Joan Severance Quotes

M*A*S*H offered real characters and everybody identified with them because they had such soul. The humor was intelligent and it always assumed that you had an intellect.

In Australia, even the darkest subject matter has a little pinch of humor. A little sweet to make the sour go down.

I really like 'Shameless' because it brings up important issues, but we get to talk and laugh and look at something that's really important that's a problem, like alcoholism and bad parenting. It's done in a funny, smart way.

'Newton' is a black comedy, a social satire. Amit Masurkar is directing the movie, and Drishyam films is producing. Rajkummar Rao is in the movie. I am playing a very important character. It is a very interesting project.

I think I have a dark view of the world. I have to make everything funny, otherwise it all seems so sad.

I learned a great lesson early on, even before I was really an actor, from that movie 'Planes, Trains & Automobiles' that John Hughes made: that you could make a movie that's really, really, really, really funny, and sometimes you can still achieve... making the audience feel very deep emotions as well.

If I see my films described as 'quirky' or, even worse, 'snarky' one more time, I'm going to probably seriously consider an early retirement. All these years, I've labored under the conceit that they were "darkly humorous.'

Maybe there's a chance to get back to grown-up films. Anything that uses humor and dramatic values to deal with human emotions and gets down to what people are to people.

I don't watch television, but I saw 'The Office' by accident. I thought it was so sophisticated, the Victorian love story, and so bold. We'd do anything, all of us, to not work in that environment, and then I'm sitting there watching hours of it.

I wanted to write as well as I possibly could to deal with life-and-death problems in contemporary society. And the form of Wilkie Collins and Graham Greene, of Hammett and Chandler, seemed to offer me all the rope I would ever need.

Some of my favorite shows are Ricky Gervais' 'Extras' and 'Curb Your Enthusiasm.'

I am a big fan of the TV series 'Taxi' which combined comedy and pathos better than any other show I've seen.

There's all sorts of terrible things that happen around the world. And comedy's one of those few things where you can discuss those things.

I think on 'Third Watch' that I was the comic relief on a lot of that. I mean, I definitely had dark moments, but people tended to think he was funny even if the character himself wasn't having a fun time.

Believe it or not, there's a lot of humor in 'Mad Men.' Especially in the dark moments.

In TV writing, Armando Iannucci's satire 'The Thick of It' is brilliant - equal parts hysterically funny, terrifyingly believable, and Oh-my-God-I-can't-believe-he-actually-said-that - and it's got the most satisfyingly creative insults ever.

I love how 'Misfits' is a drama-comedy.

You probably can't name more than a handful of comedies that would qualify for Best Picture. I can think of a lot of comedy screenplays; Woody Allen has had numerous nominations for his screenplays. But most comedies are calculated. They tend to pander. They're not about anything important.

That was the beauty of 'Roseanne' and Roseanne herself. It could go dark; it could do issues.

'Wonder Showzen' is one of my favorite shows of all time. When I first saw it, I thought it was so funny and new and original and edgy and insane and subversive. I didn't know comedy could do that. It redefined what I thought you could do with a TV show.

My heroes, growing up, were people like Andy Kaufman and Groucho Marx and people that very rarely drop the persona.

I'm a fan of, like, the Coen Brothers, with the darker humor in it.

I really enjoy 'Baskets.' I'm a big fan of 'Archer' and 'Mr. Robot.'

I don't think that 'No Man's Land' is a comedy. I think that it's a serious film with a good sense of humour.

I've been inspired for a long time by Nicole Holofcener. I admire her greatly as an auteur, examining the human condition in a funny, growing, spirited, honestly dark and human way.