Subtle Humor Quotes

The exact meaning of irony is so narrow that the word is hardly worth using; in its broad, current definition, it's a euphemism for sarcasm. 'I'm not being sarcastic; I'm being ironic.' No, you're not. You're evading the responsibility for being sarcastic.

Americans just don't understand dry wit.

To make fun of a person to his face is a brutal way of amusing one's self; be delicate and cunning, and keep your laugh in your sleeve, lest you frighten away your game.

Those who talk on the razor-edge of double-meanings pluck the rarest blooms from the precipice on either side.

True melancholy breeds your perfect fine wit.

The understatement is the English contribution to comedy.

I don't like somebody saying to me in their performance, 'Look at this. Isn't this funny?' I pray that I don't do that. I'm sure I fall off the horse every once in a while, but I try not to.

I like a very dry wit, not the big kind of humor like Robin Williams. I don't think I'm capable of that.

I like playing these characters who are just on the edge of ridiculous but always grounded in reality. I would never want to come across as a cartoon.

Royal Young's writing is that rare blend of irony and beauty.

Observe it, the vulgar often laugh, but never smile, whereas well-bred people often smile, and seldom or never laugh. A witty thing never excited laughter, it pleases only the mind and never distorts the countenance.

On Ernst Lubitsch: He could do more with a closed door than other directors could do with an open fly.

I don't mean to be rude—" he began, in a tone that threatened rudeness in every syllable. "Yet, sadly, accidental rudeness occurs alarmingly often," Dumbledore finished the sentence gravely.

I do not often laugh, sir, as you may perceive by the air of my countenance; but nevertheless, I retain the privilege of laughing when I please.

It is almost a joke, but a joke that nobody tells.

A dirty mind is a rich inner resource.

I do not recollect ever to have been conversant with anyone who had more of that silent and subtle power which we call personal presence than this woman... Her tall form, as she rose up before me, is still vivid to my mind. She was dressed in some stout, grayish stuff, neat and clean, though dusty from travel. On her head, she wore a bright Madras handkerchief, arranged as a turban, after the manner of her race. She seemed perfectly self-possessed and at her ease, -- in fact, there was almost an unconscious superiority, not unmixed with a solemn twinkle of humor, in the odd, composed manner in which she looked down on me

I wasn't the class clown. I wasn't that obvious. There would be a circle of guys, and they're watching the class clown. And I'm standing in the back, and I turn to the guy next to me and I say something funny to him, and he starts to laugh. And the guy next to him says, 'What did he say?'

My brand of humor is trying to play the situation as real as possible because I'm not the type of guy who is a joke a minute.

One should have wit, but not wish to have it; otherwise there will be witticism, the Alexandrian style of wit.

Even when I was on Curb Your Enthusiasm I wasn't this "over-the-top" crazy character. It was still kind of play it straight but it was funny because the situation was funny. That's kind of how I portrayed things and I like dramas; I like to be able to - because in dramas you can laugh and joke and still be serious, be real. I like the realism of them.

And sometimes you're not noticing a little eye movement that's hilarious. So it all kind of gets figured out in post. And that guy you were watching was this guy Murray Miller, who's actually not an actor, he's a writer that Rodney and I are friends with. He's just crazily funny, especially when hitting on people.

When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth.

It's best if you can do things with a sense of humor and finesse.

It'll certainly give the pigeons something to do.