Don Rickles Quotes

I knew I was going to go into the field and make fun of people to their faces. I knew what I was getting into.

I think to simply make fun of something isn't particularly interesting. I try to not just do a parody of something or belittle something or disparage something.

Insult is powerful. Insult begets both rage and humor and often at the same time.

When he said we were trying to make a fool of him, I could only murmur that the Creator had beat us to it.

Humor is hostility.

If I were to insult people and mean it, that wouldn't be funny.

Comedy is based partly on mean-spiritedness.

You can laugh at somebody because they are innocent, and because they are naive or they are about to walk into a wall, but if somebody's giving you stuff, if somebody's talking, giving you their take on things, what makes you laugh, generally speaking, is going to be somebody who is telling it in an angry way.

I'm not a big fan of comedy roasts because most of the time I find them to be really mean, but once in a while, you'll hear something perfectly worded and well-crafted.

Reed Scott is really good at coming up with insults.

And humor has always been a weapon. You want to get even on somebody? You want to attack somebody? Make fun of them.

Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.

Facetiousness is allowable when it is the most proper instrument of exposing things apparently base and vile to due contempt.

I see parody as another form of comedy.

A joke is a joke. There's an expression - I don't know if you have it - that's 'adding insult to injury.'

Eddie Murphy said once in an interview that nothing is offensive if it's funny. I sort of agree with that, but if something's funny and you're the subject of it, sometimes it's more offensive. If someone's insulting you, you want them to sound like an idiot.

I think at its best the American sense of humor is the same as the British sense of humor at its best, which is to be wry and ironic and self deprecating.

Inappropriateness is funny to me. Rudeness is hilarious.

I hate being mean. I watch those roasts on Comedy Central and they make the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

Comedy always works best when it is mean-spirited.

If I wanted your opinion, I'd slap it outta ya.

I’m ready any time you want to repeat the stupid question.

You are a daft race. Begone!

Ridicule is man's most potent weapon.

What is satire if not a marriage of civil disobedience to a laugh track, a potent brew of derision and lack of respect that acts as a nettle sting on the thin skin of the humourless?