Steve Allen Quotes

How can you analyse what is funny? What's funny to one isn't funny to another... What's funny to you is a personal thing.

Half of the great comedians I've had in my shows and that I paid a lot of money to and who made my customers shriek were not only not funny to me, but I couldn't understand why they were funny to anybody.

Just because you're laughing, it doesn't mean the audience will, necessarily.

Any joke can be funny, but not any joke is funny. Any joke has the potential to be hilarious to you, but more importantly, the joke has the potential to not be funny to you but to someone else.

Funny is funny, and it can come in 8 billion different shades and flavors, so I think it's silly to kind of limit it.

I don't control the line of 'funny,' 'funny,' 'funny,' 'not funny.'

It's so clear cut with a comedian - you have that reflex action, whereby you laugh or you don't. And so you either love us or you simply cannot see why people are laughing.

Comedy's so subjective, and if someone comes to watch, doesn't get it, doesn't find it funny, then fine.

Not everybody agrees on what's funny, obviously.

Comedy's really subjective, you know; that's why it's so hard.

It's always impressive when talented comedians are easy laughers or generous with their laughs.

To me, what separates a funny movie from a good movie is something personal.

I don't have a very quick sense of humor.

A pun is the lowest form of humor, unless you thought of it yourself.

Andy Dick is so gay, he thinks Margaret Cho is funny.

Comedy is subjective, and any joke can be funny.

It's not like every male comic you meet is funny. Like, a lot of them are not funny.

The major caveat in all of comedy is that it's all instinctive. There's no true criteria. There is no right or wrong. Ultimately, often I'm surprised at what an audience will or will not laugh at. I have to stay very, very open to an audiences first exposure to that material and how they react to it.

I've always said that I myself am not the best audience for my own work, because I'm just not that receptive to comedy.

I think I'm the funniest guy in a room full of unfunny people. Unfortunately, my career is increasingly leading me into rooms where everybody is funny. I'm the least funny person in a room full of funny people.

Playing on stereotypes was meant to be humorous. If it doesn't tickle you in certain spots, it's not going to be funny. Falling down the stairs is a seriously dangerous thing, but watching it is HILARIOUS!

How can there be inaccuracy in comedy?

Comedy is a weird thing. You have to understand, it's the weirdest thing you can do. There's no consensus. It's not like... People say, "I saw Saving Private Ryan, and that scene on the beach is just so moving." I can't imagine anyone who would say "I don't find that moving!" But you can show, whether it's Laurel & Hardy or the Three Stooges or Jiminy Glick In Lalawood, some people are going to look at it and say "That's the funniest thing I've ever seen." Some people will say "I don't get it." Who's right, who's wrong?

I had always been - everybody kind of likes comedy. I was very interested in comedy, beyond just liking it. I had friends that took apart radios; I wanted to take apart jokes.

Comedy is hard to do, and I don't know why it doesn't have its own category in awards. I don't understand why people think it's harder to do drama than it is to do comedy. It doesn't get respect. It's hard. It's really hard. It would be more gratifying to get something for a comedy, because it doesn't happen much or at all.