[to Arnold Schwarzenegger] You being funny with your accent is twice as big a deal as me being funny...
Show more »
[to Arnold Schwarzenegger] You being funny with your accent is twice as big a deal as me being funny. They expect me to be funny!
Show less «
[on his early television show] The first year I was on, '48 or '49, I didn't even have a writer. I j...
Show more »
[on his early television show] The first year I was on, '48 or '49, I didn't even have a writer. I just remembered what I did for the last 20 years 'cause we couldn't afford a writer--there wasn't any money. So it was a pretty difficult thing and the facilities were difficult.
Show less «
Money can't buy you happiness, but it helps you look for it in a lot more places.
Money can't buy you happiness, but it helps you look for it in a lot more places.
If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door.
If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door.
A good wife always forgives her husband when she's wrong.
A good wife always forgives her husband when she's wrong.
I have a file of four million jokes . . . I have them cross-indexed. Whatever subject you want, I ha...
Show more »
I have a file of four million jokes . . . I have them cross-indexed. Whatever subject you want, I have a joke on it.
Show less «
[how to tell a joke] Delivery, not stressing the punchline, timing.
[how to tell a joke] Delivery, not stressing the punchline, timing.
An adult western is where the hero still kisses his horse at the end, only now he worries about it.
An adult western is where the hero still kisses his horse at the end, only now he worries about it.
[his definition of a comic]. . . a comic is a guy who depends solely on the joke, and we have thousa...
Show more »
[his definition of a comic]. . . a comic is a guy who depends solely on the joke, and we have thousands of them. The comedian can get a laugh opening a door in the funny way that he does it and his attitude--that's a comic versus a comedian. Now a "funnyman" can get a laugh before opening his mouth--looking funny. Lou Costello was one of your great funnymen. Harry Langdon, Larry Semon; they were all funnymen--they LOOKED funny. W.C. Fields was never a comedian. Slim Summerville was a comedian, yet looked funny. Now if you have both attributes, you are in good shape. There is a great line between the comic, the comedian, the funnyman, the buffoon and the clown. I don't maybe do everything well--but I know the difference.
Show less «
Don't burn, just singe.
Don't burn, just singe.
Arnold Schwarzenegger has bigger boobs than his wife!
Arnold Schwarzenegger has bigger boobs than his wife!
Don't tell jokes only the band laughs at.
Don't tell jokes only the band laughs at.
You get a lot of awards when you're a star, and lots of them are irrelevant.
You get a lot of awards when you're a star, and lots of them are irrelevant.
You show the emotion so you get the audience going the other way.
You show the emotion so you get the audience going the other way.
[on Bob Hope] Bob is a joke man. Bob will buy the motion picture rights to Critic's Choice (1963) an...
Show more »
[on Bob Hope] Bob is a joke man. Bob will buy the motion picture rights to Critic's Choice (1963) and then add quite a few dozen one-liners. I think it is a fear of not being able to wait--and not hearing your laugh a second.
Show less «
[on his beginning as a comic] I had copied my style from a great comic, Ted Healy. I patterned mysel...
Show more »
[on his beginning as a comic] I had copied my style from a great comic, Ted Healy. I patterned myself after Healy, with the hat turned up in front and the collegiate look. I was the brash, flippant wise guy, smart-ass type.
Show less «
[on all the chatter at the 1965 Academy Awards about one romantic twosome in the audience] When I to...
Show more »
[on all the chatter at the 1965 Academy Awards about one romantic twosome in the audience] When I took out Woodrow Wilson's daughter, they didn't make such a fuss.
Show less «
If evolution works, why do mothers only have two hands.
If evolution works, why do mothers only have two hands.
I live to laugh, and I laugh to live.
I live to laugh, and I laugh to live.
[about versatility in entertainers] There are a lot of comedians who do everything good and nothing ...
Show more »
[about versatility in entertainers] There are a lot of comedians who do everything good and nothing great. [Sammy Davis Jr.] as an entertainer does everything good and nothing great. Because there is no Sammy Davis. Sammy is doing Mel Tormé, Billy Eckstine, Billy Daniels, [Frank Sinatra].
Show less «