Walter Kirn Quotes

I think life would be so much funnier if every day you saw someone walking down the street getting hit in the head by a monkey, don't you?

I love watching people be totally committed in a very real way to stupid situations. I find it's not so much trying to be funny, it's trying to be real in a messed up context. That's comedy to me.

Man versus woman equals fun. Man versus man equals gay. Woman versus woman equals awesome. Man versus pillow equals crazy. Pillow versus pillow equals crazy awesome - that's a real pillow fight right there. You see two pillows fighting, you know something's going down. They're designed for relaxation. If they're fighting, what hope do we have? One time I saw two geese fighting, and I was like, 'This is a pillow fight ahead of time.

I think that my ideas of the world are that it's random and cruel but kind of quite comical really, and therefore the humour, in a sense, springs from that.

Humor is reason gone mad.

Mystery Science Theater is really a postmodern show, it's really derived of many influences.

Evil is unintelligible. It is just a thing in itself, like boarding a crowded commuter train wearing only a giant boa constrictor. There is no context which would make it explicable.

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

Irony is a clear consciousness of an eternal agility, of the infinitely abundant chaos.

It's great extremes which leads to great drama and great comedy.

When Frank the Pug is singing I Will Survive, the only reason it's funny is that Will is in that shot trying not to get angry. A shot of a dog singing I Will Survive on its own will not get a laugh.

'Buncha Losers' comedy is one of those homegrown American art forms, up there with infomercials and Elvis-shaped soap carvings. No other civilization could have invented it. The French took a stab with Sartre's 'No Exit,' but then they had to ruin it with a lesson at the end.

But in terms of satire and comedy, our biggest and earliest influence was Mad magazine.

You know, I think it's one of those cases where the situation really does dictate your level of ridicule.

Debbie Gibson and dog food. I've always dreamed of this.

Madness isn't altogether a bad thing in comedy.

You can not have comedy unless people are behaving badly. You can't have it.

It is only a step from the sublime to the ridiculous.

I got all my politics and culture and my sense of the great wide world of adults from 'Mad Magazine.' But all other comic books literally gave me a headache.

Look at 'Batman' - that was theater of the absurd, as is 'Family Guy.'

The first time I heard 'Sharknado,' I thought it was a late-night infomercial for a new vacuum cleaner. Could have swore I ordered one once. Then I found out what it was and remembered that I grew up reading the 'Sharknado' novels.

All my humor is based on destruction and despair. If the whole world were tranquil, without disease and violence, I'd be standing in the bread line - right in back of J. Edgar Hoover.

It's a grim business, this being funny. Every time you come up with a strong, satiric idea, the world tops it.

Comics are just mirrors. People can either laugh at the reflection or be disgusted by it.

At the sight of what goes on in the world, the most misanthropic of men must end by being amused, and Heraclitus must die laughing.