comedic effect Quotes

A joke is a very serious thing.

Comedy is all about the pause.

People think "The Office" was improvised, but it's all on the page. We do that because what we found is that in the early days of "The Office," we went in with it sort of 80 percent scripted and we did some things and then we improv'd and we did - you know, and it gets a laugh on the floor because it's the first time they've heard it.

Anytime there's originality and comedy combined, it's very potent for people who love comedy.

Adults acting like children and children acting like adults is generally a pretty reliable comic device.

Comedy opens you up to ideas that a straight-up drama doesn't. You resist those messages when they come to you earnestly or dramatically.

I think pompous accents are inherently funnier.

Comedy is nothing more than tragedy deferred.

I get just as much of a thrill out of constructing a good sentence that gets a laugh at the end as I do from a joke.

When you do a good comedy show, you have to understand that if you don't have drama or sad moments, then the comedy turns into a clowning kind of situation.

Comedy is a shared experience, and I think it's great to open that to a wide demographic.

Comedians like to see people smile. With acting, I love giving people a feeling, an emotion. I like to give people a feeling. When they come away from my scene, I want them to think.

As soon as you explain a joke, it immediately becomes unfunny.

Comedy is unusual people in real situations; farce is real people in unusual situations.

A joke isn't a joke until someone laughs.

I've always enjoyed watching characters that aren't aware that they're doing anything funny. And I think that inherently makes them funnier.

When I did 'Spamalot,' the joke was that I was a foot taller than Tim Curry.

I think when you dissect a joke too much, you have ruined whatever there is in comedy.

I love talking in an American accent. Even though it hurts my face after a few hours.

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

The laugh track was invented to cue the audience to the jokes and encourage laughter in response. But it has another effect: if you hear people laughing and you're not, you start to question if maybe there's something wrong with you for not getting it.

Surprise is not humor. I think that there can be a fine line there.

I just always loved stand-up. It's like magic. You say something, and a whole room full of people laughs together. Say something else, they laugh again. The fact that people come to see that and participate in that... I don't know, it's just like magic.

For me, the comedies that truly work are the ones that are grounded in some way. If it's all heightened, it's really hard. It's a little slippery. It's hard to get purchase on the side of the wall.

A good joke provides tension, and then, release of that tension. You build the tension by saying things that are controversial. The release is the laugh. The bigger the surprise or insight in your joke, the bigger the laugh.