Robert Mankoff Quotes

I think I'm the funniest guy in a room full of unfunny people.

I don't believe that anybody has come to a conclusion on why something is funny. It's funny because it's ridiculous and it's ridiculous for different reasons at different times.

Comedy is this weird thing. You have no idea why certain things work and other things don't work.

The first obligation I have is to be funny; it's my first impulse and an instinct. I like being funny and finding the jokes.

I'm just the least funny person in a room full of funny people, which is basically every single day of work for me.

Humor is a spontaneous, wonderful bit of an outburst that just comes. It's unbridled, its unplanned, it's full of suprises.

I don't feel any pressure to be funny at all. I'm funny because I want to be funny. I could sit here and be serious for an hour and you would go away and make me much funnier than I am.

True wit never made us laugh.

Being funny is a gift, and, when done well, is an art form.

The funniest thing about comedy is that you never know why people laugh. I know what makes them laugh but trying to get your hands on the why of it is like trying to pick an eel out of a tub of water.

Anything that is not funny at a certain point will be funny.

If I had a sense of humor, I'd be laughing right now.

People who go for humor are wonderful because they do great humor. People who go for wit and end up with humor are people who have made a mistake.

Humor wades across a brook, wit jumps over it.

It's too difficult to start right from scratch and try and be funny out of the blue.

I think I have a good sense of humor, but I'm not, like, a joke-teller. I get the jokes, which is sometimes half the battle. Believe me, I have no idea why anyone hires me.

Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing.

Humor is really one of the hardest things to define, very hard. And it's very ambiguous. You have it, or you don't. You can't attain it.

Everybody I know who is funny, it's in them. You can teach timing, or some people are able to tell a joke, though I don't like to tell jokes. But I think you have to be born with a sense of humor and a sense of timing.

There's something very authentic about humor, when you think about it. Anybody can pretend to be serious. But you can't pretend to be funny.

Humor is a blessing to me. My earliest recollections are of looking at something and seeing the lighter side. But it's always spontaneous. I couldn't write a comedy skit for someone else.

I always loved jokes. It's such a dumb, facile thing to say, but it's true. I remember being a kid and getting those joke books from the Scholastic Book Club and loving comedy from a very young age.

Some people don't have a sense of humor.

Unfortunately, my career is increasingly leading me into rooms where everybody is funny.

The ability to be funny is pretty widespread in the population.