Wesley Morris Quotes

What's great about 'The Daily Show' is I can use satire and push the envelope. I couldn't do that anywhere else. Even if I was a journalist.

Many of the writers who have inspired me most are outside the genre: Humorists like Robert Benchley and James Thurber, screenwriters like Ben Hecht and William Goldman, and journalists/columnists like H.L. Mencken, Mike Royko and Molly Ivins.

I'm a big fan of George Carlin's.

Comedy actually works best when you're living in an OK world, and you are pointing out the hypocrisy in apathy.

Satire is moral outrage transformed into comic art.

But you do have to learn, if you want to be a satirist, you can't be part of the party. Meaning, you can't go horseback riding with Jackie O in Central Park if you're going to make a joke about her that night.

Comedy is brutal. It's powerful, though.

I write what I think is funny and I write from a sense of popping a balloon or a sense of injustice, whether it's about yourself, or whether it's about something else. It's my worldview; it doesn't mean that everybody has to agree with it.

It's funny because I think a lot of it is simply... We've never considered ourselves satirists, but because we're on Comedy Central and because we're South Park on Comedy Central, we can do any topic we want.

I remain just one thing, and one thing only, and that is a clown. It places me on a far higher plane than any politician.

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

The English can be a very critical, unforgiving people, but criticism can be good. And this is a country that loves comedy.

Eighty per cent of my output is 'Mallory clowns on the Western canon,' and I'm happy to be that person.

Ricky Gervais is a genius.

It's easy being a humorist when you've got the whole government working for you.

Every day I think, 'Gosh, I wish I could be like George Carlin, Bill Maher: I want that edge.' But every time I start to get that edgy thing, I get kind of mean.

Satire is a lesson, parody is a game.

What am I responsible for? Who am I responsible to? Everybody? How come when Archie Bunker nailed everybody, it was funny - but when I do it, it's not?

Jokes are grievances.

It's all been satirized for your protection.

David Sedaris is so good that it makes me mad.

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

Comedy is a great weapon of attack. It's not a great weapon of support.

I don't want to offend people and I don't want to be mean, but social commentary and comedy for me are part and parcel. I think the greatest social activists are comedians.