On television, there isn't much scope to do different roles. I try to bring some new shades to my roles, and I try to play them differently. I think I have been able to manage that pretty well.
The Simpsons was pretty experimental at the time, but it attracted a lot of sitcom writers that felt confined by the limitations of live-action sitcoms in the '80s.
Often with television, particularly with lifestyle entertainment, they really try and box you in.
I could have never had any kind of creative freedom on TV, so then I did movies! Now, I am able to do all kinds of entertainment... and that, I feel, is the biggest blessing!
The one thing that TV is bad at doing is preaching. There are two extremes, you either turn the people into a punchline or turn them into hero, and both of those things suck, because most people are neither in real life.
It's funny; it's a real balancing act. In TV, everybody's talking about authenticity. In order to make 'Dirty Jobs' authentic, I really can't be overly informed. The minute I am, I become a host... It's a very tricky business paying a tribute to work, because TV is very bad at it.
My style can't be held within a pixel medium. Like, it needs to be performed in a living, breathing space. People need to have all their senses ready to take on my comedy, and unfortunately, TV alienates at least their sense of touch, taste, smell.
'Why are we here?' 'What is our purpose? 'Is there an afterlife?' 'Is there a God?' 'Is it all about science?' Those are big questions, and usually, TV is a little scared to go there.
The sun don't shine in your TV!
Film is very much about sitting around and talking about ideas, and that's the stuff that I love, but I haven't experienced that yet in the television that I've done so far. It makes me long for movies again because, creatively, I always have a much more fulfilling experience there.
I think a newspaper should be provocative, stir 'em up, but you can't do that on television. It's just not on.
Television... is not a substitute for print.
Television's very dependent on images. That's not what news is.
The narrow bandwidth of TV has made us think that we are stupider than we are.
If there's one thing that television doesn't really do, and has never really done, is to tell a surreal story.
On TV you can't show landscapes. You just can't. Even a postcard is better.
I had never done TV. I think it's a foolish medium for, most rock 'n roll music. Nobody ever comes off well on TV.
(Landscapes) are too close to painting. And TV has nothing to do with painting. It's just transmission. And you can't transmit a landscape, happily enough.
I don't think people ought to believe only one news medium. They ought to read and they ought to go to opinion journals and all the rest of it. I think it's terribly important that this be taught in the public schools, because otherwise, we're gonna get to a situation because of economic pressures and other things where television's all you've got left. And that would be disastrous. We can't cover the news in a half-hour event evening. That's ridiculous.
So no one should rely on television either for their knowledge of music or for news. There's just more going on. It's an adjunct to the written word, which I think is still the most important thing.
I think online is a better platform. If you look at the metrics, if you look at the delivery system, if you look at social - all of the things that online can do - TV can't compete.
Being on television is a little constraining. You spend six to eight months filming, and you get stuck in that gear. I feel like doing movies is a lot more my style.
I've just seen really, really funny guys, and if I didn't know them, I wouldn't know they were funny from the television. I don't know what it does, it just sucks it away.
It is extremely difficult to do anything constructive, let alone deep, on daily commercial television, especially on a talk show.
Radio means you can play parts that aren't based on your looks or your age. It's a lot of fun. You can do tremendous things - play more diverse characters - that you wouldn't get to do in theatre or TV.
