Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel Quotes

You can pretend to be serious; but you can't pretend to be witty.

I've always been very upfront about the way I write, and I've always used the tools humorists use, such as exaggeration.

There's something very authentic about humor, when you think about it. Anybody can pretend to be serious. But you can't pretend to be funny.

You can't fake comedy. You can't make it look beautiful or put an interesting bit of music on in the background: funny can only be funny if you're funny.

Truth, when witty, is the wittiest of all things.

I am sick to death of cleverness. Everybody is clever nowadays. You can't go anywhere without meeting clever people. The thing has become an absolute public nuisance. I wish to goodness we had a few fools left. ALGERNON: We have. JACK: I should extremely like to meet them. What do they talk about? ALGERNON: The fools? Oh! about the clever people of course. JACK: What fools.

Puns are the droppings of soaring wits.

You can be funny and say what you mean; these ideas are not mutually exclusive. Some of the best jokes came from people who meant it. See: Pryor, Bruce, Carlin, etc.

You shouldn't get too close to the truth, because then maybe you stop being funny.

Witticism. A sharp and clever remark, usually quoted and seldom noted; what the Philistine is pleased to call a joke.

A pun is not bound by the laws which limit nicer wit. It is a pistol let off at the ear; not a feather to tickle the intellect.

I don't just try to be funny.

I think great humor lies in playing the truth of a situation.

Comedy is just honesty. Whether things are going well or bad.

Regardless of what amount of satire or sarcasm is heard in what I do, the reason it connects with people is because the fun and the wildness in it is sincere.

Earnestness makes British people gag.

You have to be so honest in comedy.

It is inconceivable how much wit it requires to avoid being ridiculous.

I am in full possession of the amazing power of being sarcastic.

Humor is what happens when we're told the truth quicker and more directly than we're used to.

True wit never made us laugh.

A pun is the lowest form of humor—when you don't think of it first.

You can get away with saying much more with humor than you can with a straight face.

People who go for humor are wonderful because they do great humor. People who go for wit and end up with humor are people who have made a mistake.