Charles Simmons Quotes

Ridicule is man's most potent weapon.

I think to simply make fun of something isn't particularly interesting. I try to not just do a parody of something or belittle something or disparage something.

When he said we were trying to make a fool of him, I could only murmur that the Creator had beat us to it.

Facetiousness is allowable when it is the most proper instrument of exposing things apparently base and vile to due contempt.

I don't really like using ridicule as a form of humor.

Comedy always works best when it is mean-spirited.

Ridicule is the tribute paid to the genius by the mediocrities.

You are a daft race. Begone!

Ridicule is more powerful than any argument.

We make fun of our leaders.

I've done pretty well as a professional fed-up. The tools of my trade so far have been irony, tongue-in-cheek mockery, and supercilious contempt, but these are highly civilized weapons designed for 18th-century French salons.

Half-brights consider it comedy gold to congratulate anyone they dislike for 'winning the Kentucky Derby!' The only thing more bracingly original to not-smart people is: 'Stay classy!'

You can laugh at somebody because they are innocent, and because they are naive or they are about to walk into a wall, but if somebody's giving you stuff, if somebody's talking, giving you their take on things, what makes you laugh, generally speaking, is going to be somebody who is telling it in an angry way.

Who can refute a sneer?

I knew I was going to go into the field and make fun of people to their faces. I knew what I was getting into.

Satire is focused bitterness.

From my experience, politicians are much more uncomfortable being made fun of than they are being preached at and screeched at - you know, and the soapbox routine. They're much more uneasy knowing they're a target of ridicule.

I won't insult your intelligence by suggesting that you really believe what you just said.

Insult is powerful. Insult begets both rage and humor and often at the same time.

Most of the bad taste I've been accused of has been generic bad taste; it's been making fun of an idea as opposed to a person.

Man learns more readily and remembers more willingly what excites his ridicule than what deserves his esteem and respect.

There is no character, howsoever good and fine, but it can be destroyed by ridicule

It's an old Elizabethan idea. The fool is the only one who is allowed to make fun of the king because he is a fool. I can say whatever I want about anybody else because I'm just an idiot talking - I'm not insisting that I'm any smarter than anyone else. It's satire.

Sometimes comedy can be, like, negative and just the worst parts of ourselves coming out.

Comedy is based partly on mean-spiritedness.