Charles Stross Quotes

Incongruity is the mainspring of laughter.

Laughter is born out of the discovery of the contradictory.

The great thing about irony is that it splits things apart, gets up above them so we can see the flaws and hypocrisies and duplicates.

Comedy comes from confusion.

Comedy is surprises, so if you're intending to make somebody laugh and they don't laugh, that's funny.

For me comedy and violence has a lot in common. Just as you expect, comedy always lurks behind the most unexpected of circumstances.

Life is full of ironies and absurdities.

Some things can be quite stupid yet interesting. Life can be like that.

Science would like to tell us that people laugh because of the benign violation theory, but comedy doesn't have hard rules.

In general, I like contradictions and complex situations.

Ironic things are interesting.

What I find funny are peoples' blind spots. That's the funniest thing about anybody - when they just don't realize who they are. What's funny about seeing a hippo do ballet is it thinks it's a swan.

Absurdity is one of the most human things about us: a manifestation of our most advanced and interesting characteristics.

There is no such thing as an appropriate joke. That's why it's a joke.

I laugh at weird times - at good and bad things alike. I laugh simply when things are incongruous. It's not necessarily a judgment - as it is noticing the oddity of something.

Wit is the clash and reconcilement of incongruities; the meeting of extremes round a corner.

Life is funny and weird.

Well, what do you know," Pham said. "Butterflies in jackboots.

Inconsistency is the jewel of the American people.

There are two ways of dealing with nonsense in this world. One way is to put nonsense in the right place; as when people put nonsense into nursery rhymes. The other is to put nonsense in the wrong place; as when they put it into educational addresses, psychological criticisms, and complaints against nursery rhymes or other normal amusements of mankind.

In a world where everything is ridiculous, nothing can be ridiculed. You cannot unmask a mask.

Yup, believe it: I was born on March 28, yet my name is April.

We all stared at the scoreboard in stunned silence. Only Carter was able to get anything out. "That," he told Robert exuberantly, "is how a bird in the hand gets up before the early worm." "That doesn't make any sense," said Roger. Carter pointed at the scoreboard. "Neither does that, but there you have it.

Dead Max was the biggest oxymoron in history.

To play Trivial Pursuit with a life like mine could be said to be a form of homeopathy.