Comedy Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old comedy quotes, comedy sayings, and comedy proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

A comedy isn't about being funny a comedy is about characters who dare to know that they may choose a happy ending after all. Gary D. Schmidt
Comedy is so hard to do, so it was very cool to do dead pan humor. Brittany Daniel
Great comedy calls large matters into question. Penelope Gilliatt
Comedy is really not like any other art form in that it's very specialized and varied in it's content, but generic in it's title. Joe Rogan
Without comedy as a defense mechanism I wouldn't be able to survive. Garry Shandling
Comedy is a necessity to get through life with the fewest scars. Humor is the best antidote to help relieve all struggles. Suzy Kassem
First you forget names, then you forget faces. Next you forget to pull your zipper up and finally, you forget to pull it down. George Burns
Comedy has to be done en clair. You can't blunt the edge of wit or the point of satire with obscurity. Try to imagine a famous witty saying that is not immediately clear. James Thurber
Comedy is an escape, not from truth but from despair; a narrow escape into faith. Christopher Fry
Comedy is so fun. I don't know how these people can make movies and work on them for four months and they're these sob stories. I don't know how emotionally you get through that. Colleen Haskell
Comedy is defiance. It's a snort of contempt in the face of fear and anxiety. And it's the laughter that allows hope to creep back on the inhale. Will Durst
It seems that two of the most basic forms of comedy are jokes and stories. And, of course, they are not mutually exclusive. Demetri Martin
Every book is a children's book if the kid can read! Mitch Hedberg
If you want to make an audience laugh, you dress a man up like an old lady and push her down the stairs. If you want to make comedy writers laugh, you push an actual old lady down the stairs. Tina Fey
I was trying to daydream, but my mind kept wandering. Steven Wright
Comedy is incredibly hard. You have to be loose. You have to be not afraid to fail. Bill Hader
In comedy laughter settles all arguments. Robert McKee
Comedy is acting out optimism. Robin Williams
The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think. Horace Walpole
Just because nobody complains doesn't mean all parachutes are perfect. Benny Hill
Comedy is much more difficult than tragedy and a much better training, I think. It's much easier to make people cry than to make them laugh. Vivien Leigh
Comedy is underrepresented in every actor's life, because it's so bloody difficult to write. Michael Caine
With comedy, you have no place to go but more comedy, so you're never off the hook. Steve Martin
The reason most comedies don't win awards is that the filmmakers put the comedy first. This means you have to create a story around the jokes. Paul Feig
Comedy is a wonderful device for distance that allows us to look at what we're talking about with some degree of distance and hopefully with a bit more perspective and honesty. With many exceptions, a movie with no jokes is far less appealing to me. Alexander Payne
Comedy has to be based on truth. You take the truth and you put a little curlicue at the end. Sid Caesar
Even in comedies, you've got to feel safe for things to just happen in a way that is natural and free, and recognizable as human. Richard Gere
Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die. Mel Brooks
Comedy was one of those genres that while appearing quite jolly was actually highly dangerous. Jasper Fforde
The best comedy is always played straight down the middle. Tom Hiddleston
Comedy is created when someone is trying very earnestly to do what he feels is the right thing to do at that moment. Madeline Kahn
Comedy is the ultimate truth. Jazz is hitting the notes that that no one else would hit, and comedy is saying words that no one else would say. Tommy Chong
Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious. Peter Ustinov
Comedy is the art of making people laugh without making them puke. Steve Martin
The duty of comedy is to correct men by amusing them. Moliere
One of the interesting things about comedy is it's tension release, and nothing creates tension faster than anger. Lewis Black
Why is Cloud 9 so amazing? What is wrong with Cloud 8? That joke came off the top of my head, and the top of my head ain't funny! Mitch Hedberg
Comedy is much more challenging, because you have to have the same level of belief but you have to make people laugh, and that's definitely a challenge. Jenna Elfman
Most comedy is based on getting a laugh at somebody else's expense. And I find that that's just a form of bullying in a major way. So I want to be an example that you can be funny and be kind, and make people laugh without hurting somebody else's feelings. Ellen DeGeneres
Comedy always works best when it is mean spirited. John Cleese
Comedy naturally wears itself out destroys the very food on which it lives; and by constantly and successfully exposing the follies and weaknesses of mankind to ridicule, in the end leaves itself nothing worth laughing at. William Hazlitt
Because it's uncensored cable, I think we'll be able to do the kind of sketch comedy that really hasn't been seen before. We can actually finish jokes. Aries Spears
Nothing gives you confidence like being a member of a small, weirdly specific, hard to find demographic. Mindy Kaling
To me, comedy is just twisting reality. It's commenting or observing or twisting life. Steven Wright
I think being successful in comedy is being funny and making jokes - anything beyond that is the icing on the cake. Jimmy Carr
Make no mistake about why these babies are here they are here to replace us. Jerry Seinfeld
Life doesn't make any sense, and we all pretend it does. Comedy's job is to point out that it doesn't make sense, and that it doesn't make much difference anyway. Eric Idle
Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You. Dr. Seuss
Comedy is difficult for an actor. But I think I have a good sense of humor and manage to make people laugh and make them happy. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan
Comedy is very controlling you are making people laugh. Gilda Radner
Through humor, we see in what seems rational, the irrational; in what seems important, the unimportant. It also heightens our sense of survival and preserves our sanity. Charlie Chaplin
Comedy is a fulfillment, accomplishment, overcoming. It is victory over odds, a triumph of good over evil. Frank Capra
Comedy is a complete surrender of one's defenses. Frank Capra
A comedy, for me, has the quality of being a little dessert, a diversion...The real meat and potatoes are serious films. Woody Allen
With comedy, you can buy yourself out of the problems of life and diffuse them. In tragedy, you must confront them and it is painful. Woody Allen
It's okay to have them laugh at you, but they have to laugh with you, too. George S. Kaufman
A half-laugh is worse than none at all. Anita Loos
Comedy is the most serious study in the world. I start out to find my characters in real life. Charlie Chaplin
Love! Comedians must be loved to get laughs. Frank Capra
Comedy is a tragedy - plus time. Carol Burnett
Comedy films are unlike other films; What's important in a comedy is the content of the shot, not the shot itself. Woody Allen
Comedy is like bass fishing. Everyone's an expert. The fish is smarter than all of them, and the flashiest, shiniest lures never work. Cameron Crowe
When you do comedy, you're not sitting at the grown-up's table, you're sitting at the children's table. Woody Allen
My comedy is an observance of life. And so to start observing it too seriously would be the end of it. Gilda Radner
The difference between tragedy and comedy: Tragedy is something awful happening to somebody else, while comedy is something awful happening to somebody else. Aaron Allston
Comedy is a tool of togetherness. It's a way of putting your arm around someone, pointing at something, and saying, 'Isn't it funny that we do that?' It's a way of reaching out. Kate McKinnon
Do you know what the key to comedy is? Timing. Winston Marshall
Comedy can be a cathartic way to deal with personal trauma. Robin Williams
Comedy is a tragedy that happens to other people. Angela Carter
Comedy is a surprise, so if you're intending to make somebody laugh and they don't laugh, that's funny. Norm MacDonald
Comedy, we may say, is society protecting itself - with a smile. J.B. Priestley
Comedy just pokes at problems, rarely confronts them squarely. Drama is like a plate of meat and potatoes, comedy is rather the dessert, a bit like meringue. Allen
Comedy keeps the heart sweet. Mark Twain
The funniest thing about comedy is that you never know why people laugh. I know what makes them laugh but trying to get your hands on the why of it is like trying to pick an eel out of a tub of water. Fields
Comedy deflates the sense precisely so that the underlying lubricity and malice may bubble to the surface. Goodman
As the purpose of comedy is to correct the vices of men, I see no reason why anyone should be exempt. Moliere