Being Funny Quotes - Page 2

• Nine-tenths of the value of a sense of humor in writing is not in the things it makes one write but in the things it keeps one from writing. It is especially valuable in this respect in serious writing, and no one without a sense of humor should ever write seriously. For without knowing what is funny, one is constantly in danger of being funny without knowing it.

  Robert Benchley

  Writing, Knowing, Serious

  Life Magazine, March 8, 1929.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• As a kid, I was terrified. I was a bed wetter and I had to go to sleepaway camp every summer, which was humiliating and terrifying. I had lots of insecurities and scaredness. I covered it with being funny and tough, but it's hard to be tough when you're making your cot in your bunk over soaking wet sheets and acting like nobody can smell anything.

  Sarah Silverman

  Summer, Kids, Smell

  Source: collider.com

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• I always thought when I was doing more melodramatic stuff like Everwood that the directors were constantly reeling me in and stopping me from being funny. I've always tried to find a funny angle on things, and 99 percent of the time, it just doesn't work.

  Chris Pratt

  Directors, Stopping, Stuff

  Interview with Leonard Pierce, tv.avclub.com. November 3, 2009.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Everyone has a purpose in life. Perhaps yours is watching television.

  David Letterman

  Funny, Sarcastic, Purpose

  36 Copy quote

• What a sad business is being funny!

  Charlie Chaplin

  Sadness

  10 Copy quote

• Being funny is a symptom of what's underneath. You're pumping out all that energy because something else is going on inside you, some opposing force, something uncomfortable.

  Faith Prince

  Energy, Symptoms, Force

  4 Copy quote

• I’m instantly mortified by my fat, uncontrollable mouth, but that’s when it occurs to me that my humor is a self-defense mechanism. Even though I may come off like a stark raving asshat, being funny is the most important tool I have to stay sane. The ability to say what I think is the key to allowing me to feel in control.

  Jen Lancaster

  Thinking, Self, Keys

  16 Copy quote

• By the way, I'm funniest when I'm not being funny. I'm better to laugh at than with, pretty much.

  Jemima Kirke

  Laughing, Way

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I'm a big fan of comedians not having to apologize for anything. Nowadays it seems comedians are always apologizing for being funny.

  Kevin Dillon

  Comedian, Fans, Apologizing

  "Kevin Dillon Talks ‘Entourage’ Ending, Keeping Johnny Drama Alive". Interview With Nicki Gostin, www.huffingtonpost.com. September 30, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Being funny with a funny voice is more my comfort zone, a broader character that I try to humanize, a kind of silly or wacky persona that I try to fill in.

  Hank Azaria

  Silly, Character, Voice

  4 Copy quote

• I think you figure out how to be funny by necessity. It's not a natural thing, being funny in the face of tragedy is kind of demented.

  Downtown Julie Brown

  Thinking, Tragedy, Faces

  "Julie Brown: Being funny in the face of tragedy is kind of demented". Interview with Jarett Wieselman, pagesix.com. October 20, 2010.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• I can't watch other people doing comedy. As soon as somebody starts being funny I have to turn off because it upsets me. I get comedy indigestion. I just hate anybody else being funny. That's my job.

  Jenny Eclair

  Jobs, Hate, People

  "A funny five minutes with Jenny Eclair". Interview with Mirror.uk, www.mirror.co.uk. May 2, 2010.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• That's the beauty of our show. Comedy or politics. We're sort of a mix. A space age polymer of both. A synthetic comedy-like material.

  Jon Stewart

  Funny, Space, Age

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• I saw something stupid in the paper today - a new alarm clock that makes no noise. It's for people who don't like loud noises. Instead, it slowly hits you with light and gets brighter and brighter until you wake up. I already have one of those... it's called a window.

  Jay Leno

  Funny, Stupid, Light

  "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (Episode #9.31)". Talk-Show, February 14, 2001.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• People want me to be funny all the time. They think I'm being funny no matter what I say or do and that's not the case. I rarely joke unless I'm in front of a camera. It's not what I am in real life. It's what I do for a living.

  Christopher Guest

  Real, Thinking, People

  "Featured Filmmaker: Christopher Guest" by Ken P., www.ign.com. May 12, 2003.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I can't even really tell a joke. I find being funny very hard work. I am always asked about it and I feel guilty saying that, but it's the truth. I love my work but it ain't easy.

  Madeline Kahn

  Hard Work, Guilty, Easy

  "At Home With: Madeline Kahn; Funny? Yes, but Someone's Got to Be" by Michael Specter in The New York Times, www.nytimes.com. April 8, 1993.

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• Any discussion of the problems of being funny in America will not make sense unless we substitute the word wit for humor. Humor inspires sympathetic good-natured laughter and is favored by the healing-power gang. Wit goes for the jugular, not the jocular, and it's the opposite of football; instead of building character, it tears it down.

  Florence King

  Football, Laughter, Healing

  Florence King (1990). “Reflections In A Jaundiced Eye”, p.140, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I like to have fun, but I don't think of myself as being funny. But I'm a big jokester, so I make fun of myself a lot!

  Taylor Lautner

  Fun, Thinking, Bigs

  8 Copy quote

• Being funny is one of my greatest strengths. I can make girls smile when they're down, and when they're having a good time, I can carry on the joke.

  John Krasinski

  Happiness, Smile, Girl

  18 Copy quote

• On 'The Simpsons,' I will say that we definitely like to comment on what's going on in the world, and we try to be funny. If we can figure out a way of being funny about it, then we've gone part of the way of accomplishing our task.

  Matt Groening

  Trying, Tasks, Gone

  "‘The Simpsons Movie’: Our Animated Interview Matt Groening". Hollywood.com interview, www.hollywood.com.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The pressure to being a comedian is being funny, but I've given that up, so there is no pressure whatsoever.

  Gilbert Gottfried

  Comedian, Pressure, Given

  8 Copy quote

• A lot of people who claim they're political comedians are just comedians who have opinions. But they stop being funny the minute they give their opinions.

  Gilbert Gottfried

  People, Giving, Political

  "Gottfried's key to political humor". Interview with Patrick Gavin, www.politico.com. August 2, 2013.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The goal is to win. It's not about making money. I have many much less risky ways of making money than this (buying Chelsea football club). I don't want to throw my money away, but it's really about having fun and that means success and trophies.

  Roman Abramovich

  Funny, Success, Sports

  64 Copy quote

• I'm about being funny. If I can make a joke using profanity, I will. But for the most part, that can get awfully old and boring.

  Howard Stern

  Funny, Bored, Boring

  4 Copy quote

• The trick is always to write in pairs because if at least two people find it funny, you've immediately halved the odds of it not being funny.

  Steve Coogan

  Writing, Odds, Two

  9 Copy quote