Jimmy Carr Quotes

I know what I want to talk about, but I don't really know what's funny about a joke until I perform it in front of an audience.

I was once doing a gig with Tim Vine; he was backstage, and there was one of those long strings of polystyrene coffee cups. He picked up the whole stack of about 20, walked on stage and then said: 'Bloody hell this coffee's hot!' which I think is the funniest thing anyone has ever said.

A lot of my humor centers on the act of telling jokes and I think this can prevent certain audiences from suspending their feeling of disbelief. It might piss a few people off, but I can't help it.

Jackie Gleason said that comedy is the most exacting form of dramatic art, because it has an instant critic: laughter.

As a comic, you try something and if it works you go with it and grind it to death.

I do standup every week in L.A. at the Laugh Factory and the Improv.

You can't teach someone to be funny, but you can teach comic timing. If you listen to a good comic, you can learn how to put it on a page.

From the stage I've seen people of all ages absolutely roaring at really good toilet humour.

If you're a comedian, you are looking for material in daily life.

If you work at comedy too laboriously, you can kill what's funny in the joke.

Comedy is very difficult. I love it because when you do it right, it's the best feeling in the world.

My friends always said that I should be a comedienne - I was named my class clown.

I think comedy is one of the hardest things to do.

I don't get up, get dressed, go out, and think, 'Okay, I gotta find eight jokes.'

Like every comedian, if I heard a joke that I thought would work, I used it.

I do not have a good control of running sight gags. I laugh like hell when I see them, but I don't know how to invent those jokes.

You step in with the Seth Rogens of the world, you better have some jokes.

Comedy is hard. Any idiot can have an opinion.

I've been too funny in my life to have to play a character who's... moderately funny.

With comedy it's all about timing and presence on screen, as the words are there but you have to say them right and the right timing.

I think, in comedy, you only hit about one or two great characters in your career. Sometimes my character will be just a sketch... what is the funniest situation to put this person in?

A lot of things matter in comedy - the script, the lines, your timing, the co-actor's timing, how it's shot.

I never feel like it'll be something where like, 'Aha, I've got it. I'm funny for the rest of my life. I don't need to tell jokes anymore. I just am comedy.'

I am a product... I'm a comedian. I'm not curing cancer. In the end, I tell jokes. I make people laugh.

Usually the beginning of a story that people hear a lot. For example, "My girlfriend is upset about her new haircut" or "My dad keeps losing his car keys." And then I just think of different ways the story could end. "My girlfriend is upset about her new haircut. I don't understand why she's crying. I'm the one who has to get a new girlfriend." Then I try it out on stage. I don't do a lot of re-writing. My jokes either work or they don't. The trick is just to write a ton of jokes.