Character-Driven Comedy Quotes

I've tried to create a comedy that doesn't look like any other comedy. Maybe traditionally in TV there has been a kind of formula that says, 'Oh, comedy has to look this way; it has to look super bright.' But the way we shoot 'Insecure' is motivated by the mental state of each of our characters.

'Yamla Pagla Deewana' is not slapstick but a situation based comedy.

The ones [comedies] that I always liked, whether it's Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, or Fast Times of Ridgemont High, they were all about two hours, or a little bit over two hours. With that extra 15 or 20 minutes, you can get to real character and you're not just stuck in plot.

I've been watching 'The Cosby Show' and 'Roseanne' a lot right now, and those work so well because they're not, like, jokey comedies; they are coming from real characters. We want our show to be like that. A family show.

Films that rely on their cast to be funny are often episodic and feel like a series of loosely connected sketches rather than a satisfyingly structured script.

With 'The Office' and 'Extras' I've always snuck in a little bit of heart and pathos - and drama, which is fun.

My dream career would be to be in things that have real heart and are telling real stories but while doing that, you're getting really big laughs. I don't necessarily love the straight crazy comedies. 'Caddyshack' is amazing, but there's not a lot of new 'Caddyshack's.

What's so amazing about 'All in the Family' is sometimes an entire act was one camera shot. It was all about characters.

I've gotten to portray things in [Christopher Guest's] movies that I wouldn't have in others.

All of my favorite comedy has always been of the grounded variety. Even 'MacGruber.' I think that MacGruber is a really grounded character.

Garry Shandling in particular - really had the concept. He really knew it, and it was done so lovingly. He would go beyond the joke, and sort of go into the character. His "funny" was very different, and I really appreciated it.

I'm into comedy, stuff like 'The Office,' 'The Royle Family,' 'Only Fools And Horses,' 'Bilko,' that sort of stuff.

If you watch that show and you didn't know it was called Seinfeld, you'd think it was called 'The George Costanza Show'.

I'm not really crazy about broad comedy. I like very possible, real situations that you might have found yourself in.

I met someone who said they'd figured out my genre: "madcap redemption comedy." I'll buy that.

Comedy always works better when you're tracking the story and you care about the characters. That's why there's a lot of movies where there's not a ton of jokes, but you get huge laughs because there's a moment of relief.

I'm a bug on acting, which distinguishes Second City from a lot of other revues. It comes from the character, the behavior, and not from the jokes. I don't think jokes are funny. Humor comes out of character and out of situations the character is in.