J. Smith-Cameron Quotes

I think one of the big things about comedy is the ability for the audience to identify.

I had a standup act, and I ended up turning it into something that was really watered down and accessible. Something that went from scary and threatening to something that was almost to the point of being corny.

I can tell how honest a joke is or how true a joke is by how fast the laughs come.

My definitions of comedy, drama, and straight man are all blurry for me. I don't think of it in those terms.

If you have a character that doesn't have anything wrong with him, there's nothing funny about it. The idea of the straight man is very important. But I'd rather it be somebody else, because it's not as fun.

You have to know you are in a comedy. You have to know that you are actually allowing the audience to participate on some level. When you go dark and mean it, then you don't let them in.

The straight man has the best part. He gets to be in the show and see it, too.

The best comedy not only makes you laugh, but on the moment of the laugh, you learned.

A humorist has to be taken seriously before he's considered a real writer.

There's some sort of unspoken license... when outlandish things come out of an inanimate object, somehow it equals humor.

I've committed myself to perfecting the art of the straight man. I try really hard not to crack up.

It's just my natural way - to be funny. I don't know why that is. But as I've said, humor is a quick cover for shock, horror, confusion. The critics hate funny writers for the most part. They think funny is not serious, but I think that funny can be even more serious than nonfunny. And it can be more affecting, too.

If you don't infuse humor into a subject matter, no matter how dark, the audience can't accept the message of a film. It closes them down. Humor can open them up.

Some of the best comedy comes from squeezing humour from tragedy and struggle, but the main pursuit of comedy should be laughter.

Bimal Roy never kept comedy out of the story line.

It's one thing to make people laugh, but after a certain point, comedy is almost cheap.

A comedy scene can't really have two weirdoes in it. It doesn't make any sense that way, so you need someone to ground it and call out what's unusual about this person and this scene. Early on, I got pretty good at doing that, and I felt pretty comfortable doing that.

As soon as you explain a joke, it immediately becomes unfunny.

I love down-and-dirty and grit. But I do think that my favorite dramas are ones that are dark comedies because I think that the only way the audience and the actor can really go as dark and deep as you may want to go is if there's some levity added to it.

I think everything benefits from a little comedy. The worst thing to me is to see a great drama or a great thriller with no laughs.

I don't think our records contain obvious humour. We're not cracking gags.

I am convinced that tough villains help make a comedy sparkle because they provide a contrast to the funny guys.

Comedy can be very deep sometimes.

I think some days you should do a cartoon that is absolutely just for the laugh, and some days you should do a cartoon that just punches the reader right in the stomach. It's kind of nice to mix it up.

Humor is the only way to tell a story. Especially the dark ones.