Steve Coogan Quotes

I guess my feeling is is that if you're going to make a joke, that's fine, but you should also sort of stand behind it, you know? A joke should be more than a joke, it should be a point that you're trying to make.

My main point is to be funny; if I can slip a message in there, fine.

I don't think all comedy should be mindless. Have something that's thoughtful. Maybe some things are tongue-in-cheek; maybe some things are very direct. I like that people have to think about things. That excites me. Because if you say certain things, it starts a dialogue. Even if you disagree, it's still a dialogue.

If you don't like the people, you're just doing a sketch. Which, in most cases, is comedy minus some emotional backbone.

Comedy, in my opinion, is best when it's in the gray, and you're kind of pushing people's thoughts that they sort of had but never vocalized. And I think a joke is not good if someone says something, and immediately people are clapping because they're like, 'Yes! That is how I feel as well!'

I think comedy can be a way of sugar-coating a pill that needs to be taken, and whatever I complain about onstage, I hope I justify the negativity by using humour to make the point.

My ultimate goal is to make people laugh and make them think, which isn't always an easy task.

I like some of my stuff not to be particularly funny. It's supposed to be amusing, entertaining or thought-provoking, like a curiosity. If you put it on in front of 500 people in the Odeon they wouldn't laugh. They shouldn't laugh.

When you're laughing aloud at David Sedaris' every sentence, it's easy to miss the more serious side of what he's up to.

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

If you go back to 'Pretty Fly,' it was a very popish song, but there was a satirical side to it, and I think that's cool. I like the idea that it's making people think just a little bit.

The best comedy is where you attack the strong, not the weak.

Mark Twain had a way of telling stories that shifts your consciousness away from labels.

Being a comedy writer gives you permission to be an outsider and poke fun at what people think about other people.

There seems to be more comedy for comedy's sake.

Real comedy doesn't just make people laugh and think, but makes them laugh and change.

Although humor is present in every one of my films, it has always been used as a way to make the darker, heavier stuff in my stories more palatable. I never set out to make 'Humpday' a comedy.

The duty of comedy is to correct men by amusing them.

David Mamet's writing is pretty spectacular, obviously. I like the honesty of it; I like how funny it is and how sad it is.

I try and write satire that's well-intentioned. But those intentions have to be hidden. It can't be completely clear, and that's what makes it comedy.

The last thing I want to do is use my comedy as a partisan tool or as a method for preaching.

Americans are not renowned for having a sense of irony.

The thing that makes a great genre movie is one that's not just entertainment, not just horror or sci-fi or whatever. The ones I love are the genre pictures with some subversive message underlying it all.

With comedy I can search for the profound.

Most modern comedy is crap.