Bassem Youssef Quotes

You have to laugh at yourself. I do a lot of humor about all ethnicities that are at the show - Latinos, Asians, Indians... What I say is, 'We're laughing together. I'm laughing with you, not at you.' Never say, 'Oh, I'm better than you.'

No matter how you feel, you've got to be able to laugh at yourself. If you can laugh at Donald Trump, then you better be able to laugh at yourself, too. For us as comedians, we have to point out what's funny.

Because I don't wear a suit, and have such a horrible boy band face, people assume that I'm not doing satirical material.

'Man Down' is not a serious study of the human condition: it is a balls-out attempt at making people laugh. So nobody in the show can afford to cling on to any vanity, because we're always going to push the humiliation levels.

I don't want to be defined as the Asian leading man. I want to be the leading man. Henry Golding.

I'm a funny guy. You've got to be able to make fun of yourself. We only live once.

I don't take myself or the species too seriously. You have to laugh at everything.

I'm a funny guy. I want people to laugh. I laugh at myself, I make fun of myself. But at the end of the day everything that I say has a message in it.

I love humour, and I can laugh at myself.

If a man's able to laugh about himself, that's good. You can be in love with a man or share his bed, but if there's no humor, there's nothing.

The whole point of real comedy is that you can say something that is true, and by being funny, you can make it tolerable for people, and hopefully they'll laugh at you, too.

I just talk about the funny things in my life, and the idea is that my observations reflect the lives of my audience - so people are really laughing at themselves. This is the theory, anyway, and I am aware that in print, that it doesn't appear to be very funny. But it is, and I am definitely funny.

The whole character of Super Dave is a takeoff on people who pontificate. So one thing I never want to do is pontificate why this works, why this is funny. I have no idea what the appeal is. All we are trying to do is make people have a good time and laugh.

Most humor comes from truth. In the end, if I can laugh about it, who cares?

I'm sure there are comedians who make jokes about me, but say something funny, not mean.

Personally I don't spend much time thinking about being funny. For me it's always been just a way to get by, a way to be likable yet to remain removed. When I speak up, it's not because I have any particular answers; rather, I have a desire to puncture the pretentiousness of those who seem so certain they do.

The caricature of my own face always makes me laugh.

What I didn't really understand, but then I thought this makes perfect sense, as well - was how many people responded to it by being like, "It was just so nice to take a break." Because even the humor - the great stuff that Samantha Bee and John Oliver and Seth Meyers are doing - it's all anger humor. And for somebody to say, "Hey, we're all idiots," and just be able to laugh at ourselves and be able to connect through that. It's always about connecting with someone, never about scolding them. The only thing I knew right upfront is we're not going after [Donald] Trump supporters.

I enjoy making people laugh. The trick is to tell them jokes against yourself. If you praise yourself, your stories aren't funny.

Learn to laugh at yourselves as one must laugh!

I love an act that makes fun of the situation, and of course makes fun of yourself. That's important, you can't take yourself too seriously.

I really like being able to laugh at my own jokes.

Writers are encouraged to "keep 'em laughing" and complain "with good humor" in order to "win" allies. The joke is always on ourselves.

My mother always told me growing up I had a punchable face. Little did I know she was predicting my television career.

Never be afraid to laugh at yourself, after all, you could be missing out on the joke of the century.