Douglas Carter Beane Quotes

All genuinely intellectual work is humorous.

I loved Woody Allen's short pieces. I was equally influenced by Woody Allen and Norman Mailer. I was very into this idea of being high-low, of being serious and intellectual but also making really broad jokes.

Wit - the salt with which the American humorist spoils his intellectual cookery by leaving it out.

There is certainly a higher percentage of wit in British comedy than in American comedy. What always tickles me is the way in which people try to use their intellect to get themselves out of tricky situations but never quite manage to do so - much to their enormous embarrassment.

'The Simpsons' basically - and 'Futurama' - are really smart shows. They're kind of disguised as these goofy animated sitcoms, but the references within the shows, if you're paying attention, are pretty smart and pretty sophisticated.

Most period drama is so earnest. A lot of it is about making yourself take seriously things you wouldn't normally.

Churchill was one of the few men I have met who even in the flesh give me the impression of genius. George Bernard Shaw is another. It is amusing to know that each thinks the other is overrated.

Voltaire made up his mind to destroy the superstition of his time. He fought with every weapon that genius could devise or use. He was the greatest of all caricaturists, and he used this wonderful gift without mercy.

The more cerebral, slightly darker comedy stuff is where I love to live.

I'm a schoolteacher. That's even worse than being an intellectual. Schoolteachers are not only comic, they're often cold and hungry in this richest land on earth.

A pun is not bound by the laws which limit nicer wit. It is a pistol let off at the ear; not a feather to tickle the intellect.

Humor is perhaps a sense of intellectual perspective: an awareness that some things are really important, others not; and that the two kinds are most oddly jumbled in everyday affairs.

I like smart jokes, I like dumb jokes, and I like dumb jokes done smartly.

His foe was folly and his weapon wit.

Irony is the gaiety of reflection and the joy of wisdom.

I never thought of myself as a comedian. That is a label - make me laugh. I want to make you think.

I don't think all comedy should be mindless. Have something that's thoughtful. Maybe some things are tongue-in-cheek; maybe some things are very direct. I like that people have to think about things. That excites me. Because if you say certain things, it starts a dialogue. Even if you disagree, it's still a dialogue.

Ridicule is the tribute paid to the genius by the mediocrities.

I hate to be smart.

The only stupidities that are not easily solved are those created by very intelligent men.

Comedy has become, I think, a very important branch of public intellectualism. But it still ain't Washington.

British people have a really sophisticated sense of humour, because we're exposed to much more than Europeans and Americans, not least in our literary heritage.

You can't deny the truth. And that's what makes smart comedy so good.

A good cartoon is always good on two or three levels: surface physical comedy, some intellectual stuff - like Warner Brothers cartoons' pop-culture jokes, gas-rationing jokes during the war - and then the overall character appeal.

'The Big Lebowski' gave me my first false sense of intellectual superiority.