Comedic Legacy Quotes

If I couldn't be Dick Van Dyke, I wanted to be Art Carney.

Alan King, a comedian I adored, was considered society, and I was considered the Jewish kid from the neighborhood.

I've paid attention to guys growin' up like Richard Pryor or Paul Mooney. The message that they were sending with what they did was so much bigger than them.

Does it bother me that I'm attached to 'Three's Company' 30 years after? Not at all. All we were trying to do was be funny. How can I complain? That's all I wanted to do.

I grew up idolizing Madeline Kahn and Lily Tomlin and Carol Burnett, Ruth Gordon, Rosalind Russell, Amy Irving, women who were stylish and real actresses who did real work and could not be replaced with anyone else. You cannot cast anyone else in Madeline Kahn's roles.

I got a chance to work with Mel Brooks on two of his films: Silent Movie and High Anxiety.

At the end of Season Four of 'Mr. Show,' instead of doing another season, everyone just thought they wanted to go and do a movie. Kind of like Monty Python. Monty Python went right into 'And Now For Something Completely Different,' and everyone kind of compared 'Mr. Show' to Monty Python.

I had all the Bill Cosby albums. 'To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With' - I knew every word.

There's only going be one Richard Pryor. You know how many came out after Richard Pryor and died trying to be compared to him? Or Bernie Mac? You got to be like you.

Freddie Prinze was my idol, and he died, and there is not much of his stuff to look at. But now, your comedy can live on forever.

The first time I heard Richard Pryor, I knew he would be a major force in the world of comedy.

If you want my views of history, there's something you should know. The three men I admire the most are Curly, Larry, and Mo.

I definitely know that I play the part, however big or small, in the deaths of at least two people, Chris Farley and Phil Hartmann.

I remember watching 'Three's Company' with my parents, and it was time for bed, so I started to make my voice lower like Don Knotts and imitating him. They started laughing, and I didn't have to go to bed, so that informed a lot.

I was scared to death because for the comics of my generation, HBO specials are like the pinnacle. I'm thinking of all these unbelievable comedians I've seen on HBO: Chris Rock, George Carlin, Damon Wayans, Richard Pryor and Billy Crystal. I started having a panic attack seeing my name in that list of people. It was pretty overwhelming.

The Bill Cosby I know has been great to me and great for a lot of people. What he's done for comedy and television has been legendary and history-making. What he's done for the black community and education has been invaluable. That's the Bill Cosby I know.

I was very young when 'The Carol Burnett Show' came out, but that kind of comedy and the spontaneity of her, I think it really deeply affected me within just the joy of performance.

I was obsessed with 'Kids in the Hall', 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?', 'SNL'... like, I was a Conehead for one Halloween and the Wild and Crazy Guys for another.

The thing is about Cheech & Chong, we've brought more families together than Dr. Phil.

As a young girl, if you do something funny - especially if you're Jewish - someone says, 'Oh, have you seen Gilda Radner?'

I didn't know that people compared Bill Hicks and I but certainly I'm flattered if they do. I knew Bill a bit. We had dinner a couple of times and played guitar together once. I really tried to keep my distance from him professionally.

Humor must not professedly teach and it must not professedly preach, but it must do both if it would live forever.

Eddie Murphy was my guy for a long time. My first exposure to 'SNL' was his 'Best Of' VHS, and I would watch it over and over again. He was one of the few people on the show to play with the live elements and engage with the audience.

I had a 'Monty Python' CD, and I would listen to it in the car on the way to school. It also refined my British accent. I can do a killer British accent because I'm just imitating 'Monty Python.'

I think in some parts of our English history we've had huge amounts of almost too much great comedy. You kind of wonder how so much great work could come out of one country.