Class

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• Any performer would love to have the opportunity to be able to express themselves in many different areas. If you feel confident in those areas, you would hope to have the opportunity to do them, whether it's drama, comedy, musical, or whatever your interests are.

  Bryan Cranston

  Drama, Opportunity, Musical

  "Vince Gilligan and Bryan Cranston Talk BREAKING BAD, Deciding to End the Series, the Series Finale, the Saul Goodman Spin-off, and More". Interview with Christina Radish, collider.com. April 15, 2013.

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• Whatever the best scripts are and you just want to play roles that you can really sink your teeth into. That's always the goal no matter if it's a good guy or a bad guy, or a comedy, or a drama. It doesn't matter, you just want something that's substantial you can sink your teeth into and that you haven't done before, something that's really going to challenge you.

  Stanley Tucci

  Drama, Play, Want Something

  Source: collider.com

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• Most of my comedy writing happens through improvisation on stage; doing it in the moment.

  Marc Maron

  Writing, Moments, Stage

  "Marc Maron Off-Screen". Interview with Devon Ivie, www.interviewmagazine.com. August 3, 2015.

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