The comic spirit is given to us in order that we may analyze, weigh, and clarify things in us which nettle us, or which we are outgrowing, or trying to reshape.
—Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) American Novelist, Playwright
In comedy, reconcilement with life comes at the point when to the tragic sense only an inalienable difference or dissension with life appears.
—Constance Rourke (1885–1941) American Historian
Though it make the unskillful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Comedy comes from conflict, from hatred.
—Warren Mitchell (1926–2015) English Actor
I think being funny is not anyone’s first choice.
—Woody Allen (b.1935) American Film Actor, Director
My routines come out of total unhappiness. My audiences are my group therapy.
—Joan Rivers (1933–2014) American Comedienne, Writer
We are living in the machine age. For the first time in history the comedian has been compelled to supply himself with jokes and comedy material to compete with the machine. Whether he knows it or not, the comedian is on a treadmill to oblivion.
—Fred Allen (1894–1956) American Humorist, Radio Personality
A pleasant comedy, which paints the manners of the age, and exposes a faithful picture of nature, is a durable work, and is transmitted to the latest posterity. But a system, whether physical or metaphysical, commonly owes its success to its novelty; and is no sooner canvassed with impartiality than its weakness is discovered.
—David Hume (1711–76) Scottish Philosopher, Historian
A man’s got to take a lot of punishment to write a really funny book.
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer
Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious.
—Peter Ustinov (1921–2004) British Actor, Playwright, Director
And I did laugh sans intermission an hour by his dial. O noble fool, a worthy fool—motley’s the only wear.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
The only rules comedy can tolerate are those of taste, and the only limitations those of libel.
—James Thurber
Today’s comedian has a cross to bear that he built himself. A comedian of the older generation did an “act” and he told the audience, “This is my act.” Today’s comic is not doing an act. The audience assumes he’s telling the truth. What is truth today may be a damn lie next week.
—Lenny Bruce (1925–66) American Comedian, Writer, Social Critic, Satirist
The test of a real comedian is whether you laugh at him before he opens his mouth.
—George Jean Nathan (1882–1958) American Drama Critic, Editor
Comedy is an escape, not from truth but from despair; a narrow escape into faith.
—Christopher Fry (1907–2005) English Poet, Playwright
Comedy has to be done en clair. You can’t blunt the edge of wit or the point of satire with obscurity. Try to imagine a famous witty saying that is not immediately clear.
—James Thurber
A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely of jokes.
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-born British Philosopher
The only honest art form is laughter, comedy. You can’t fake it… try to fake three laughs in an hour—ha ha ha ha ha—they’ll take you away, man. You can’t.
—Lenny Bruce (1925–66) American Comedian, Writer, Social Critic, Satirist
The perception of the comic is a tie of sympathy with other men, a pledge of sanity, and a protection from those perverse tendencies and gloomy insanities in which fine intellects sometimes lose themselves. A rogue alive to the ludicrous is still convertible. If that sense is lost, his fellow-men can do little for him.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
There is not one female comic who was beautiful as a little girl.
—Joan Rivers (1933–2014) American Comedienne, Writer
Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.
—Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977) British Actor
Comedy naturally wears itself out—destroys the very food on which it lives; and by constantly and successfully exposing the follies and weaknesses of mankind to ridicule, in the end leaves itself nothing worth laughing at.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl.
—Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977) British Actor
Comedy is tragedy that happens to other people.
—Angela Carter (1940–92) English Novelist
Comedy just pokes at problems, rarely confronts them squarely. Drama is like a plate of meat and potatoes; comedy is rather the dessert, a bit like meringue.
—Woody Allen (b.1935) American Film Actor, Director
We mustn’t complain too much of being comedians—it’s an honorable profession. If only we could be good ones the world might gain at least a sense of style. We have failed—that’s all. We are bad comedians, we aren’t bad men.
—Graham Greene (1904–91) British Novelist, Playwright, Short Story Writer
Comedy deflates the sense precisely so that the underlying lubricity and malice may bubble to the surface.
—Paul Goodman (1911–72) American Novelist, Essayist
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