Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious.
Interpretation
Comedy uses humor to address serious topics in a light-hearted manner.
This quote by Peter Ustinov suggests that comedy serves as a unique medium to convey deeper meanings and truths, often through the guise of humor. It highlights the idea that laughter can act as a coping mechanism or a vehicle for discussing serious issues, allowing people to engage with difficult subjects without the heaviness they might otherwise carry.
In practice
In a speech about overcoming adversity, one might quote this to emphasize resilience.
Marriage is like a three-speed gearbox - affection, friendship, love. It is not advisable to crash your gears and go right through to love straightaway. You need to ease your way through. The basis of love is respect, and that needs to be learned from affection and friendship.
I'm convinced there's a small room in the attic of the Foreign Office where future diplomats are taught to stammer.
I imagine hell like this: Italian punctuality, German humour and English wine.
Parents are the bones on which children cut their teeth.
Because they have been in love they have survived everything that life could throw at them, even their own failures.
Corruption is nature's way of restoring our faith in democracy.
As usual, there is a great woman behind every idiot.
One of the interesting things about comedy is it's tension release, and nothing creates tension faster than anger.
Being silly is still allowed, not excluded by adulthood. What's excluded by adulthood is thoughtlessness, so be thoughtful and silly
There are very few moments in a man's existence when he experiences so much ludicrous distress, or meets with so little charitable commiseration, as when he is in pursuit of his own hat.
Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing.
The best thing about humour is that it shows people they are not alone.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.