Top 30 James Bobin Quotes

The joy of puppetry is that it is very simple and low-fi, which I love.

‘The Muppets’ is really about innocence and charm and sweetness and light and having hope – and stupid gags.

I’ve always loved ‘Alice,’ and I’ve always loved Lewis Carroll. I love his kind of tone and his intelligence.

You always want to aim high.

Everything in culture moves in a cyclical way.

I’ve always thought that Lewis Carroll himself had a certain comedy tinge to him. He was a guy who was a satirist. He really was a social commentator in many ways and was trying to satirize Victorian society.

I am a great believer that your humor is developed at a very early age, and it doesn’t ever change. You’re basically the same person forever, so you find the same stuff funny forever.

‘Muppets’ was very much an exercise in anti-CG and the anti-effects world. It was very much in camera. We wanted to create a world where tangible puppets walked around and talked to each other. You could touch them. You could meet them.

I think, as a director, it’s always worth pushing yourself and finding out new areas and exploring new ways to tell story.

I think we live in an entertainment world where performers like to flaunt how great they are. The Conchords don’t do that. Even when they stumble onstage, people like it.

As a director, obviously you should challenge yourself. It’s important, because it’s this thing that takes you away from your family for years. You have to really love the thing you’re doing. It’s very important.

There’s nothing sadder than being in a tribute band – especially a tribute band for your own thing you did originally.

If you know people, it’s so much more fun working with them because it’s like your family is back together again.

I’ve always liked the Muppets. I watched ‘The Muppet Show’ in England every week as a child. The show was originally broadcast in England.

Film shouldn’t be a pain. It’s a creative process.

Watching ‘Dark Crystal’ now, having made Muppet films, it really strikes me just how ambitious that film is in terms of the constructs, the builds, the puppeteering.

In England, ‘The Muppet Show’ is very much seen as an English thing. So for us in the U.K., it is one of the treasures of the history of children’s TV and of comedy, basically.

Personally, I’ve always liked movies about big diamonds, like ‘Pink Panther’ and ‘The Thomas Crown Affair.’ I’ve always found those films really interesting, and they have a good energy about them, which I like.

Muppet films are never easy to film ’cause Muppets have no legs.

The thing about me is that my secret passion is history.

I worked on both ‘Borat’ and ‘Bruno,’ but in a very producer-y role.

I love the idea of exploring the Victorian imagination and what Victorians thought the world of fantasy would look like.

I’m probably an overcompensating introvert. I live in Hollywood, but I don’t go to parties where I have to work the room. I could do that, but I don’t want to… I try and stay the same and live a fairly normal life.

My films have a lot of historical context; I’m a huge fan of ruins. You see a lot of ruin work in my movies, I like ruins.

No, the Muppets are not communist. And the character of Tex Richman is not an allegory for capitalism in any way. The character is called Tex Richman.

I’d rather not ever make anything overly simple just because I’m scared people won’t get it.

Cable news is 24 hours long, so you have to fill it up with something.

‘Alice’ is effectively a story about a game of cards. ‘Through the Looking Glass’ is a story of chess.

‘Muppets’ is incredibly analog, ‘Alice’ is very digital.

When you try to teach children things, you’re trying not necessarily to do it directly.