Stephan Pastis Quotes

'The Simpsons' basically - and 'Futurama' - are really smart shows. They're kind of disguised as these goofy animated sitcoms, but the references within the shows, if you're paying attention, are pretty smart and pretty sophisticated.

'American Dad' is, by its nature, much more political.

On 'The Simpsons,' I will say that we definitely like to comment on what's going on in the world, and we try to be funny. If we can figure out a way of being funny about it, then we've gone part of the way of accomplishing our task.

The satiric ethos of Mad was a much bigger childhood influence.

I used to love comic books, and I love American comedy, and neither are afraid to tackle big themes.

I don't think a lot of people gave 'Beavis & Butt-Head' credit for how subtle it could be.

Look at 'Batman' - that was theater of the absurd, as is 'Family Guy.'

We did Donald McGill, seaside-postcard stuff - middle of the road.

You probably can't name more than a handful of comedies that would qualify for Best Picture. I can think of a lot of comedy screenplays; Woody Allen has had numerous nominations for his screenplays. But most comedies are calculated. They tend to pander. They're not about anything important.

Most of my exposure to American pop culture was through this weird prism of 'Mad' magazine.

'Wonder Showzen' is one of my favorite shows of all time. When I first saw it, I thought it was so funny and new and original and edgy and insane and subversive. I didn't know comedy could do that. It redefined what I thought you could do with a TV show.

I think comedy and satire are the strongest ways to deal with very serious themes and very painful themes.

The caustic style of 'Archer' was really on my mind when I was first doing 'BoJack' - perhaps too much!

The 'Superman vs. Muhammad Ali' book was printed in every free country in the world, OK? Now, it's so good in its way that we can go in and make fun of it and feel good about it.

Effective satire has to be almost identical to the subject that it is skewering.

As a former writer for the 'National Lampoon,' I've probably contributed to the sea of sarcasm in which we live.

Zombies have always had a lot of built-in social commentary.

Comedy is good at analysing and dealing with evil because it doesn't present it as evil but a collection of banalities.

In my comedy, I'm not always trying to say something, but when I'm playing a creepy dude, you're laughing because you know that creepy dude. You've heard that dude say something awful, and I'm just putting a little creative spin on it.

'Black Mirror' is definitely my favorite show.

Believe me, when I saw 'Family Guy' do the bit on 'Africa,' I howled laughing.

I love the humor of 'Monty Python.' I always remember being so impressed by how violent 'Monty Python' are, actually, when you look at what they do. Terry Gilliam has a great way of kind of proposing violence.

We just thought of 'Boosh' as an extension of our childhoods in a way, the stuff we had grown up on and loved: 'Monty Python,' The Goodies, Frank Zappa. It spoke to a certain type of person, and we just carried on doing it.

I'm not a big 'scripted comedy' person necessarily. I'm open for wherever comedy can be found.

I loved 'The Simpsons' because it didn't talk down to its audience.