Transforming a line like that makes it into a belly laugh instead of a laugh against us.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
If I'm in a serious play, I often think to myself, 'I could make that line funny.'
There's a thin line between to laugh with and to laugh at.
Something about not waiting for the laugh of a laugh track allows you to take lines that otherwise might be seen as just direct jokes, and make them seem realistic.
Originally, with all the shows, we went looking for belly laughs.
If you laugh, we just do another take. Laughter is too rare nowadays. If you can bust a gut, let it go, and we'll just go back to one.
The fine line between roaring with laughter and crying because it's a disaster is a very, very fine line. You see a chap slip on a banana skin in the street and you roar with laughter when he falls slap on his backside. If in doing so you suddenly see he's broken a leg, you very quickly stop laughing and it's not a joke anymore.
Sometimes, as a comedian, a line will come to you, that is so beautiful, so perfect, that you think: I did not create this line. This line belongs to all of us. Surely this is a line of God.
The ability for us to laugh at ourselves is Britain's saving grace.
I have no line. If I think it's funny, it's funny.
You have a laugh line; don't accentuate it. You get a bigger laugh.