If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons.
James ThurberRead
The only rules comedy can tolerate are those of taste, and the only limitations those of libel.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Comedy is bound only by good taste and legal boundaries.
In this quote, James Thurber suggests that comedy, as an art form, should have a free range of expression, constrained only by the limits of good taste and the laws regarding libel. It highlights the importance of creativity and the subjective nature of humor while acknowledging that there are still some boundaries that cannot be crossed without consequence.
Themes
ComedyTasteLibelCreativityHumor
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of freedom of expression in the arts.
More from James Thurber
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The laughter of man is more terrible than his tears, and takes more forms hollow, heartless, mirthless, maniacal.
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Things have dropped from me. I have outlived certain desires; I have lost friends, some by death... others through sheer inability to cross the street.
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The appreciative smile, the chuckle, the soundless mirth, so important to the success of comedy, cannot be understood unless one sits among the audience and feels the warmth created by the quality of laughter that the audience takes home with it.
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Unless artists can remember what it was to be a little boy, they are only half complete as artist and as man.
James ThurberRead
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