Top 100 The Best Comedy Quotes
#1. I think the best comedy is tragicomic. Yeah, I suppose if you were to look at everything I've done, there is a bit of a black streak through all of it. It's not deliberate: it's what makes me laugh, and there's a fine tradition of it, especially in Ireland.
Sharon Horgan
#2. The best comedy audiences in the country and this is tried and true, I'm not just saying it, in my opinion are Boston, Atlanta, and Chicago.
Denis Leary
#3. When I'm playing comedy, I never do 'jokes.' Sometimes I'll deliver a line in a way I think is more likely to get a laugh, but all the best comedy is played straight. What's funny is the way it hits the world around it or the way it hits the other characters.
Bruce McGill
#4. I wish I could have a recurring role on 'Modern Family'. I think 'Modern Family' is the best comedy on television. It's extremely well written, extremely well acted and directed.
Patti LuPone
#5. The best comedy is where you attack the strong, not the weak.
Ian Hislop
#6. The best comedy I ever did was when people didn't know who I was.
Chevy Chase
#7. I want to do literally everything. I think I was gifted ... I inherited one of the best comedy visionaries as a director.
Marlon Wayans
#8. There is a strong ethical dimension to the best comedy. Not only does it avoid reinforcing prejudices, it actively challenges them.
Steve Coogan
#9. There can be a science to joke writing, there are certainly rules and patterns that can be followed, but I think most of the best comedy goes beyond the rules.
Robin Ince
#10. I think writing in a group, even though it can be a challenge - you have to be on your toes all the time - is the way the best comedy gets written. It's very, very collaborative. A lot of comedy writers are definitely introverted nerds.
Megan Amram
#11. Why would they have gone to the trouble to hire the best comedy writers in the business to write funny material for us to play straight, if the children in our audience were the only audience.
Burt Ward
#12. The best comedy on earth shows up when an immoral person talks about the morals!
Mehmet Murat Ildan
#13. I think the best comedy comes from stuff that's based in reality.
Pauly Shore
#14. That's what I think works the best, and what I think makes the best comedy - something that's completely committed and more approached as an acting exercise, as opposed to being worried about whether to be funny or not. The comedy comes from the context.
Will Ferrell
#15. I want my audience to be my friends - that is when they will get the best comedy. If they see me as a performer, they won't get the best show.
Trevor Noah
#16. The best comedy, I feel, comes in a drama because it balances each other out.
Ray Romano
#17. I suppose the best comedy shows do have the rock n' roll feeling - if it's a great night, and the roof is raised ... yeah, it's a similar feeling, sure.
Dylan Moran
#18. Think about yourself at least once in your life otherwise you may miss the best comedy in this world.
Charlie Chaplin
#19. If you play it straight it's funny - the best comedy is always played straight down the middle. The adjustment is understanding from the screenplay that a moment is hilarious.
Tom Hiddleston
#20. The best comedy to me - and again, I grew up with comedy since I was a baby, so I've seen it all - is when you exaggerate the truth, like Richard Pryor did, you understand?
Pauly Shore
#21. The best comedy is always played straight down the middle.
Tom Hiddleston
#22. 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.'
Bob Newhart
#23. It doesn't look great if you cancel the reigning Best Comedy Program, you know, you're gonna take a hit from a ... from sort of a public relations standpoint.
Will Arnett
#24. Comedy is a necessity to get through life with the fewest scars. Humor is the best antidote to help relieve all struggles.
Suzy Kassem
#25. The best way to ruin a comedy is to throw a lot of money at it.
Jay Leno
#26. I drank the Kool-Aid of being a network star. Once it didn't happen, I realized it wasn't the best version of my comedy.
Mike Birbiglia
#27. I really enjoyed multicamera comedy. You film in front of a live audience, and it's kind of the best of both worlds. It's like doing a one-act play every week, but if you screw your lines up, you get to do it over.
Alan Ruck
#28. I love musical theater so much. When done right, I think comedy songs can be the most efficient form of joke delivery. Songs can be the most efficient and the best forms of conveying emotion. Music is universal. It's worldwide.
Rachel Bloom
#29. I just think 'Broad City' - Comedy Central's answer to 'Girls' - is the best thing that's been put on television in years. It's amazing.
Mackenzie Davis
#30. In the best traditions of American comedy, from its beginnings through the crash-bang comedies of the 1990s and 2000s, Leslie Nielsen skewered the otherwise proper, did it with mischievous delight and convulsed audiences mercilessly.
Tom Shales
#31. It's hard to really get that excited about movies. Think about it like this: how many good comedy movies come out a year? Maybe one or two? And then, in those movies, what are the chances that there's a character that I'm the best fit to play? It's really small!
Aziz Ansari
#32. Mum just laughed gleefully at his mounting frustration, like the villainous matriarch in a Roald Dahl story. I suspect a TV guide would describe her idea of comedy as 'dark', or, at very best, 'alternative'.
Matthew Crow
#33. The two things I understand best are stand-up comedy and martial arts. And those things require an ultimate grasp of the truth. You have to be objective about your skills and abilities to compete in both.
Joe Rogan
#34. I think we all have a similar philosophy about comedy and comic performance which is that it's at its best when you can see the pleasure the performer has, when you can see a glimmer in the eye.
Mathew Baynton
#35. If you want good sketches, go pick up Sid Caesar. The best of Your Show of Shows. That's the greatest sketch comedy you'll ever see on television.
Jamie Farr
#36. I've always idolized Amy Poehler, because I think she's the best of the best as far as female comedy.
Kristen Bell
#37. If you look at 'The Best Man,' there's a lot of humor in that, but I never consider that movie a comedy. I felt that it was a drama with comedic elements and comedic parts to it.
Malcolm D. Lee
#38. 'Birdman' is basically 'All About Eve' - the 1950 comedy about rehearsal rivalries in a Broadway show, and another Best Picture laureate - reimagined as a Batman suicide mission. The movie couldn't be actor-ier.
Richard Corliss
#39. I actually love Scorsese comedies. He's an underrated comedy director. I think his comedies are some of the best comedies ever made.
Julie Delpy
#40. I directed a half hour comedy pilot, 'Upgrade,' and had one of the best times ever! I had such a great time directing; I would love to get to direct another project.
Daniella Alonso
#41. I love the romantic comedy genre. It's a genre rich with many of the best movies ever made and I try to treat it with the respect that Shakespeare treated it with.
Nicholas Stoller
#42. Comedy historians take note: this Gottfried character doesn't have the best eye for detail - and, for a Jew, he doesn't have the best eye for retail, either.
Gilbert Gottfried
#43. I have always thought of comedy as an important job and medium, and so I put pressure on myself to do the best I can.
Miranda Hart
#44. It's much funnier when the comedy can happen with me just trying my best to genuinely do a good thing.
Nathan Fielder
#45. The best thing about serial drama - especially about screwball comedy - is blocked love.
Alison Pill
#47. I think the key to working with my husband is that collaboration in comedy is best.
Casey Wilson
#48. I've never really been a big fan of comedy songs, frankly. I think I enjoy the emotional payoff that the best music achieves to want to waste too much time turning good music into a joke.
Keith Murray
#49. Someone I've always admired is Catherine O'Hara ... I think she's one of the best actresses in the country, not only comedy. I just think she's just a step aside from everybody, she's just wonderful.
Fred Willard
#50. I'd played a lot of best friends, and/or bad guys, which seems to be my lot in life. In romantic comedies there's always a best friend and the woman has a best friend and they always antagonise each other and then they end up together at the end of the movie.
Rob Corddry
#51. I think with comedy I get very sort of critical of myself and try and do the best I can and it doesn't come as second nature. I work at those kinds of films. It doesn't mean I can't do them - I've done two now, and I have a great time doing them, but I just find myself a little bit more neurotic.
Elisha Cuthbert
#52. Josh Radnor is that rare thing: a writer-director who thinks like an actor but still knows how to create a comedy with shape and vision. Liberal Arts is the best movie about college I've seen since I don't know what ... Dryly affectionate and super-sharp. Elizabeth Olsen is every inch a star.
Owen Gleiberman
#53. Comedy is like music, and the way to make the best music is to have skilled musicians in your band.
Rashida Jones
#54. My school was 90 percent white, but 90 percent of the kids I played with were black. So I got the best of both worlds. I think that is where my comedy developed.
Will Smith
#55. Comedy is the finest drug, laughter is the best medicine.
D.M. Jarrett
#56. The best version of comedy is when you can get to an issue where, at some point, you're not firmly on one side or the other, and you can see both sides. The more we become about the issues, the more successful we are.
W. Kamau Bell
#57. A lot of romantic comedies are just light romantic dramas, or the comedy comes off second-best.
Graeme Simsion
#58. I guess as you get older you sort of see the mechanics, even with the best comedians. There's admiration for people I admire, but it's not guttural laughter. It's a wry 'Oh, well done, sir.' But I sort of miss that slightly; I miss the raw joy of comedy I used to get.
Stephen Merchant
#59. Shake It Up is a buddy comedy based around dance. It's about two best friends Rocky and CeCe who live out their dream as background dancers on a show called Shake It Up Chicago. They have to navigate life as young teens going to school and dancing on the show.
Zendaya
#60. I never worry about people not taking my work seriously as a result of the humor. In the end, the comic's best trick is the illusion that comedy is effortless. That people imagine what he's doing is easy is an occupational hazard.
Richard Russo
#61. I'm always drawn towards the darker stuff, because I think it's just a lot more interesting. But it's also good fun doing the comedy, and I think that's why 'Misfits' has been great in that way, as you get a really good balance. I think it's best to try and do everything as an actor, really.
Iwan Rheon
#62. My favorite movies are all romantic comedies. I love the romantic comedies. I'd still have to say Pretty Woman. I still think that it's one of the best ever.
Teryl Rothery
#63. Ultimately, I just decided stand-up comedy is a huge commitment, and if you want to be the best, you have to give it one hundred per cent.
Deirdre O'Kane
#64. There's the exciting part about comedy - if you catch an act just before they go mainstream, that's the best. After they hit the mainstream, everything gets watered down a little bit.
Tommy Chong
#65. The best advice I was probably given and the best advice I could give someone who is trying to get into the comedy field is to take advantage of every opportunity you have to work to hone your skills.
Bob Newhart
#66. I have remained true to my deepest convictions. I mean the courage of those who are born to be defeated, the weaknesses of the strong, and the tragedy of misunderstandings and missed opportunities, which I have done my best to treat as comedy - for otherwise how can we manage to bear it?
Penelope Fitzgerald
#67. I am very proud of what 'Johnny' achieved in stand-up comedy because he believed entirely in giving an audience the best kick he could. But he was someone who was quite detrimental to my health, both emotionally and physically.
Johnny Vegas
#68. To me, the musical is best when it's a musical comedy. So if you have a very, very funny show, and very good, funny songs, that's what the musical does best.
Eric Idle
#69. I think serious situations actually make for the best kind of belly laughs. But they're also the hardest to convert into comedy at the outset.
Mike Birbiglia
#70. I realised that all one really had to do was just observe. Observe and slightly exaggerate, and you had comedy. Instead of creating a mythical premise for a stupid joke, I found playing off truth got the best result.
Mel Brooks
#71. Don Quixote is the best book out there on political theory, followed by Hamlet and Macbeth. There is no better way to understand the tragedy and the comedy of the Mexican political system than Hamlet, Macbeth and Don Quixote. They're much better than any column of political analysis.
Subcomandante Marcos Laura Castellanos
#72. I never want to be called the funniest Indian female comedian that exists. I feel like I can go head-to-head with the best white, male comedy writers that are out there. Why would I want to self-categorize myself into a smaller group than I'm able to compete in?
Mindy Kaling
#73. The best kind of comedy to me is when you make people laugh at things they've never laughed at, and also take a light into the darkened corners of people's minds, exposing them to the light.
Bill Hicks
#74. I think the best kind of comedy is the least self conscious. I think if you just sort of let the comedy happen without the elbow nudge, did you get it, did you get it. I love straight face comedy or subtle - relatively subtle comedy.
Betty White
#75. The best thing about where comedy is now is if you have a little bit of talent and a strong work ethic, and strong social skills, you can make a name for yourself and you can make money.
Donnell Rawlings
#76. Some of the best dramatic actors have started in comedy.
J. B. Smoove
#77. The best way to describe my work is comedy in a very, very real way. I'm not scared to look silly on camera. I take everyday situations we all go through and put a very real twist on it - things people can relate to.
Lilly Singh
#78. Real comedy can't be learned; it comes from a need for justice. The best who stand up, stand up for something.
Elayne Boosler
#79. The best way to do comedy is to not filter yourself, and then you could always fix it later. You want to be able to push the envelope.
Ken Marino
#80. When it comes to English stand-up comedy, Indians have only seen the best - Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Cosby and the like. So, when someone claims to be an English stand-up comedian in India, he'd better be very good if he's going to make a life of it.
Vir Das
#81. I really understood a lot more about comedy after listening to Bill Hicks, who died at 32 years old. He's probably the best comedian who ever lived. Although you can't say that because of Carlin, Cosby and Pryor.
Ron White
#82. Comedy fans are the best fans. They embrace and support you doing low-budget work and will follow you to the end of the earth!
June Diane Raphael
#83. I just thought it could make a really cool movie. It's not that it's just a buddy comedy but it's all about two guys hating each other and towards the end they're good friends. I liked that these two guys were best friends from the very beginning, and they're crazy.
Sean William Scott
#84. I try to tell the best story, and the story that has some heart and some genuine terror and some social commentary and some comedy and some romance and some sex and some violence.
Alan Ball
#85. The gift of comedy is often best delivered on the wings of understatement.
Tony Bulmer
#86. That's the best advice I can give - when you're trying to write a comedy, first write a drama, and then make it funny.
Jason Segel
#87. I think the best comedic actors don't play it for comedy, they play it for reality. Then you find it funny because it's real. Playing the genre is the worst thing you can do - it's embarrassing.
Zooey Deschanel
#88. 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel' is a British comedy-drama directed by John Madden. The film is based on the 2004 novel, 'These Foolish Things', by Deborah Moggach.
Tena Desae
#89. Rev Run is a living legend of Hip-Hop, who's still making great music, but now he's also the dad to an amazing family, ... This series takes us inside his world. It's a kind of a reality 'Father Knows Best' with comedy, heart, Hip-Hop and drama-all under one roof at Run's House.
Tony DiSanto
#90. The best way to get a drink out of a Vogon is to stick your finger down his throat.
Douglas Adams
#91. I've always said that I myself am not the best audience for my own work, because I'm just not that receptive to comedy.
Todd Solondz
#92. One should not associate with controversy; one should always reach for the highest ratings; one should never forget that there is safety in numbers; one should always remember that comedy, adventure, and escapism provide the best atmosphere for selling.
Peter George Peterson
#93. I gravitate towards dark comedy, because I'm a huge fan of dark comedy. I always think the most painful thing that you can laugh at is the best.
Jamie Babbit
#94. Because I'm not really certain she'd make the best travel partner through a zombie-infested city, he hissed. She gets confused by Scrabble.
Jesse Petersen
#95. Comedy is not the opposite of darkness, but its natural bedfellow. Pain makes laughter necessary; laughter makes pain tolerable.
Mindy Greenstein
#96. Comedy is very difficult. I love it because when you do it right, it's the best feeling in the world.
Brandon Jay McLaren
#97. I believe that people, more often than not, act with the best possible intentions. And when they don't, that's funny to me. That's why comedy ends up seeming cynical, because you're talking about the gap between what people say and what they do.
Stephen Colbert
#98. If you want to reach any kind of poignancy or meaning a lot of times, coming from comedy is the best way to get there.
Matthew Weiner
#99. Critics think we try to make bad films. They think we want to spend five months of our lives making something bad. We always go out with the best of intentions, whether it's fluffy comedy or a drama.
Chris Pine
#100. I think the best advice I'd say to any actor when you do comedy is play it straight.
Ricky Gervais
