Stewart Lee Quotes

I always believe that funny is serious and serious is funny. You don't really need a distinction between them.

I'm not a political comic.

There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt.

Comedy is the difference between how you see a person and how they see themselves.

I thought that through the strip, I could vent my spleen and be funny at the same time. But when it comes to humor, there's no substitute for reality and politicians.

Two sides of the same coin, but which side is which?

I asked the Zebra, are you black with white stripes? Or white with black stripes? And the zebra asked me, Are you good with bad habits? Or are you bad with good habits? Are you noisy with quiet times? Or are you quiet with noisy times? Are you happy with some sad days? Or are you sad with some happy days? Are you neat with some sloppy ways? Or are you sloppy with some neat ways? And on and on and on and on and on and on he went. I’ll never ask a zebra about stripes...again.

Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.

Chris Rock does the political thing really well, but that never worked for me.

My eyes went blank, and I stared off, and the music started. It was raining, and the sun was shining at the same time, and there were these big bay windows, and there was the blue in the sky, and the sun on the trees, and it was drizzling.

When you see things upside down, the ego can be extraordinarily funny; it's absurd. But it's tragic at the same time.

I like to think my sense of humor is sort of smart and dumb at the same time. I like to work on multiple levels - smart and dumb, funny and sad, profound and mundane, cynical and hopeful.

A situation is always comic if it participates simultaneously in two series of events which are absolutely independent of each other, and if it can be interpreted in two quite different meanings.

I've always been drawn to discomfort and that limbo of unease you get between comedy and tragedy.

Everything is as it was, I discover when I reach my destination, and everything has changed.

Half of me is this wacked-out comedienne who will do anything for a buck and a laugh. Well, at least for a laugh. But the other half is a lot darker, sadder and more pensive. It's the dark side that feeds the outrageousness and allows it to surface. I think that's true for anyone with comic flair.

A book is a mirror: if an ape looks into it an apostle is hardly likely to look out.

If you're watching a comedian on television and he's making a political point, I would say he's gotten too serious.

The dark is light enough.

Stand-up comedy and comedy in general is the ultimate form of free speech, because you get to poke holes in all the pretentious bubbles politicians and pundits and popes and pretenders try to float over our heads.

Music is more difficult - try naming a political band. The Dead Kennedys. The Dead Kennedys are political, but they are more funny than they are political.

I've always been drawn to discomfort and that limbo of unease you get between comedy and tragedy. Making people laugh one moment and the next making them feel really uncomfortable.

I've always been interested in socially political, or overtly political, comedy.

Duality is not a story. Duality is just a complexity.

Life is dramatic and comedic at times. Sometimes in the most dramatic situations, there is comedy. And good comedy comes from a sense of reality.