"To write comedy requires a combination of arrogance and humility in massive proportions. The need for arrogance is obvious. To believe you can hold the attention of strangers -- much less make them laugh -- shows a self-confidence beyond logic. Humaility is essential to realize how easy it is to fail and, more important, to accept that people who answer quizzes in magazines to find out if they're good lovers will be the final, undisputed judges on whether you are bringing it off.
There is a theory that most jokes were first conceived by men in prison. (And conversely, another that many are made by people who should be there). Jokes, however, are almost always made of, by, and for the oppressed.
Modern man walks a narrow path bebetween boredom and hysteria. It's the artist's funcion to help him maintain his balance, the humorist's to help forget his fear.
The three indespensable attributes of the comedy writer are motivation, courage, and a high tolerance of suffering.
...
What makes a humorist? To begin with, he must be one who knows we are all kinds of fool, including himself, and is willing to admit it; one who has a complusive preference for the short odds and uses humor to protect himself from the slings and arrows of outrageous forune. One who has un-self-consciousness of a child and uses the God-given right to make a spectacle of himself...
Freud said that hostility is the basis of all humor. So if you don't like violence, if you don't want to hurt anybody's feelings, if you can't stand the sight of blood -- you had better look for another line of work..."
