Steve Allen Quotes

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Steve Allen

Profession : Entertainer

Birth : December 26, 1921

Much of the best humor is found in the frequently tragic reality of human experience.

Steve Allen

In general, the straight line of a joke sets up a premise, an expectation. Then the funny ending - the punch line - in a sense contradicts the original assumption by refusing to follow what had seemed a reasonable train of thought. Many jokes involve that simple matter of leaping outside what had appeared to be the rules of the game at the moment.

Steve Allen

We will take almost any kind of criticism except the observation that we have no sense of humor.

Steve Allen

Humor is a social lubricant that helps us get over some of the bad spots.

Steve Allen

One of the nice things about problems is that a good many of them do not exist except in our imaginations.

Steve Allen

I used to be a heavy gambler. But now I just make mental bets. That's how I lost my mind.

Steve Allen

Ours is a government of checks and balances. The Mafia and crooked businessmen make out checks, and the politicians and other compromised officials improve their bank balances.

Steve Allen

If the Old Testament were a reliable guide in the matter of capital punishment, half the people in the United States would have to be killed tomorrow.

Steve Allen

Totalitarianism is patriotism institutionalized.

Steve Allen

Dark energy is perhaps the biggest mystery in physics.

Steve Allen

There used to be an art form called the 'comedy of manners.' Why aren't comedies of manners made now in this country? The answer is simple. We no longer have manners to speak of.

Steve Allen

Asthma doesn't seem to bother me any more unless I'm around cigars or dogs. The thing that would bother me most would be a dog smoking a cigar.

Steve Allen

The hair is real - it's the head that's a fake.

Steve Allen

In a rational society we would want our presidents to be teachers. In our actual society we insist they be cheerleaders.

Steve Allen

If there is a God, the phrase that must disgust him is - holy war.

Steve Allen

I personally find it difficult to accept that there could be anyone on earth insensitive to the comic abilities of Laurel and Hardy, Sid Caesar, Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, or Martin Short. But no matter who the comic entertainer is, there is always at least a minority prepared to say, 'What's all the excitement about? He doesn't seem funny to me.'

Steve Allen

In those of us who have the mysterious ability to amuse others, it is usually the case that even before we were aware of our own abilities, we had become practiced at laughing more than other children in our social circle.

Steve Allen

It often seems that, for whatever strange reasons, comedians, in addition to their formal performances, have more comic experiences in real life than other people do.

Steve Allen

Pretend you're a southern sheriff. Or Mae West. Or Donald Duck. Buy a western hat and walk around the house like a cowboy. The point of all this, of course, is to draw yourself out of your accustomed groove.

Steve Allen

To the extent that there is anything properly identifiable as dignity in our society today, our present writers of comedy would be inclined to treat it as a proper object of ridicule.

Steve Allen