I think the thing that really started setting my career on the course that it's on is when I did '1000 Cats' on 'Funny or Die Presents' on HBO. That's what I feel like kind of got me a little bit more into the system.
— Brett Gelman
I love taking on roles that other people have written for me just as much as I take on writing - just not as much of a, 'Oh, that guy.' I want people to start saying, 'Oh, Brett Gelman's new piece is coming out. That's a Brett Gelman movie. That's a a Brett Gelman show.'
I love Lars von Trier and Michael Haneke, but if I'm not in the right frame of mind to watch their work, I feel upset after watching it.
I like being strange. I like being hyperbolic and surreal.
One of the things I was taught was how you deal with language. It's important, very important in comedy.
I saw 'A Night at the Opera,' this Marx Brothers film, when I was, like, six years old. I just became obsessed, you know?
Comedy is all about the character. When you're too focused on the gags, the character suffers, and you don't get the laugh. Comedy has to come from the character.
I like to challenge the audience. I want people to feel discomfort.
I would say that is the beauty of Adult Swim is that they're always pushing forward from what they've done in the past, and they're always just trying different styles.
I've wanted to be a comedian since I was a kid, and my parents were very supportive of that.
Dinner is often a very celebratory environment, a very safe place, a time to reflect and let the day go and enjoy good food and good wine. It's a very peaceful moment during the day. A great dinner can change your day around.
I've always been an actor, even when I was doing improv and my own version of stand up.
I love Adult Swim. They give you so much artistic freedom.
Gilbert Gottfried, I think, is just the most underappreciated comedian in the world. I think that he doesn't get enough credit for how funny he is.
Deeper things, heavier things happen to you as you get older and makes you more open.
Don't be proud of me. Do something to make yourself proud of yourself.
I love 'Seinfeld.' That was not alternative. You can't get more in mainstream than that.
I always at least try to come from some sort of human place no matter how ridiculous the character is. That's really awesome. That is more the work that I'm leaning towards doing.
I really am not that hairy on my body. It's weird.
I've definitely seen people get angry or really uncomfortable with stuff I've made in the past. And my stand-up, if you could call what I do stand-up, is quite aggressive, too.
We spend so much of our lives doing math problems on how to feel good. It's such a waste of time. You're going to feel how you feel. It's hard to just set up a way that you're going to live your life that is going to be just endlessly happy and healthy. That's impossible.
I think comedy is incredibly discriminated against. It is one of the most enjoyed yet most condescended art forms in the world. It's the same thing with hip-hop.
As someone who is on the more liberal side of things, I personally think this side needs to be a little less open. I know that's part of what it means to be on the more liberal side of things, but that trait can no longer really be a part of our makeup. The simple reason for this is that the opposing side uses our openness to their full advantage.
'Dinner' is completely scripted. There are some improv elements, but I'm not interested in pranking people. It's more like a play than standup.
As far as making people feel less depressed, that, in and of itself, is a political act.
I don't hate oatmeal raisin, but it is the worst cookie. Profoundly disappointing.
I think that all the Mel Brooks' company of actors is just tremendous. It was a crazy group of genius people. All of them taught me what kind of actor I should be and what was funny.
Andrew Gurland is so precise and, again, such an amazing writer, but then he's also really honest with himself and what he is seeing.
At the end of the day, stand-up comedy is like acting when the audience are the other characters that I'm acting with.
It's actually just as cool to be on television as to be in a movie, and nobody's ashamed of this back and forth.
I've never gone to a bachelor party, where I didn't, no matter how much I loved the people there, hate them so much for their disgusting behavior.
I like women around. I like female energy. I find it very important.
I'm all for free speech, and I don't need my viewpoint to be the only viewpoint.
Loss is a part of life, unfortunately, and you've got to just deal with it.
I look upon 'A Little Bit of Luck' as a very bizarre, happy, surreal memory.
What a great way to make some money is just fine somebody $300 if their phone rings in the theatre. That'll make them remember to turn it off.
'The Producers' is my favorite movie, and my favorite performances of all time are Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, and I feel like I strive to be a combination of those two guys.
I think some people watch 'Raging Bull,' or they watch 'The Piano Teacher,' and I think they're more, maybe, able to process an antihero in a dramatic context, where people more want comedy to take care of them. But that's not really taking care of people. That's just providing escape, which sometimes is necessary.
All of my favorite directors are coming from a singular perspective, and I think that's been very lacking in film.
I honestly don't see how anyone can view the GOP and the Right as anything but evil.
I hate it when I see people texting at a show. And talking to each other. They're at a performance; they should respect the performer.
The world is pretty messed up.
I don't see how I ever could have thought that having an all-white crew for a special about race would be OK.
I'm an actor, and I want to play flawed characters, and I'm a writer that wants to write flawed characters, trying to let something out and hoping people relate through that or have fun experiencing the story.
I think it's good news that cable television is so, so supportive of the Louis C.K.s, the Lena Dunhams, the Matthew Weiners, and the Vince Gilligans. There's just so many people fearlessly making their stuff, you know?
I think that's something that people don't realize enough about when they get into comedy - it's not just about sitting back and observing and saying something funny.
There's a certain order to network shows that doesn't exist so much in cable, which is, you know, if you want to change a line you've got to talk to the writer.
What doesn't kill you, if you use it to make yourself stronger, then you will get stronger. But if you let it beat you down, then you will be weaker.
We live in a country whose government and many of its people support white supremacy and disintegration of basic human rights.
I have Janicza solely to thank for my growth as an actor because she saw in me something that other people just weren't seeing, and she knew that I could go beyond the normal, funny 'make-em-ups' that I was doing on an improv stage.
