Nicolas Chamfort Quotes

I like situational comedy when people are being completely serious and yet you can find something extremely funny, not jokes.

The pun exists in a social and political void, caring nothing for the issues of its day, content merely to display itself in its small cleverness.

The whole point of real comedy is that you can say something that is true, and by being funny, you can make it tolerable for people, and hopefully they'll laugh at you, too.

Jokes of the proper kind, properly told, can do more to enlighten questions of politics, philosophy, and literature than any number of dull arguments.

It is quite possible for the vulgar to be funny, but to succeed, it must rise to a certain genius.

I wanted to do something in the style of a comedy of manners.

Humor is reason gone mad.

I think you can tell the human condition better through comedy.

Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing.

Incongruity is the mainspring of laughter.

'The Importance of Being Earnest' is important, but it says nothing about anything.

Fools are my theme, let satire be my song.

When I write, I create really absurd situations which become false because I am after the joke.

Funny is as funny does, and funny puts on a walrus mask and slowly gyrates in a mall food court. I laugh at absurdity hardest, then stories, then observations, then bearded men on roller skates.

I have to be entertained by what I'm writing, so a lot of my stuff has a goofiness or scatological quality. If these characters can entertain me, then I feel like I can deal with the darker or more serious stuff.

If you use tact you can say anything, then make it funny.

The best jokes resonate because they uncover ridiculousness in our daily lives, reveal the silliness - and sometimes sadness - of things we see every day.

Life literally abounds in comedy if you just look around you.

I have a fine sense of the ridiculous, but no sense of humor.

Comedy is unusual people in real situations; farce is real people in unusual situations.

My comedy isn't about being attractive - it's about how the bar of dumb seems so low right now, and I desperately want to raise the bar of dumb just a tiny bit.

Comedy is only as stupid as you are smart.

I try and write satire that's well-intentioned. But those intentions have to be hidden. It can't be completely clear, and that's what makes it comedy.

I've heard too many times where people say that I'm this ultra-serious guy. In truth, I've got an extremely absurd sense of humor. I thrive on the absurd - I love it.

But in terms of satire and comedy, our biggest and earliest influence was Mad magazine.