Ricky Gervais Quotes

For me, if you distill comedy down, it is surprise and the unexpected. That has to be it on its most base level, in any form.

The secret to humor is surprise.

Humor has to surprise us; otherwise, it isn't funny. It's a death knell for a writer to be labeled a humorist because then it's not a surprise anymore.

Comedy is surprise. Comedy is not something that you can, necessarily, do twice.

Anytime there's originality and comedy combined, it's very potent for people who love comedy.

Comedy, unlike drama, demands surprise. You can't quietly and thoughtfully enjoy a comedy.

Humor is based on surprise, and surprise is a milder way of saying shock. It's surprise that makes the joke.

Comedy becomes intensified in short scenes.

Comedy is such a personal thing. Everybody can cry at the same thing, but it's a lot harder to get everyone to laugh at the same thing.

Plus, I love comic writing. Nothing satisfies me more than finding a funny way to phrase something.

Surprise is not humor. I think that there can be a fine line there.

Humor does depend on surprise, and the things that people remember as the funniest things in the world, you look at later and you go, "What? What was that all about?"

I don't like the phrase shock value. Surprise is essential in comedy, and if people are shocked by what I consider merely surprising, then that's their shock. But there is no joke without surprise.

I think comedy's just about being interested in comedy and what makes people laugh and experimenting.

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.

Hopefully, underlying all my jokes is an element of surprise.

I can't not put humor in a book.

Humor comes from the surprise release of some buried tension.

Comedians, we're just people who whine. But we happen to be funny when we whine. Like, if Jerry Seinfeld wasn't funny, you'd want to punch him in the face; he'd just seem like a whiner to you. But the fact is that he's funny.

Incongruity is the mainspring of laughter.

Silences are the most underrated part of comedy.

To me, comedy is a game.

I do love comedy, and when it's a comedy moment and you can make people laugh, of course it is wonderful.

You can take anything, and if you explore it right, you can make it funny.

One always writes comedy at the moment of deepest hysteria.