Joke Creation Quotes

I tried to make the punchline as close to the setup as I could. And I thought that was the perfect thing. If I could make the setup and the punchline identical to each other, I would create a different kind of joke.

The moment you think of a joke is the best moment.

I know some of the best Dolly Parton jokes. I made 'em up myself.

I always was an early-morning or late-night writer. Early morning was my favorite; late night was because you had a deadline. And at four in the morning, you make up some of your most absurd jokes.

Essentially a joke is creating an idea, whether sonic or visual, whether it's something musical or a traditional joke.

It was always the most fun thing in the world to think of a joke area and talk about it with someone like Jim Carrey, and then he would get on stage fearlessly and tear the house down. That's something I always enjoyed. It also allowed me to not be terrified.

If you think it's easy to write jokes about fried calamari, you've probably never tried.

My stand-up has always been very character-based. I'm not really the kind of person that's like, 'Hey, here's what's on my mind! Tip your waitress!' I would create the jokes based on the character I was playing. It was always a performance-based thing for me.

I come up with my jokes by thinking of a topic.

Sometimes you just create a joke out of thin air in the editing room. So I'm really glad I've had that experience. It gives me a little more confidence in front of the camera.

As a comedian, I'm like one of those on-the-scene reporters. I will actually go and try to find disasters so I can write jokes as the disasters unfold.

I have 40 years of unpublished material, the ones they don't pick, and the reason I don't redraw them or use them again is that I like to use my brain every day and come up with new jokes.

I love to write jokes and that's all I think about.

I don't sit and write stand-up material; I come up with an idea onstage.

Coming up with a funny joke is like falling in love: It can hit you any time, anywhere. Having said that, the more you put yourself out there, the better your odds will be.

You could write a joke in the pub at lunchtime and watch it performed on television that evening.

When I turned about 12 or 13, I realised that being funny wasn't about remembering jokes. It was about creating them.

The brain process that results in a joke materializing where no joke was before remains a mystery. I'm not aware of any scholarly, scientific or neurological studies on the subject.

I never stole a joke in my life. I just find them before they're lost.

I'll think of the idea and then I'll write something down, then within that there will be a joke or two which is the original thing which I thought was funny.

People write a lot of similar material. That's why I try to come up with the most absurd jokes.

There's no real formula for doing it, it's either just living life and writing down a joke you think of in the middle of the day and then pieces those together later.

I used to write jokes with friends. We'd pick a topic and then think out loud, brainstorm.

That's the thing about comedy, there's something utterly delightful and slightly pure about a really good joke, and to create one is a great pleasure.

With everything, 'Shooting Stars' included, we'll just have some words on a card to prompt us - 'How would Rod Stewart die,' that kind of thing - and we'll just run with that idea, as if we were talking to each other, messing around. And I'm no scholar of these things, but I think that's what double acts should do, isn't it?