Dexter Holland Quotes

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

I believe comedy is a really good lens to filter serious issues through. If people are laughing, they don't necessarily realize until they stop laughing that they just took something in that's going to start a conversation.

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

I get most of my news from the Jon Stewart Daily Show. It's the most level commentary you can find. You have to laugh, because it's all so true. It's the closest thing to a counterculture.

It can take the uninitiated a minute to realize that 'Gangnam Style' is satire.

The thing that makes a great genre movie is one that's not just entertainment, not just horror or sci-fi or whatever. The ones I love are the genre pictures with some subversive message underlying it all.

Is there a sharper commentary on American culture and the world than The Simpsons?

Irony is a great tool to deal with things. It's an intellectualization, a way to go above things, which can work.

Listen: our culture is saturated with irony whether we know it or not.

I don't think all comedy should be mindless. Have something that's thoughtful. Maybe some things are tongue-in-cheek; maybe some things are very direct. I like that people have to think about things. That excites me. Because if you say certain things, it starts a dialogue. Even if you disagree, it's still a dialogue.

'S.N.L.' has become what it was always trying to make fun of. It's become this big machine. I don't want to be plugged into a machine.

Doug Motel makes 'conscious comedy'. He makes me laugh, and he makes me think.

'Gulabo Sitabo' is a simple satire on life. It's a genre I have tried for the first time.

I definitely have fun commenting on the real world and interpreting through the 'Dear White People' lens.

Comedy, in my opinion, is best when it's in the gray, and you're kind of pushing people's thoughts that they sort of had but never vocalized. And I think a joke is not good if someone says something, and immediately people are clapping because they're like, 'Yes! That is how I feel as well!'

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.

Pop music is great, but there's a lot of BS about the attitude of guys being super-gangster - that's why the whole thing is silly. It's making fun of itself. That self-awareness is why people enjoy it. It's refreshing.

Britney Spears' album Blackout is one of the hottest-selling CDs in the country. We're in a bad place, people: The world is melting, we're at war, and Two and a Half Men is a huge hit.

Good satire hopefully provides thought-provoking conversation.

I love comedy, but more than that, I love comedy that has a message and that has some stakes.

Very few people took sordid things and made comedies out of them.

Often, entertainment goes deeper, in terms of ideas, than the newspapers.

And I think comedy obviously a great way to get a message out because you know the reason why things are funny is because they're true.

The first show I worked on was 'In Living Color.' I think 'The Daily Show' was the culmination of having that point of view - being able to look at this third rail in our society.

Comedy can do so much more than make you laugh.