Steve Allen - Voltaire - Margaret Rutherford - Horace Walpole - Ann Widdecombe TV - Bronson 2009 - Crimes & Misdemeanors 1989 - Blackadder TV - Rude Britannia TV - George Carlin - esias - William Shakespeare - William Congreve - Samuel Johnson - Charlie Chaplin - Angela Carter - Philip Sidney - William Hazlitt - Eric Idle - Will Durst - Denis Leary - Mark Twain - The Office UK TV - Richard Dawkins - Sigmund Freud - Steve Coogan - Woody Allen - 100 Greatest Stand Ups 2012 - Richard Belzer - Sean Hughes - Comedy Legends TV - History of Comedy TV - The Unforgettable … TV - Joan Rivers - Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work 2010 - Joan RIvers: Queen of Controversy TV - House of Commons - Bill Hicks - American: The Bill Hicks Story TV - Bill Hicks: Sane Man TV - Bill Hicks: It’s Just a Ride - Tommy Cooper - Ken Tyler - Ed Sullivan TV - Jim Tavare - Joe Pasquale - BBC report - The Art of Tommy Cooper TV - Tommy Cooper: Not Like That, Like This TV - Tommy Cooper: In His Own Words TV - Joyce Grenfell - Clive James TV - James Roose-Evans - TV - Nigel Havers - Terry-Thomas - TV - Michael Grade - Frankie Howerd on Campus 1990 - Frankie Howerd: Rather You Than Me TV - Frankie Howerd TV - Reputations I: Frankie Howerd TV - Up the Chastity Belt 1972 - June Whitfield - Fawlty Towers TV -
132,807. See the comedian by the very nature of what he is is a troublemaker. He is an iconoclast, he is a playful troublemaker, a good-natured troublemaker, but a troublemaker. And therefore he must recognise the existence of certain taboos. Steve Allen, 1960, cited The History of Comedy s1e2: F****** Funny, Sky Arts 2020
29. God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh. (God & Comedy & Laugh & Audience) Voltaire
50,581. You never have a comedian who hasn't got a very deep strain of sadness within him or her. Every great clown has been very near to tragedy. (Sadness & Comedy & Clown) Margaret Rutherford
1,073. The world is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those that feel. (Life’s Like That & Comedy & Think & Tragedy & Feeling & World) Horace Walpole 1776
12,884. Humour about Christianity ranges from gentle mockery, though sharply critical, to the downright hurtful. (Christian & Humour & Comedy) Ann Widdecombe, Are You Having a Laugh? Comedy & Christianity, BBC 2013
12,885. Comedy can be a window into the state of our society. (Christian & Humour & Comedy) ibid.
12,886. Christianity is now being subject to a level of mockery that some find disturbing. (Christian & Humour & Comedy) ibid.
12,887. The mocking of Jesus Christ is deeply hurtful. (Christian & Humour & Comedy) ibid.
12,888. Upon the release of The Life of Brian thousands protested. (Christian & Humour & Comedy) ibid.
12,889. The change isn’t accidental and it isn’t the product of ignorance, it is deliberate, and it sets out to vilify and to ridicule Christianity and Christian belief. (Christian & Humour & Comedy) ibid.
12,890. At its best, comedy can be provocative, truthful and can offer a check and balance for all of us. (Christian & Humour & Comedy) ibid.
21,187. I’ve always fancied myself as being a comedian. (GBH Films & Prison & Comedy) Bronson 2009 starring Tom Hardy & Matt King & James Lance & Amanda Burton & Kelly Adams & Jonathan Phillips & Mark Powley & Joe Tuckeret al, director Nicolas Winding Refn
22,635. I said, Comedy is Tragedy plus Time. (GBH Films & Comedy) Crimes and Misdemeanors 1989 starring Woody Allen & Martin Landau & Anjelica Huston & Mia Farrow & Alan Alda & Jerry Orbach & Joanna Gleason & Claire Bloom & Sam Waterston & Caroline Aaron et al, director Woody Allen, Alda
26,443. I find his [Charlie Chaplin] films about as funny as getting an arrow through the neck and then discovering there’s a gas bill tied to it. (World War I & Film & Comedy) Curtis & Elton, Blackadder Goes Forth: Plan C – Major Star
26,444. He certainly is a genius, George. He invented a way of getting paid a million dollars a year for wearing a pair of stupid trousers. (World War I & Film & Comedy) ibid.
31,032. Travel back two hundred and fifty years and witness a Britain openly, gloriously and often shockingly rude. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Rudeness & Humour) Rude Britannia I: A History Most Satirical, Bawdy, Lewd and Offensive
31,033. We had a fierce belief in our right to be rude. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,034. The first chronicler of Georgian rude: William Hogarth. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,035. Hogarth made Southwark Fair a portrait of the city. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,036. The Beggar’s Opera by John Gay. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,037. Henry Fielding – these attacks on political sleaze were even more direct than Gay in The Beggar’s Opera. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,038. The Law allowed literary bitchin’ to flourish. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,039. A master of rude words ... Alexander Pope. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,040. Bawdy humour was at the heart of the success of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy Gentleman. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,041. This was the colourful world of satirical and humorous prints. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,042. A poet with the rudest reputation in Regency Britain – the devilish Lord Byron. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,043. There would always be a different, ruder country. In Rude Britannia life was celebrated in music halls with bawdy humour and lewd songs. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Rudeness & Humour) Rude Britannia II: Presents Bawdy Songs & Lewd Photographs
31,044. The shock of the rude nude photograph. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Photograph & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,045. The cheeky carnival of the seaside. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Seaside & Rudeness & Humour & Miscarriages of Justice: McGill) ibid.
31,046. The alliance of toffs and prolls and a racy night out was a serious threat to Victorian values. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,047. On the stage rude stars were created. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,048. Music hall had a tradition of bawdy humour and song that went back centuries. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,049. A new technology to further undermine Victorian values: photography. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Photography & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,050. Rude photographs became affordable and available. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Photography & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,051. Someone with a genius for the rude innuendo now needed was Victoria superstar Marie Lloyd. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Photography & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,052. Victorian moral reformers argued that music halls linked to prostitution were part of an exploitation of women undermining the morals of the nation. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Women & Prostitution & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,053. By the Edwardian era there was a new kind of peep-show – the Mutoscope. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,054. Donald McGill: McGill took a most proper part of daily British life – the postcard – and turned it rude. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Art & Postcard & Rudeness & Humour & Censorship & Miscarriages of Justice) ibid.
31,055. [Frank] Randle pushed the course humour of the music hall to new levels of anarchic comedic invention. Frank on stage was wild. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,056. During a nationwide ‘back to basics’ campaign by the government of Winston Churchill [cf. maiden Parliament speech] McGill was investigated for obscenity. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Art & Postcard & Rudeness & Humour & Censorship & Miscarriages of Justice) ibid.
31,057. The seventy-nine-year-old artist pleaded guilty to obscenity and was fined £50. Thousands of his cards were then ordered to be destroyed. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Art & Postcard & Rudeness & Humour & Censorship & Miscarriages of Justice) ibid.