Red Skelton Quotes

Nobody sets out to offend or shock for the sake of shocking. You set out to get laughs.

Comedy is probably a lot harder for me. Maybe it's because I've been doing drama for so long or maybe it's because... you don't want to search for a laugh; you can't try to be funny, you just have to naturally be funny or be in a situation that's funny.

Comedy is not something that a person can fake or learn how to do.

When I'm playing comedy, I never do 'jokes.' Sometimes I'll deliver a line in a way I think is more likely to get a laugh, but all the best comedy is played straight. What's funny is the way it hits the world around it or the way it hits the other characters.

I like comedy, I love it very much, I love laughing.

Comedy is very difficult. I love it because when you do it right, it's the best feeling in the world.

I just draw what I think is funny, and I hope other people think it is funny, too.

I don't know if I have actually good comedic timing. But I don't think I've worked at any timing. I think timing is probably something you can't work at. Well, I don't know. I definitely didn't work at it.

I just tell jokes, and I think a lot of people take it too seriously. It's not that I don't have things that I'm angry about in the world, and I think most decent human beings are upset about things, and even upset about things in their own country, but I'm not a particularly unhappy fellow.

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.

I think comedy is difficult, and I'm amazed so many people want to do it. I'll be buying jeans and somebody will say, "I'm a comedian" - the guy selling you the jeans. The desire to be a comedian is weird. I found it weird myself to want to be one; I was a schoolboy when I wanted to be one but I didn't know how to do it. That was 50 years ago, so times have changed greatly. There seems to be a long line of people desperate to do it and most of them are quite good.

I started out in stand-up, so it's very satisfying to make people laugh, but it usually means at your own expense.

If you want to make people laugh, your face must remain serious.

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 the job of a comedian is to make people laugh, but also challenge them to laugh at things they didn't know they could until now.

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

A poet or a comedian can say what's on the mind of people. They should be funny. They should make you laugh. It may be so truthful that it hurts, but it makes you laugh.

Jon Stewart hires people that he thinks are funny. That's it. That's the only requirement.

I'm not much of a joke writer.

Nothing like a great comedy. I love to laugh!

I like to describe my stuff as observational comedy.

I think so. I can't think of anything that requires more finesse than comedy, both from a verbal and visual point of view.

I always like to watch comics and it's interesting that you can tell if someone's funny in 10 seconds.

There's depth in my comedy.

Comedians don't laugh. They're too busy analyzing why it's funny or not.