British Comedy Quotes

I've always been more of a nerdy, academic type. I loved 'Star Wars' growing up. I have three older brothers, so they were a big influence on me. We loved 'Danger Mouse,' and we love 'Monty Python'. We loved any kind of British comedy and 'Wallace and Gromit' and all of that stuff. ~ Mara Wilson

You know, I think British comedy is very smart comedy. You don't get too much dumb comedy over here. Or at least I haven't seen it. If I'm wrong about that, I apologize to all the dumb comedy makers over here. ~ Matt LeBlanc

Bicky rocked, like a jelly in a high wind. ~ P.G. Wodehouse

I feel that a lot of British comedy is often too bombastic, too obvious, dressing up and shouting and pulling funny faces. ~ Ricky Gervais

British comedy fans go crazy. ~ Chris Lilley

I'm just an enormous British comedy fan. ~ Paul Feig

Judith (sadly): A change has come over my children of late. I have tried to shut my eyes to it, but in vain. At my time of life one must face bitter facts! ~ Noel Coward Sir

Ransom Riggs grew up in Florida but now makes his home in the land of peculiar children - Los Angeles. He was raised on a steady diet of ghost stories and British comedy, which probably explains the novels he writes. There's a nonzero chance he's in your house right now, watching you from underneath the bed. (Go ~ Ransom Riggs

Excuse me, I must go and putt ~ P.G. Wodehouse

I love 'Monty Python,' 'Black Adder,' 'Fawlty Towers.' I'm a huge fan of British comedy. ~ Isla Fisher

Dad loved movies, and I grew up with British comedy. My ultimate favourite is Peter Sellers. ~ Mike Myers

British comedy - which has been a big inspiration to me for many years - is very different to Australian comedy and different again to American comedy. ~ Jason Gann

I don't tend to watch too many American comedies. I love British comedy. ~ Danny McBride

I think the Dutch certainly get British comedy. And let's face it; a lot of it is pretty low-hanging fruit for the whole world now. There are probably tribes in the heart of the Papua New Guinean rainforest that know all the words to the Dead Parrot sketch. ~ Rhianna Pratchett

American television constantly tries to co-op British comedy and create their own version of it. Most of the time it doesn't work; obviously, in the case of 'The Office,' it did. But a lot of times, it doesn't really work. ~ Chris Hardwick

According to new statistics, Pope Francis is the most talked about person on the Internet. And not only that, he has the most viewed profile on Christian Mingle. ~ Conan O'Brien

I feel like comedy had a boys'-club label when we were starting. ~ Abbi Jacobson

You have got to do the shiatsu. I had one back home a month ago. Fantastic."
Marisa Finley frowned under her carrot-ginger-turmeric facial mask.
"What's a shiatsu?" It sounded like an unusual breed of dog.
"I'm taking my shiatsu to the groomers this week to have it shampooed and blow-dried.
And possibly beribboned. ~ Linda Morris

To die proudly when it is not possible to live proudly anymore. Death, chosen of one's own free will, death at the the right time, with brightness and cheer, done in the midst of children and witnesses, so that it is still really possible to take one's leave, when the one taking leave IS STILL THERE, with a real assessment of what one has achieved and willed, a Summation of life - all the opposite of the pitiful and appalling comedy that Christianity has made of the hour of death. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

One of the requisites of sanity is to disagree with the majority of the British public. ~ Oscar Wilde

During the twenty-one year rule of Amir Abdul Rahman (1880-1901), one of Afghanistan's more pro-British rulers, only one school was built in Kabul, and that was a madrassa. Condemned to play a passive part in an imperial Great Game, Afghanistan missed out on the indirect benefits of colonial rule, the creation of an educated class such as would supply the basic infrastructure of the postcolonial states of India, Pakistan and Egypt.

Afghanistan's resolute backwardness in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was appealing to Western romantics. Kipling, who was repelled by the educated Bengali, commended the Pashtun tribesmen- the traditional rulers of Afghanistan and also a majority among Afghans- for their courage, love of freedom, and sense of honour. These cliches about the Afghans, which would be amplified in our own time by American journalists and politicians, also had some effect on Muslims themselves. ~ Pankaj Mishra

The Yishuv covered itself with glory. Just as in World War I the British glorified the Arab revolt - so they tried to hide the efforts of the Yishuv in World War II. No country gave with so much vitality to the war. But the British Government did not want the Jews to use this as a bargaining point for their homeland aspirations later on. Whitehall and Chatham House kept the Yishuv's war effort one of the best secrets of the war. ~ Leon Uris

Extraordinarily, I was up in the cemetery in Derry City, and I had a red cape on with a fur hood as a little girl, when a gun battle broke out between the IRA and the British Army, and I got caught in the crossfire. ~ Roma Downey

My brother and I both like sarcastic, insulting comedy, so that's a way we communicate. Somehow that's what we learned. My mom is not a really sarcastic person. She's a really sort of overly loving person, and my brother and I came out little cynical bastards. ~ Moshe Kasher

That's one of the great things about comedy: we can - and should - say the things that other people aren't supposed to say. If we didn't do that, if we didn't push against those limits, we'd just be standing around onstage and yelling. ~ Zach Galifianakis

The actors in Britain are incredible, and I didn't appreciate that until I got there. They interpret your words and you realize how deliberate and thoughtful they are. There are great American actors, too, don't get me wrong, but the technique that British actors have is something really special. ~ Frank Spotnitz

I would want the British reader to feel that religion in America isn't an absurd thing - a sign of a pin head athwart a gigantic body. ~ Simon Schama

Arrr, shiver me timbers," he said in an exaggerated pirate twang. He winked his uncovered eye and hooked his thumbs in his pants. "This is the nicest your mom's been to a poor old bloke like me-self in days."
Sandra poked a finger in his chest, but grinned. "Don't make me regret it, or you'll walk the plank."
He grinned back and, with that eye patch, turned knee-meltingly rakish in under ten seconds flat. "Aye, I won't be asking you to make me Roger jolly, if that's what has you worrying. ~ Jennifer Shirk

I've played villains on stage - you know, the Iagos and so on - but I think of myself as a funny person. I mostly did comedies before I did TV work. ~ Michael Emerson

I love everything. I don't see myself doing a really serious drama in the next five to ten years. I don't feel mature enough for that yet. But I'd like to make a pure action movie one day or maybe I can do a comedy again. I do like everything. But I don't feel ready for a musical or something like that. That's not my thing yet. ~ Tommy Wirkola

I really try to have fun. If I don't have fun, you won't have fun. That's what my gift is: to relieve people from a little of the pain and comfort in their lives by allowing my comedy to distract them. A good laugh is almost as good as any doctor visit. ~ Louie Anderson

I really knew nothing about the dancing habits of the Scottish. But I wanted to help. "I could teach them Indian folk dances," I offered, scrounging my mind for school dances in gaudy garments.
"Well, I'm not sure that they would be complex enough for competitions," she said. Pursing her lips, she blushed a dark, deep red. I knew I had said something wrong, but it took me a few days to understand the reason for Miss Manson's disapproval and discomfort. She blushed a beetroot red because I had unwittingly questioned the core belief of the school: British was Better. ~ Nayana Currimbhoy

I've had much nastier things said about me in the British press than in the Bosnian press. ~ Paddy Ashdown

It's like I'm suddenly a hormonally charged teenager or living in a bad romance novel: I suddenly can't stop myself from noticing every man around me. Which means that Darcy, Samantha, and Michael are probably right. Plus, there was that disturbing dream about Voldemort this morning. I need to lose my gay-husband virginity before I lose my mind entirely. I need to find someone to sleep with me. And the fact that I don't have the faintest idea how to make that happen is just further proof that it needs to.
- SINGLE-MINDED ~ Lisa Daily

When you're doing a comedy and you want to somehow satirise people who are taking themselves seriously, I think the most serious genre is the thing you're going to get the most out of. If you're trying to satirise a comedy, it's hard to do that - it doesn't really work as well. But I love the war movie genre and I'm a fan of all those movies that are part of what this movie is. ~ Ben Stiller

My goal in life is to be as happy as a studio audience. ~ Jim Gaffigan

Especially when you deal with comedy, you have got to be really honest because it's the honesty and the spontaneity that causes people to chuckle, that catches people. ~ Austin Peck

Thomas Jefferson understood the greater purpose of the liberty that our Founding Fathers sought during the creation of our Nation. Although it was against the British that the colonists fought for political rights, the true source of the rights of man was clearly stated in the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson wrote that all humans are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights ... It was self-evident to him that denying these rights was wrong and that he and others must struggle to win what was theirs. ~ William J. Clinton

I love romantic comedy, but I think you have to have another idea that you're chasing along with romantic comedy. ~ James L. Brooks

Your face makes my soul want to eat chocolate pudding! ~ Andy Milonakis

I like to mix it up, yeah. I don't sort of think, 'Oh, I need to do a comedy, I've done three dramas this year.' I don't think of it like that, but I definitely from project to project I feel like I want to just do something different all of the time and stop, I don't want to bore myself or anyone else. ~ Emily Mortimer

We have a large underclass in Britain, and a fairly low standard of education. Our best universities are extremely good, but a very significant proportion of the British population that comes out of compulsory schooling with very low standards of education. ~ Nigel Short

I think physical comedy is an amazing asset because it tells a story that's more universal than just language and dialogue. I grew up watching Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. They're very powerful figures in my life. ~ Josh Gad

Comedy is not something that a person can fake or learn how to do. ~ Lizzy Caplan

We have to take risks in British television. It has to stop playing to the lowest common denominator and patronising people. ~ Charles Dance

Some comics are in it for what they can get out of it. Others are in it for a love of comedy. I think those that are in it for a genuine love of comedy find each other within the circuit and become friends. ~ Johnny Vegas

Go fuck a cactus, classless cunt. ~ H.M. Ward

Like or dislike her, the British Queen is harmless. Her role is purely ceremonial. Conversely, life and death are in the hands of the monarch who sits in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. ~ Ilana Mercer

For me, my preference for comedy is grounding it in the psychology of the character, and not just kind of making faces. Even when it's a crazy character, grounded comedy resonates more with people because it doesn't look like you're watching someone do vaudeville. No offense to vaudeville. ~ Matt McGorry

No British Prime Minister of the last seventy years has been more harshly stereotyped than Stanley Baldwin. No one has been so much ignored, after the initial judgements of contemporaries had been made. ~ Stanley Baldwin

I started this charity, Fashion for Relief, in 2005, after Hurricane Katrina happened. New Orleans was actually the first place I visited in the United States. It was one of my first big jobs, a shoot for British 'Elle.' It was April 14, 1986. ~ Naomi Campbell

I am very happy to be part of European and world cinema as a British filmmaker. ~ Mike Leigh

If the ghost that haunts the towns of Ypres and Arras and Albert is the staturory British Tommy, slogging with rifle and pack through its ruined streets to this well-documented destiny 'up the line', then the ghost of Boulogne and Etaples and Rouen ought to be a girl. She's called Elsie or Gladys or Dorothy, her ankles are swollen, her feet are aching, her hands reddened and rough. She has little money, no vote, and has almost forgotten what it feels like to be really warm. She sleeps in a tent. Unless she has told a diplomatic lie about her age, she is twenty-three. She is the daughter of a clergyman, a lawyer or a prosperous businessman, and has been privately educated and groomed to be a 'lady'. She wears the unbecoming outdoor uniform of a VAD or an army nurse. She is on active service, and as much a part of the war as Tommy Atkins. ~ Lyn Macdonald

My favorite place in L.A. is Manhattan Beach. It's an intimate, friendly little beachside city within a city-smaller than most of its neighbors, so it reminds me of a British seaside resort. If my three teenage sons are in town, we'll play some cricket on the flat, hard sand where the water breaks, just to really confuse the locals! ~ Piers Morgan

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. ~ Edward James Olmos

When Kubrick decided to go the black comedy route with his movie, he thought of me to give it that flavor. ~ Terry Southern

Comedy clubs are sacred ground. That's where anything goes. ~ Tracy Morgan

The more trouble you get a man into, the more comedy you get out of him. ~ Harold Lloyd