Roger von Oech Quotes

The most important thing in comedy - apart from empathy, which I think is important even if disguised - is surprise. I like surprising people with the fact that something's even a joke at all.

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.

Incongruity is the mainspring of laughter.

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

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

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.

A laugh is a surprise. And all humor is physical. I was always athletic, so that came naturally to me.

In the process of looking for comedy, you have to be deeply honest. And in doing that, you'll find out here's the other side. You'll be looking under the rock occasionally for the laughter.

Humor is a blessing to me. My earliest recollections are of looking at something and seeing the lighter side. But it's always spontaneous. I couldn't write a comedy skit for someone else.

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

The idea of surprise is part of what makes something funny, or what gets a reaction. At least when I'm an audience member, after you hear a joke so many times it's not as funny because it loses its surprise or its twist. So I think funny has to do with surprise.

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.

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

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

I've made a lot of grown men cry with laughter, because I really am quite the joke.

My only goal is to make you laugh, not tell you the truth.

People of humor are always in some degree people of genius.

You can laugh at anything. It depends on the joke.

What's nice with comedy is that you know it's working if it's funny.

I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose.

My only rule about a joke is that it should be funny.

Humor is very healing.

A lot of people can find something to laugh at in my humor, I guess.

The number one job for me is to make people laugh. If I can also make people think, then that's a cool thing.