Paul Provenza Quotes

I need wrong to get laughs. I need a normal world so that I can be abnormal, and that's my problem. Comedians need prejudice.

George Carlin is brilliant with words, and Johnny Winters is very creative. It's taking something common and drawing out the humor, being clever with words.

ESPN takes itself very seriously, but for some reason, I'm allowed to be the court jester.

He is very dry but also very funny... I think people tend to feel odd when I do my act. Unless you are an ironic person, it's not a good place for you to be.

When I tell people I'm a comedian they say, 'Oh, are you funny?' I say, 'No, it's not that kind of comedy.'

I did stand-up. I loved George Carlin and Steve Martin.

If I make fun of somebody at my show, believe me, it's something we can all laugh at.

I've always thought George Carlin was brilliant.

I use mother-in-law jokes, kid jokes, tax jokes - anything that works.

Good taste is the enemy of comedy.

Comedies always need to be provocative and catch your attention in a way that dramas don't have to.

You, the actor, must be aware of when you're being funny, but the character you're playing should always be oblivious to the fact.

Who is Mike Judge? Let me think. The only way I could possibly answer that question would be in a nonverbal fashion. I think I could do an interpretive dance that would answer that question for you.

I think any decent comedy worth its salt has to have heart, otherwise it's just a bunch of jokes. I think people enjoy comedies that have a heart and soul to them.

I wanted to do something in the style of a comedy of manners.

I guess the more serious you play something, if the context is funny, then it will be funny and it doesn't really require you to be necessarily, explicitly humorous, or silly.

For comedy, timing is key.

Being a stand-up is my mission in life; it's my passion. My ongoing goal is to simply be funny, on my own, in front of a roomful of strangers.

Jon Stewart is exactly the same guy he's always been, only with money. He knows that the moment he really believes he's important, the funny goes away and he becomes Bill O'Reilly, except shorter and Jewish.

Comedy is all about having a point of view, and it's also about power.

I always believe that funny is serious and serious is funny. You don't really need a distinction between them.

It's almost impossible to be funnier than the people in Washington.

My whole life, I've been telling jokes.

I do love jokes.

I'm not a great joke writer, which is odd for a comic to say, but I'm not.