Rainn Wilson Quotes

I naturally think in terms of comedy whenever I see anything because tragedy is so close to comedy, so I like to add the tragedy to the comedy or a little bit of comedy to the tragedy in order to make them both feel more real to me.

You can't just play crazy. It makes you push yourself to stay in the realm of reality. And when you do that, it's a lot funnier. That's my favorite, when you think it's a real strange person and not just someone being wacky.

I don't do comedy. I think if a situation is funny you just play it for real and if it's funny, it's funny.

I laugh at absurdity hardest, then stories, then observations, then bearded men on roller skates.

The Simpsons are ugly-looking, and they should be. That's what works. That's one of the things that's funny.

Humor is something that thrives between man's aspirations and his limitations. There is more logic in humor than in anything else. Because, you see, humor is truth.

Comedy to me is all about the bumps and bruises and weird tics.

With Portlandia, I don't think our intention is always to find something funny. Sometimes the humor comes from taking something really seriously. We're okay with making somebody feel uncomfortable or uneasy.

You achieve the surreal jokes through the realism by making it elastic.

More eccentric characters can push pretty far, but if you stay on the side of reality, it's always funnier.

I think of everything as comedy, but I don't think of it in terms of sitcom comedy, I think of it in terms of Chekhov comedy. Chekhov called his plays comedies. There's always a mixture of a laugh with sadness. So the plie to the laugh is sadness.

For me, the comedies that truly work are the ones that are grounded in some way. If it's all heightened, it's really hard. It's a little slippery. It's hard to get purchase on the side of the wall.

I've always thought the word cow was funny. And cows are sort of tragic figures. Cows blur the line between tragedy and humor.

I think all good drama is funny. All the best drama is ultimately very funny. Life is funny. You can't have any honest treatise on life without bumping into some humor.

I'll see something, and I'll go, 'Oh, wow, that's interesting,' because really, comedy comes from the truth.

When you get the high art of William Shakespeare and the greatest love story ever told, and you collision crash it with the low art of the tacky garden gnome, you're going to have lots and lots of opportunity for fun and putting your tongue very firmly in your cheek.

Some things are so tragic that you don't know what's funny in it, and some things are so ridiculous you don't know if it's worth talking about it.

Everyone says comedy is really hard, but with 'The Office' the naturalism was everything so it didn't feel like doing comedy; it just felt like doing a really offensive character who thought he was funny.

Reading Alan Zweibel makes me laugh out loud. And yet it is not a particularly funny name.

I think comedy in the last 5-7 years is as good as it's ever been in America. I like it when people push it. You go through periods where people did not push the envelope. The more you push it, the funnier you get.

I think it's hilarious when middle-aged white men try to take themselves seriously. It makes me laugh.

I love watching people be totally committed in a very real way to stupid situations. I find it's not so much trying to be funny, it's trying to be real in a messed up context. That's comedy to me.

I watch people's behavior and notice things. I think that's why I became a comedian. I notice how stupid the things we do are.

Who doesn’t want an exploding wicker chicken?

Brent Weinbach made [Gangster Party Line].I guess I saw it when it first came out. And that is so goddamn funny to me. The guys are real dudes and they're not good, but they're also good enough.