I just wanted laughs - that's really what I was after.
Humor is an escape, because you cannot think about your problems when you are trying to be funny; so, in essence, "being a humorist" gives you a valid excuse to hide from your pain.
In looking for humor, keep in mind this guideline: Sometimes it takes a little time to see the humor in your upsets; you may not find something to laugh about immediately.
Humor was another of the soul's weapons in the fight for self-preservation.
Humor is tragedy plus time.
All people are sad clowns. That's the key to comedy - and it's a buffer against reality.
I find comedy to be one of the highest of the art forms.
The hardest thing in the world to do is to have someone in a seat in a theater laughing so hard that they're making weird sounds.
Around year seven or eight, you'd kill yourself when you realized Norm had to enter and you had to come up with a new beer joke.
Shall I crack any of those old jokes, master, At which the audience never fail to laugh?
That's a lovely experience when you make an audience laugh. Then the nerves go away for a bit. And sometimes you do things then that you've never done before that are really funny.
This is getting funny, but there ain't nobody laughing.
A comedy scene can't really have two weirdoes in it. It doesn't make any sense that way, so you need someone to ground it and call out what's unusual about this person and this scene. Early on, I got pretty good at doing that, and I felt pretty comfortable doing that.
Let me make something clear: I can't do anything in particular to make others laugh. I do what is necessary for a character. The body language of the character may make others laugh.
The fun that I've had needs to be seen on the screen. I like the thought of a bunch of people laughing at what I laughed at - because my life is surreal, completely wacko.
Comedy is a noble art. And every comedian who does anything is serving a noble purpose.
When Kubrick decided to go the black comedy route with his movie, he thought of me to give it that flavor.
The difference between tragedy and comedy: Tragedy is something awful happening to somebody else, while comedy is something awful happening to somebody else.
Comedy is saving me.
In a funny way, I like the past, I'm a very nostalgic person.
I've always said people say on a dramatic show, 'I was crying. It was so emotional when he went and grabbed that little girl from a burning building and handed her over to her mother.' In comedy, the best thing you can say is, 'I think it's funny.'
I think a joke is a form of truth-telling. A good joke that's absurd contains elements of our daily darkness and also a possibility to escape that darkness. So, for me, humor is an attempt to capture everyday tragedy and everyday hopeful moments that we experience all of the time.
You've got a million ways to make me laugh
Creating a wonderful drama is an art form, while comedy is just entertainment.
I remember when we were doing the love scene in Some Kind Of Hero, we got in bed nervously. Then he looked up, and it was very genuine, and he went, " Richard Pryor's in bed with Lois Lane!" And it was so cute!
