Neil Innes Quotes

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

If everything was good, maybe I wouldn't have a career. I wouldn't have anything to make fun of.

The English can be a very critical, unforgiving people, but criticism can be good. And this is a country that loves comedy.

David Sedaris is so good that it makes me mad.

Films with a message just make me laugh.

Primarily I'm a social commentator rather than someone who's out to get the belly laugh.

It's not good for comedy to be like, 'Thanks for liking me.' Being popular is poison.

Great Canadian comics are often outsiders and insiders at the same time. That's a great perspective for a comedian.

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

It is in the nature of the New Yorker to be as topical as possible, on a level that is often small in scale and playful in intention.

Humor is laughing at what you haven't got when you ought to have it.

Canada is a balloon-puncturing country. You are not really allowed to be an icon unless you also make an idiot of yourself.

No one thought that the Disney Superpower had the ability to laugh at itself, but 'Enchanted' proved everyone wrong.

One of the jobs of a stand-up comedienne is to expose hypocrisy.

If I had written a book saying, 'Ladies, your life is terrible,' I would have sold three copies. It's always better to laugh people into recognition.

The best thing about writing speculative fiction is the opportunity to satirize the whole wide world. The America in 'A Better World' isn't ours, but it's pretty close, so I could lampoon everything from partisan politics to the cult of celebrity to our general disaffection. To me, all that is the point.

I do, I love to mock stuff. I am a British person.

I don't take my image seriously. I make fun of the fact that some people think I'm a romantic figure.

The mark of a really great satire is its ability to seem prophetic, and I think that the television culture that film predicted really came true in the age of reality television and is a testament to how great it really is.

Comics are just mirrors. People can either laugh at the reflection or be disgusted by it.

I don't have to write jokes. I don't have to write insults. If you ask the man of the hour in the hot seat, my mere existence is clearly insult enough.

Personally I don't spend much time thinking about being funny. For me it's always been just a way to get by, a way to be likable yet to remain removed. When I speak up, it's not because I have any particular answers; rather, I have a desire to puncture the pretentiousness of those who seem so certain they do.

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

Satire's my weapon, but I'm too discreet To run amuck, and tilt at all I meet.

Every Harry Potter film features Lord Voldemort, who stereotypes evil. And movies that discriminate against evil have no place on campus, because evil has feelings, too. Terrorists cry during commercials and mad bombers enjoy long walks and campfires, too.