The Hidden Tools of Comedy Quotes

“The Comedy Equation: An ordinary guy or gal struggling against insurmountable odds without many of the required skills and tools with which to win yet never giving up hope.”
― Steve Kaplan, The Hidden Tools of Comedy: The Serious Business of Being Funny

“There are only two kinds of people in this world who want to be miserable: poets and method actors.”
― Steve Kaplan, The Hidden Tools of Comedy: The Serious Business of Being Funny

“Two cannibals are eating a clown. One says to the other, ‘Does this taste funny to you?”
― Steve Kaplan, The Hidden Tools of Comedy: The Serious Business of Being Funny

“He is given the permission, limited only by his character, to do WHAT HE NEEDS TO DO IN ORDER TO WIN.”
― Steve Kaplan, The Hidden Tools of Comedy: The Serious Business of Being Funny

“When I started, I used to think that comedy was watching someone do something silly. We later came to realize that comedy was watching someone watch someone do something silly.” — John Cleese”
― Steve Kaplan, The Hidden Tools of Comedy: The Serious Business of Being Funny

“The tragedy of many people’s lives is that, given a choice between being ‘right’ and having the opportunity to be happy, they invariably choose being ‘right.’ That is the one ultimate satisfaction they allow themselves.” — Nathaniel Branden”
― Steve Kaplan, The Hidden Tools of Comedy: The Serious Business of Being Funny

“The genius of comedy is that it loves humanity without necessarily forgiving it.”
― Steve Kaplan, The Hidden Tools of Comedy: The Serious Business of Being Funny

“Comedy sees all our flaws, and foibles, and failings, and still doesn't hate us for them.”
― Steve Kaplan, The Hidden Tools of Comedy: The Serious Business of Being Funny

“Comedy is the art of telling the truth about what it's like to be human.”
― Steve Kaplan, The Hidden Tools of Comedy: The Serious Business of Being Funny

“While you can't teach someone to be more talented, you can teach someone to act and write to the best of their ability.”
― Steve Kaplan, The Hidden Tools of Comedy: The Serious Business of Being Funny

“comedy has to tell the truth.”
― Steve Kaplan, The Hidden Tools of Comedy: The Serious Business of Being Funny

“John Cleese once said that when they started Monty Python, they thought that comedy was the silly bits: “We used to think that comedy was watching someone do something silly . . . we came to realize that comedy was watching somebody watch somebody do something silly.” That’s the basis of the tool of Straight Line/Wavy Line.”
― Steve Kaplan, The Hidden Tools of Comedy: The Serious Business of Being Funny

“I went to a restaurant that serves ‘breakfast at any time.’ So I ordered French Toast during the Renaissance.”
― Steven Kaplan, The Hidden Tools of Comedy: The Serious Business of Being Funny

“The biggest myth about comedy is that it’s magical, unknowable, unteachable. Those who subscribe to that myth believe that the world is divided into two parts: those who are funny, and those who ain’t. And if you ain’t, well, sorry Charley, that’s all she wrote. I have a simple response to that: Bull.”
― Steven Kaplan, The Hidden Tools of Comedy: The Serious Business of Being Funny