Comedy Direction Quotes

I've been in the director's chair for 'Battlestar Galactica' since its first season. I directed the only comedy that's ever been done in Galactica history.

I wanted to do a comedy. I'd been actively looking for a comedy. I wanted to do one that was different. Nothing against them, but I wasn't interested in just your normal sitcom, boy meets girl.

The films I'm planning and doing are a mix of different things, but it doesn't mean that I'm going to stop doing comedy. That's something I love doing and I can't take that for granted.

I believe how you measure a good movie is how many times you can see it. With comedies, I like to be a producer, because comedies can get corny and go off track real fast. I'm always the 'less is more' guy when it comes to a scene. So I'ma be the one who will keep it grounded.

I probably would never be able to direct a comedy because I'm not that funny. I don't have that funny bone in me, so it wouldn't be a natural fit. But I love the world of science fiction, and I love the world of technology and science too.

Honestly, I just like to make movies. The funnier the better.

It's not easy to direct in another language, especially comedy.

Every comedian comes to a fork in the road where they have to decide if they're going to make jokes about other people or make jokes about themselves. I chose myself.

With comedies, I like to be a producer, because comedies can get corny and go off track real fast.

When you do comedy, the audience is not your boss. They are your collaborators and when you collaborate with someone you don't have to listen to everything they think or say. Sometimes you're not getting the laughs you want or at the place you want but that doesn't mean it's not funny. It means you haven't explored it enough. I'll get laughs in the places I don't want them and that makes me realize the direction I want to go in.

Fukrey' was my first attempt at comedy.

With comedy especially, it feels like such a clear-cut thing to be a writer-director. There is so much nuance and tone in a comedy that it's hard to contextualise it in a script.

The worst thing you can do as a comedy director is be on set and think of something ridiculous, or an actor comes up to you with something ridiculous, and you say 'No, no that's too much.' Let's not worry if that's too much, let's shoot it, and then decide if that's too much when we see it.

I think when you go in, with film or television, you want to tell this narrative. And with 'Joshy,' you want it to be grounded with moments - it's not like, 'Everyone be as funny as you can, quickly, at all times!' It's not like that. You have to pick the right improvisers.

Hugh Wilson made it so real and he took us and it was almost when he was directing it, the way he would do it was funnier than the way we did it. And I just developed a regard for him that was unbelievable.

As a director, just to be able to jump in to do something that's different, and to explore comedy and be challenged by that, is great. Some directors never get that opportunity.

If something doesn't feel right comedically I won't budge on it. You just have to dig your heels in and fight for it. And I mean fight quite intensely.

Being a creative person is a really personal process so there is no one-size-fits-all advice, that's kind of the first thing I'd say. Because everybody's goals are different. Everybody's talents are different. Some women that I'm talking to want to create a television show. Some women want to be a director. They want to use comedy in different ways, and I find that really fascinating. The main thing I would say is, start! Just do it. Keep going. When people come at you with the negativity and the nos, you've got to ignore it. Push through.

When I was working with Barry Sonnenfeld, I'd watch him set up a shot and talk to him about what he was seeing and what it was to shoot comedy. He told me that a lot of times with comedy, it's not just about getting the joke, but getting a reaction to the joke. That's the laugh - it's somebody's else's reaction to the joke.

You know, I became a director out of necessity. I was writing comedies, and I couldn't find anybody to deliver it correctly.

Sometimes when you're doing a comedy, the director will yell out "alts" and then the director gets the first laugh.