Words matter. These are the best Jim Norton Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
The biggest killer to funny is hyper sensitivity to certain subject matter and Montreal is as guilty of that as L.A. or New York or San Francisco.
Every comic says things that are going to offend someone, so we all have to defend each other with this stuff.
It’s nice to have funny friends. I like watching my friends perform.
It’s surreal to be hanging out on Ozzy’s patio with him talking politics. It’s so funny when people doubt that he’s with it because he’s a really sharp, smart guy.
I don’t think any comedy is ever shocking. I don’t buy that. That’s just what people brand it, when someone is saying something they don’t like.
Don Lemon is one of my favorites. I love him.
Anything you can do that’s self-destructive in Vegas, whatever that is, I do it.
Well, audiences will laugh at a lot of things that comedians won’t.
You can’t apologize for who you are on a stage, you can reveal who you are but don’t apologize because that’s begging the audience to turn on you.
I like Fox, but I also like Anderson Cooper and Don Lemon.
I don’t have jokes that I can’t defend.
If someone doesn’t like a comedian that’s fine; a lot of people probably don’t like my standup, and that’s fine. But I think that the problem is people want you to get in trouble. That’s the issue.
My job is to be funny.
I never expect anything. The more good things that happen the better, but I never expect anything.
If somebody said about me, ‘I don’t think his jokes are good, I don’t think he’s a good comedian,’ I don’t like to read that but that’s a fair thing to say.
Language in comedy is very violent.
If the show is going really well and the comedian is still annoyed with the audience, chances are he’s a Boston comic. That’s the beauty of Boston comics.
Realize that doing comedy is only going to make your depression worse.
Trevor Noah is a great, relevant young comic, and Comedy Central is smart to stand by him.
I hate a well-lit room.
I get away with 10 times more on ‘Leno’ than I would on any other show.
It’s really hard to truly want people who you hate to have the right to say whatever they want. And we all disguise the ugly self-centeredness of it.
With ‘Mouthful of Shame,’ all of my fans or the majority of them said it’s the best thing you’ve ever done and that meant a lot because as you go on with time, if they’re still really enjoying it, that means you’re getting better.
The one curse in America is that we deny who we really are and what we like.
I got really lucky that at age 12, I knew I just wanted to be a dancing monkey in front of people and entertain them, or try to. It’s amazing that at age 12 I realized what a needy life I was gonna have.
Here’s the rule of thumb: When the entire family looks like the unibomber, they’re against gay marriage.
I think people like to label everything. I just think it’s comfortable.
The image people have of comedians staring defiantly over a stationary line of good taste is simply inaccurate. We don’t approach this line, put our toes over it arrogantly and then scamper back to safety. The line doesn’t exist.
You never want your greatest work to be 10 years ago.
I’ve done ‘Letterman’ twice and he was friendly, he said hello as he was shaking your hand and in front of the audience, but you never spoke to him before or after.
I’m always tired.
I wanted to do a talk show that reminded me of the old school ones I loved as a kid, without all the fake enthusiasm and sound bite-driven conversations.
No matter how many books I’ve sold, nothing can correct the fact I look like Alfred Hitchcock from the side.
Being a harsh, dirty comic, the last person on earth I ever expected to help my career was Jay Leno. I had always thought of performing on ‘The Tonight Show’ as an unachievable goal, because I bought into the myth that only squeaky clean, family-friendly material would be welcome there.
Americans have always been inconsistent and kind of fake with outrage, but we’ve just slipped totally upside-down.
A lot of times the mainstream public loves something, critics will hate it and then they’ll think the public is stupid and they’re above the public.
Ozzy Osbourne is one of my favorite interviews, he’s so good.
I’m very careful with my money.
A lot of racism is paternalism. A lot of people hide their own racism because they treat blacks, minorities and other groups like children because deep down they feel superior and better than these people. And they don’t feel like they should just treat a guy like a guy.
For me, a good comedy town is filled with people on the verge of a riot. They need something to relieve the tension.
I never care if the audience groans.
I like being single.
I date but nothing really long term. I haven’t had much luck. I probably haven’t met the right woman. Most probably know to stay away from me.
All major cities are the same. People have the same sensibilities and they get afraid of the same subjects, groaning at the same things.
I don’t worry about the crowds agreeing with me anymore. I want them to laugh and have a good time, but I think they can disagree with you and still enjoy it.
