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Quotes of the Day for 12 October 2003 – Comedy
Richard Claxton Gregory was born at St. Louis, Missouri on this day in 1932. He worked to help support his family at an early age, then went to Southern Illinois University on a track scholarship. He left to join the Army, developing a comic routine in base shows. Back in civilian life, he emceed at Chicago clubs before making a huge hit at the Playboy Club. His attention turned to civil rights and he opposed the Viet Nam war, writing a number of books and running for president in 1968. When confronted with cancer, he began to study nutrition and built a business around his "Bahamian Diet." With all of that, he will probably always be most associated with Comedy.
The quotes:
Comedy is tragedy plus time.
- Carol Burnett
Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.
- Charlie Chaplin, 1889 - 1977
There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt. And how do you know laughter if there is no pain to compare it with?
- Erma Louise Bombeck, 1927 - 1996
God writes a lot of comedy. The trouble is, he's stuck with so many bad actors who don't know how to play funny.
- Garrison Keillor
Comedy is an escape, not from truth but from despair; a narrow escape into faith.
- Christopher Fry
The popular definition of tragedy is heavy drama in which everyone is killed in the last act, comedy being light drama in which everyone is married in the last act.
- George Bernard Shaw, 1856 - 1950
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