Be Funny Quotes

If I can't see the humor in it, how am I going to be funny?
- Casey Affleck

The thing about For Better or Worse is the only thing that made me an okay director for that is that I have a sense of humor, and it was supposed to be funny.
- Jason Alexander

And write what you love - don't feel pressured to write serious prose if what you like is to be funny.
- Cassandra Clare

Queer Eye for the Straight Guy is a form of service journalism. To be successful, I think it has to be a combination of a good story, it has to be funny, and it also needs to be packed with useful information.
- Ted Allen

Sex is hard to write about because you lose the universal and succumb to the particular. We all have our different favorites. Good sex is impossible to write about. Lawrence and Updike have given it their all, and the result is still uneasy and unsure. It may be that good sex is something fiction just can't do--like dreams. Most of the sex in my novels is absolutely disastrous. Sex can be funny, but not very sexy.
- Martin Amis

I'm not a comedian. I'm an actor who just happens to be funny on occasion.
- Anthony Anderson

You have to be funny about it and honest about it. You can't leave yourself out of that mix. You have to be honest enough to say, I'm that messed-up one in the family.
- Louie Anderson

I guess when I think about it, one of the things I like to dramatise, and what is sometimes funny, is someone coming unglued. I don't consider myself someone who is making the argument that I support these choices. I just think it can be funny.
- Wes Anderson

You like the girl," Alasdair offered.
Nassar leveled a heavy gaze at him.
"Lillian said you tried to be funny in the car. I told her it couldn't possibly be true. The moment you try to make a joke, the sky shall split and the Four Horsemen will ride out, heralding Apocalypse.
- Ilona Andrews

No more Dane," he eventually said with unnerving finality.
I tried to be funny. "I can't decide if that means you don't want me to see him again or if you're planning to kill him."
"It means if the first thing happens, the second thing is likely to follow.
- Lisa Kleypas

You need to be silly to be funny.
- William Shatner

You can't be funny for funny's sake. You try to get as outrageous situation as you can but it always has to be believable and based in real character motivations and what people would really do.
- Hank Azaria

I don't think the show would be funny to you if you didn't already have a base of information.
- Samantha Bee

I don't mean to be funny.
- Yogi Berra

So to me, Texas Hold 'em puts me to sleep. At least when you play stud, you can be funny as you deal. Somebody some day is going to come up with a Stud show that's going to work.
- Joseph Bologna

The thing I thought about doing it was it's Comic Relief and you've got to be funny. So although I did try to sing properly it obviously has hilarious results when you can't sing.
- Jo Brand

I value comedy. I value somebody who can be funny.
- James L Brooks

...avoid like the measles phony laughter. No, really. If you don't find it to be funny, don't laugh. More evil and injustice has gotten a foothold in this world because of polite, counterfeit laughter a desire to not "offend", or to not be "peculiar" - than anything else.
But when you do laugh, let your belly shimmy.
- Jenna Brooks

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.
- Julie Brown

There was plenty of dysfunction in my family and I went to Catholic School with these psychotic nuns. I would always try to be funny to lighten the mood.
- Julie Brown

I think I knew I was funny in Elementary School. I think most funny people realize it when they're young. It tends to come out of stress or trauma - something that makes you want to be funny.
- Julie Brown

I am a candid interview and I have a dark and dry sense of humor - a very Canadian sense of humor and I am only learning now stupidly that you can't read tongue. When I say something funny in a newspaper and I meant it to be funny, it doesn't read that way.
- Michael Buble

I think back to some of the things Harry said and some of the things I said trying to be funny. If I said them now, it would be on the front page of every newspaper in the country.
- Jack Buck

Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.
- George Bernard Shaw

Does it hurt?"
He bent his head and lightly kissed her forehead. "Only when I laugh."
"I'll try not to be funny."
"Epic fail, beautiful.
- Rachel Caine

Think you can maybe not die for five minutes?"
"I'll try,"I told him seriously.
"You know, if anyone else said that, it would be funny.
- Karen Chance

Wouldn't that be funny, if the oil rebels were playing U2 in their jungle camps, and the government soldiers were playing U2 in their trucks. I think everyone was killing everyone else and listening to the same music... That is a good trick about this world, Sarah. No one likes each other, but everyone likes U2.
- Chris Cleave

Everyone in my village liked U2," I said. "Everyone in my country, maybe. Wouldn't that be funny, if the oil rebels were playing U2 in their trucks. I think everyone was killing everyone else and listening to the same music. Do you know what? The first week I was in the detention center, U2 were number one here too. That is a good trick about this world, Sarah. No one likes each other, but everyone likes U2.
- Chris Cleave

It was amazing how many friends you could make by being bad at things, provided you were bad enough to be funny.
- Terry Pratchett

They didn't have to be funny they were father jokes.
- Terry Pratchett

It's not about trying to be funny all the time. It's more of a document that hopefully is funny.
- David Cross

From the first time I saw Sid Caesar be funny I knew that's what I had to do.
- Billy Crystal

I can't be funny if my feet don't feel right.
- Billy Crystal

I have a passion for teaching kids to become readers, to become comfortable with a book, not daunted. Books shouldn't be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives a terrific advantage.
- Roald Dahl

Sometimes when reading Goethe I have a paralyzing suspicion that he is trying to be funny.
- Guy Davenport

I don't care what the haters and naysayers say. If they make jokes about me, I'll laugh because they'll probably be funny.
- Paula Deen

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

You have to understand the tone of the movie, because if it's supposed to be funny, it can be funny violent like the Home Alone stuff, but you have to really understand the tone of what you're doing and make the action work for that and for the character.
- David R Ellis

James Caan told me at the end of filming 'Elf' that he had been waiting through the whole film for me to be funny - and I never was.
- Will Ferrell

I had to face the fact that I had been using my gay friends as props. They were always supposed to be funny and entertain me and praise me and listen to my problems, and their life was supposed to be a secret that no one wanted to hear about. I wanted them to stay in the half closet.
- Tina Fey

I can be funny, because I have time to meditate about how to be funny, and I can repair my mistakes when I perform mistakes, and I can be a melancholy person in manners that are interesting, not only melancholy. With writing, we have second chances.
- Jonathan Safran Foer

You know what? I never really factor Hollywood into anything. I'm a black actor, so I can't really control what Hollywood thinks. I gotta go do my thing, and my jokes have got to be funny. Whatever I do has got to be great.
- Jamie Foxx

I have written it before and am not ashamed to write it again. Without Wodehouse I am not sure that I would be a tenth of what I am today -- whatever that may be. In my teenage years, his writings awoke me to the possibilities of language. His rhythms, tropes, tricks and mannerisms are deep within me.
But more than that, he taught me something about good nature. It is enough to be benign, to be gentle, to be funny, to be kind.
- Stephen Fry

Like almost everyone who uses e-mail, I receive a ton of spam every day. Much of it offers to help me get out of debt or get rich quick. It would be funny if it weren't so exciting.
- Bill Gates

When I say something untrue on the air, I mean for it to be transparently untrue. I assume people know when I'm just saying something for effect. Or to be funny.
- Ira Glass

When I was doing ensemble theater and comedy work, I felt I had some talents. But when I started doing my shows in Berkeley and found that I could be funny on my own, I was shocked.
- Whoopi Goldberg

As soon as you are trying to be funny or dramatic, that's when things start feeling fake and boring.
- Joseph Gordonlevitt

A romantic comedy has to be funny and make you think about life; but the obstacle that has to be overcome is key.
- Jennifer Lopez

I've always enjoyed making people laugh. But in order for me to be funny, I have to get ticked off about something.
- Carl Hiaasen

You will have significant experiences. I hope that you will write them down and keep record of them, that you will read them from time to time and refresh your memory of those meaningful and significant things. Some may be funny. Some may be significant only to you. Some of them may be sacred and quietly beautiful. Some may build one upon another until they represent a lifetime of special experiences.
- Gordon B Hinckley

I mean, sometimes... a comedian becomes an actor, and they just don't deliver, because the bottom line of comedy is to be funny, and the bottom line of acting is to be truthful, and they get that mixed up sometimes, or don't even notice that that's the thing.
- Eddie Izzard

I tend to play characters that I can infuse with certain kinds of humour. Even the baddest guy can be funny in his own particular way. I want the audience to engage with the character on some deeper level so that they leave the cinema still thinking about him.
- Samuel L Jackson

Only man has dignity; only man, therefore, can be funny.
- Ronald Knox

I walked in thinking, 'I have ten movies under my belt and now they want me to go back to making commercials?' I said, if I do that, I want it to be funny.
- Orlando Jones

I think it would be funny if some guy walked into a house and said he just stepped in shit. Then he'd ask other people to look at the bottom of his shoes as he lifted each leg and foot so they could see. When all the people said no, they didn't see any shit, he would then take off his shoes and there would be shit all over his socks. Then the guy would say, Oh, God, my roommate shit in my boot again.
- Jarod Kintz

I think it would be funny to dye somebody's pool red and then throw dead fish in it. And before you run out of there, you could leave a stone tablet with these words etched in: God is angry with you and has decided to go all Egypt on you.
- Jarod Kintz

I had no idea he thought he was funny, tried to be funny, or actually is funny until he made me laugh so hard I peed all over his feet at the urinal.
- Jarod Kintz

Being vulgar to be funny is a crutch, and I prefer wheelchairs.
- Jarod Kintz

I was always telling everybody that I could be funny.
- Sally Kellerman

I don't really need to be dirty to be funny.
- Jimmy Kimmel

You asked what is the secret of a really good sketch. And it is a sketch is a small play. It's got a beginning, and a middle and an end. It should have a plot; it should have the characters, conflict. It is a little play. And in it, will be funny stuff.
- Harvey Korman

You can't do anything to be funny. That's cringeworthy. If your humor comes out of a place of love every time, you don't make the joke bigger than you. The funniest comedians are in touch with their emotional level.
- John Krasinski

You can't teach somebody how to be funny. You're either funny, or you ain't.
- Denis Leary

My father was a really funny guy. He lived a good long life. And he was the reason I wanted to be funny and become a comedian and a comedy writer, so to say that he's somewhat of a mythic figure in my life would be an understatement.
- Carol Leifer

I think there have always been funny women, from Carol Burnett to Joan Rivers. When the audience sees a woman, they innately know she's worked twice as hard to get there, she's had to prove that she can be the leader, first, and then be funny on top of it. She has to emit a confidence that she's in control.
- Wendy Liebman

You know how old I am? I'm so old, I remember when Letterman used to be funny and it was presidents who were serious. That's how old I am.
- Rush Limbaugh

It's good to be funny when you are a comedian.
- George Lindsey

I have no agenda except to be funny. Neither I or the writers profess to offer any worldly wisdom.
- Julia Louisdreyfus

It'd be funny if one of them was called Gavin. Funny but irrelevant.
- John Marsden

Lighter things will happen to you, birds will steal your husband's sandwich on the beach, and your child will still be dead, and your husband's shock will still be funny.
- Elizabeth Mccracken

Movies don't look hard, but figuring it out, getting the shape of it, getting everybody's character right and having it be funny, make sense and be romantic, it's creating a puzzle. Yes, having been a writer for so long, I have an awareness of when things are going awry, but it doesn't mean I know how to fix them.
- Nancy Meyers

As young as I look, I think it will still be funny if I played a person who's kind of tortured and hates his life. Kind of like a Larry David-type thing.
- Andy Milonakis

We want to be funny. We want to make people laugh... We'll do whatever it takes.
- Colin Mochrie

Some of the pictures I must say every now and then I just think are going to be funny. When it gets that much, you might as well just pull out all the stops and make it more of a burlesque.
- Martin Mull

Europe is scooters. Europe is five young people on one bench sharing a chocolate bar. Their idea of entertainment and fun is so much different than ours, which is exactly why a movie about them would be funny.
- Mike Myers

With Jerry Bruckheimer, you know you'll get your money's worth. You're getting huge action sequences, it's going to be funny, and you know it's going to look great.
- Jerry Oconnell

My job is mostly to entertain and be funny.
- Rosie Odonnell

Gary Larson: The funniest cartoonist I've ever seen. His two-volume set (The Complete Far Side) should be the textbook in any course taught on how to be funny on the comics page.
- Stephan Pastis

Vicodin, I got addicted to that little pill. The reason I don't talk about it too much in the press is because it isn't funny, and I love to be funny in interviews. If you joke about that period in your life, it doesn't seem right.
- Matthew Perry

I know it's hard on her. If I don't tell her she'll kill me." He pauses. "That was supposed to be funny.
- Julie Anne Peters

It's not common for a woman on television, especially if she's the mom of the family, to be funny. She's usually a straight man or foil.
- Martha Plimpton

I can do comedy, so people want me to do that, but the other side of comedy is depression. Deep, deep depression is the flip side of comedy. Casting agents don't realize it but in order to be funny you have to have that other side.
- Parker Posey

I think it would be funny to have one of those family decals showing a really skinny teenage girl barfing into a little chalk-outline bag (the bulimic in the family) or the dad figure dressed in the woman's underwear that he truly enjoys slipping into when no one's looking. Or the wife figure smiling with her exaggerated curly hair and tennis skirt, clutching a racket in one hand and a bottle of Stoli' in the other.
- Celia Rivenbark

If you were cheap we'd be having sex now, soup later.
'That's supposed to be funny. It is, but only a little.
- Nora Roberts

Funny is only something that others know about you - you can't be funny by yourself.
- Chris Rock

The misconception is that standup comics are always on. I don't know any really funny comics that are annoying and constantly trying to be funny all the time.
- Joe Rogan

In order for comedy to be funny you have to play the truth of the moment. But if you're not being completely truthful to the basis of the character, its not going to be funny.
- Stephen Root

I've never set out to write a funny movie or be a funny comedian as a woman. I am a woman. I don't really have a choice in the matter. My goal is just to be funny.
- Maya Rudolph

It was a JOB; the video show was a JOB; you don't tell the Aristocrats joke at 8 o'clock at night on network tv, it would be funny though. But those guys know I like dirty stuff, I like clean stuff too.
- Bob Saget

It is one thing to go on stage and be funny or be in a good place in your career, but for a woman, actually facing the elements in a physical way is a very powerful thing.
- Pamela Stephenson

I don't think know if anything's going to translate anywhere. You're making a movie, you hope it's going to be funny, you can't think about how it's going to go over.
- Ben Stiller

I don't think the public is dying to see me necessarily be funny all the time.
- Ben Stiller

Jim Carrey, a comic genius, has a harder time overcoming the public's desire for him to be funny simply because he's so good at it.
- Ben Stiller

I think 'Saturday Night Live', starting in the 1970s, really gave women an outlet to be funny. A lot of those women went on to have film careers, from Kristen Wiig now to Tina Fey and Gilda Radner.
- Emma Stone

When I was younger I wanted to be a big movie star who'd get to be funny on talk shows and then I wanted to retire and write science fiction.
- Scott Thompson

If you can be funny, it means you're intelligent. Your brain is working fast.
- Amber Valletta

I never know when I am being funny, and the other way too. I don't think you can think about that. I don't think you can try to be funny. Some people are just funny.
- Christopher Walken

Everyone comes up to me saying, 'Cooee, Julie! Hello!' as if I know them. Of course I don't bloody know them. Am I flummoxed by it? Sometimes. I think, 'Ooh, love, go easy.' For a time, I did feel this pressure that I had to be funny, but it passes.
- Julie Walters

Oh all the time when Victoria Wood and I did our series. There were people asking 'Can women be funny?' People still ask that. It's like asking: 'Can women breathe in and out?'
- Julie Walters

I like to have fun and be funny, but I'm much more of a thinker.
- Keenen Ivory Wayans

I'm not on all the time. I like to have fun and be funny, but I'm much more of a thinker.
- Keenen Ivory Wayans

It's hard to be funny when you have to be clean.
- Mae West

With improv, it's a combination of listening and not trying to be funny.
- Kristen Wiig

If you're going to tell people the truth, be funny or they'll kill you.
- Billy Wilder

I know some people say I can be funny. But there is always a deeper meaning to what I say. I am a socialist at heart and have the interests of the poor in mind. When people see how I manage to work my way out of tough situations, it gives them hope in their own life.
- Lalu Prasad Yadav

So that's why one of my rules of parody writing is that it's gotta be funny regardless of whether you know the source material. It has to work on its own merit.
- Al Yankovic