Humor Reception Quotes

Conventional show-biz savvy held that Americans hated to be the objects of satire.

I was so amazingly witty when I had the No. 1 movie, you have no idea. People laughed at every single one of my jokes. Then when I hadn't had a hit for three or four years, some of these same people pretended they didn't see me when I walked in the room.

Sometimes I - with comedy, it's like someone liking you in high school. They either do, or they don't. And when they don't, they don't. And that's it. There are no appeals. You show up, and you're like, 'Hi! I'm -' and you stumble, and they're like, 'It's over.'

Once, I was doing Bon Qui Qui in Miami, and this black girl was in the audience, and she yelled out, 'That's not funny!' which was really funny because she sounded exactly like the character I was playing.

A joke bombing on stage doesn't bother me, especially if it's intended to bomb.

I played the tour in 1967 and told jokes and nobody laughed. Then I won the Open the next year, told the same jokes, and everybody laughed like hell.

I've found that my humor goes over big in London.

Nothing is more curious than the almost savage hostility that Humour excites in those who lack it.

I did my first set at a talent show, and I couldn't finish because the judges didn't like my jokes. They were 'offensive.'

When you're sitting in the theater watching your own work be performed, you get to see people's reactions immediately. Unlike with a book, you don't have to wait for responses. That's very satisfying. Unless it's a joke that falls flat.

I've come to realize that you're going to get criticized no matter what. Somebody will always hate what you write, especially if you write humor for a fairly broad audience. Somebody will always find it not funny and declare you're not funny anymore. And sometimes people are just crazy.