Animals talking are very rarely funny. But animals behaving as animals - always funny.

Other than Green Day, we haven't had a lot of protest music over the past few decades.

There's always way less improv than people think. The truth is something like 15 percent.

Most of what's tricky about comedy is the perception of it and the audience's expectation.

Having a guy on a microphone yelling lines at you is counter to a lot of acting techniques.

I hired Tina Fey for 'SNL,' which was certainly a good match. She took off right away there.

I always thought George Bush was more oblivious than mean, but oblivious can quickly go to mean.

First off, no one award-wise ever rewards comedy, which is... whatever. I don't care about that.

The one thing for sure is, I don't ever want to waste a movie. I don't ever want to waste effort.

Normally when it hits two and a half, three hours, the audience gets exhausted and start yawning.

The easiest time to be funny is during a fairly serious situation. That way you can break the ice.

As far as how much you listen to the audience, you listen to them when they really hate something.

With the derivatives market larger than ever, we need way more regulation of Wall Street, not less.

A dry stretch of commentary in the middle of an 'Anchorman' movie would have been a terrible thing.

The key is a good story. If you have a good story, you have enough emotional beats that you can hit.

White-collar crime has been marketed - billions of dollars have been put in to have us be bored by it.

Dick Cheney and Bush's rise to power were built on tons of money from corporations and a dulled press.

Can anything good come of a backward way of thinking like judging someone based on skin color? No way.

I think what's dangerous [about comedy] is that you're coming into the room announcing your intentions.

In general, the final filter of Hollywood is for-profit. Nothing goes through unless it can make money.

Anyone in the comedy world knows that Horatio Sanz and Chris Parnell are two of the funniest guys around.

Bush already gave obscene tax breaks to people like me and Warren Buffet, and we are saying it's not fair.

For 'Breaking Bad,' people were with Walter White for 99% of that show, even though that guy is a monster.

You think of movies like 'Midnight Run' and '48 Hours', those are great movies, especially 'Midnight Run.'

Michael Lewis has the amazing ability to take complex formulas and concepts and turn them into page-turners.

As for movies, what's great about comedy is that if your movie gets laughs and makes money, you have freedom.

I think when a lot of actors hear improv, they think of throwing a line in or doing a slightly different take.

For a documentary it's so important to find the characters and to find people who will give you access to film

If you aim for parody right off the bat and it misses, no offense to the filmmakers, but it is Meet the Spartans.

Every time a congressman or pundit says its 'class warfare' to increase taxes on the wealthy, it's a massive lie.

David O. Russell is probably my favorite filmmaker. He's not only a great director, but he's also a great writer.

Celebrities and 'famous' people are just regular folks. I know, it's a shocking and potentially dangerous statement.

I'm a huge hip hop fan going way back, like, back to '83. I had my Gemini mixer listening to Run-DMC and Kurtis Blow.

If you do a Western that's funny, there's no way people don't call it a spoof or a parody, even though it may not be.

I gotta say - if I clicked on a movie interview, and the first part was all about Walt Whitman, I'd love that article.

The way you really stop Al-Qaeda is by stopping their funding. It's not by carpet-bombing or land invasions or anything.

It should be a law for one whole year that all laugh tracks are Seth Rogen. The world would get ever so slightly better.

After thousands of hours of news coverage, we have learned that Hillary is a liar and Barack is a terrorist or something.

We're always looking for the backbone, the central idea, and once you have that you know everything can circle around it.

My first joke was about a company called Five Star Parking that was all over Philadelphia: 'Who's reviewing parking lots?'

Ultimately, the only people who are in any way edified by hanging with famous people are you at the age of 11 and your mom.

The thing is, I've gotten massages to Enya. I like Enya. If you ate fantastic steaks to Celine Dion, you'd like Celine Dion.

Actually, 'Wayne's World 2' I kind of liked. I think 'Wayne's World 2' does have some creative things in it, some ideas in it.

I hired a personal trainer to help me lose 25 pounds and get from obese to fat. My next step will be to get from fat to chubby.

I would never do 'Stardust Memories' because I don't particularly like that kind of movie - that would be why I wouldn't do that.

The hardest thing in the world to do is to have someone in a seat in a theater laughing so hard that they're making weird sounds.

For my money, I don't think there's been a better comedy than 'Kung Fu Hustle' in a lot of years. That movie just knocked me over.

The idea of 24-hour news, if you really step back, is pretty insane. Just even saying '24-hour news' almost has satire laced in it.

I think that the job of art and culture is to jump on that time and realize that it's there and to push it just a little bit faster.

I'm just a giant film fan, so I love action movies out of all kinds of movies. As a film geek, it's amazing to be able to shoot this stuff.

Share This Page