George Carlin Quotes

Who's to say where funny stops and 'too far' starts?

It's much easier to make jokes about sensitive issues if there is some dissent, some conflict.

If something is very, very funny but possibly controversial, if it's truly funny, then it's worth doing. Things aren't worth doing for the sake of being controversial.

My audience expects me to push the limits, to be politically incorrect. I do that because for me, that's the only place where the fun is, when I get to push the boundaries and make people laugh at things that they probably didn't want to laugh at.

Adam Carolla is like Hitler if Hitler wasn’t funny.

There is nothing that's off limits. If people think something is off limits, I make it my business to go make a joke about it; that's my job.

Sometimes my humor does offend people, and I've said it before: I don't write jokes to be offensive. I write jokes to be funny, and I guess what I find funny are things that other people sometimes find offensive. I would love nothing more than to never offend anyone, but it just doesn't seem to work out that way.

Even if people hate my other movies, and hate me, or whatever, I think from this point of view, Postal is the most important movie after September 11. It's not respecting any edge, any border, any nation, any religion - it's an all-type offender. I think that only if everybody gets a little pissed about something then you will start thinking about your situation.

After 'Urinetown,' 'Avenue Q' and now 'Mormon,' is there an envelope remaining to be pushed?

Well, I'm not afraid to say something if I think it's funny, even if it's harsh or racist.

I think there are brilliant jokes to be made about abortion, and we should be able to talk about this in the way that we make jokes about death - you should be able to make jokes about everything.

No subject is unsuitable for comedy.

My thinking is, if we're setting out to make comedy in which nothing is off limits, then everybody is fair game.

With anything you put out there, you're going to offend somebody, but most people get that it's a joke, that I'm playing a character, and that I'm actually making fun of what I'm saying by saying it.

Just because I do a few comedy bits about gay people, that does not mean I'm out there promoting some anti-gay cause.

When you look at someone like Sacha Baron Cohen, you have to really respect the boundaries he is pushing as Bruno or Borat.

But I think you can make fun of anything as long as it's funny enough.

Comedy, like sodomy, is an unnatural act.

What's politically correct a lot of times is not funny.

Now, Richard Pryor was unique. Many misunderstood his humor. He lit up the hallway, but they didn't understand his use of profanity. He didn't use it just to be using it; he used it in the context of his satire.

Inappropriateness is funny to me. Rudeness is hilarious.

George Carlin maintained that anything and everything is funny given the right context. This context also includes your own history with a given group. What I can get away with and where I can go is not a problem with my audience because they know me.

Political correctness? In my humor, I never talk about politics. I was never much into all that.

Humor has become so cliche and boring that nothing's funny anymore unless it involves something totally disgusting that offends somebody or makes them feel really uncomfortable.

What I've always said about comedy is if you do it in the right way, you can say anything to anybody because they know where you're coming from. They know it's not malicious.