Top 147 Quotes & Sayings by Billy Eichner

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American comedian Billy Eichner.
Last updated on November 25, 2024.
Billy Eichner

Billy Eichner is an American comedian, actor, and producer. He is the star, executive producer, and creator of Funny Or Die's Billy on the Street, a comedy game show that aired on truTV. The show earned Eichner a nomination for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host in 2013. He is also known for playing Craig Middlebrooks on the sitcom Parks and Recreation, Mr. Ambrose the Librarian on the animated TV series Bob's Burgers, and Timon in the 2019 remake of The Lion King.

I loved all awards shows growing up, but of course, the Oscars was the biggest one.
A lot of people in Hollywood, and everywhere pretty much, operate on fear. No one wants to get fired, so everyone's scared to take a chance. There's money involved, and there are careers and reputations on the line.
I came back to New York after college like any number of struggling performers, and you just find that niche where you can have some sort of impact. And for me that turned out to be comedy.
There is no way I will survive Mike Pence doing Carpool Karaoke. What song's he gonna sing? 'I Deported Your Grandmother?' — © Billy Eichner
There is no way I will survive Mike Pence doing Carpool Karaoke. What song's he gonna sing? 'I Deported Your Grandmother?'
There have been man-on-the-street interviews for years, but insulting people is not that funny to me.
One of the first big agencies that represented me, my point person there - this was over 10 years ago, so it's no one who I work with now or have worked with recently - but he told me that I was too ambitious.
Saying gay people shouldn't be the punchline is basically saying don't make people the punch line, which I think is ridiculous. The whole point of comedy is, on some level, to make fun of ourselves and put everything into an absurdist context.
I'm on all the apps: Tinder, Grindr, Bumble, Scruff. I have no shame about that.
Anytime you're the creative force behind something and in front of the camera - we're not complaining, but it is an avalanche of work.
All that social media hyperbole is just so fake.
I grew up in New York, so I had a lot of access to all kinds of movies, and I would handwrite reviews of them on loose-leaf paper.
I do take for granted, probably, the fact that I grew up in New York City, one of the most liberal places on earth, with bleeding-heart, liberal parents who took me to see 'Rent' and Terrence McNally plays from a very young age.
I don't want to do something that's watered down. I don't want to take what I'm known for and dilute it.
It's one thing to hear that someone likes your show; it's a completely different thing to have them come take their time and film something with you on a sidewalk.
I did a live late-night talk show called 'Creation Nation' with friends of mine. I had a sidekick and a band, and I wrote the whole thing. And it had the form of a late-night talk show, but we did it on stage because no one was giving me a TV show at the time.
I thought it would be funny to go to my Korean dry cleaner and ask her about my head shot, as if it's the most important thing in the world, and as if it's something that everyone should weigh on because it's important to me.
If a comedian has a strong following, and the branded segment feels different compared to what you typically do, people will know right away that it's not authentic to who you are as a comedian or performer. Brands need to keep that in mind.
You don't want to really pick on someone that you genuinely like. In terms of 'Billy on the Street,' there are certain actors - I don't care if they find out because I do feel that way. Though it's almost never about appearance or something out of their control. I pick on choices they've made or roles they've taken.
We have a whole art department on 'Billy on the Street.' We give away dioramas that we've made. — © Billy Eichner
We have a whole art department on 'Billy on the Street.' We give away dioramas that we've made.
I was very much an only child who was raised by the television and movies, and I grew up in New York. We weren't, like, rich people, but we were middle-class people and my parents supported this love I had for entertainment.
It's not enough for Hollywood to make a bunch of gay movies. That's obviously a big part of the equation, but then gay people have to show up for those movies.
Things pop out of people's mouths that you wouldn't expect them to say, so I've stopped trying to guess ahead of time who might be interesting to talk to.
When I came out to my parents, I knew that they knew. My father was like, 'Are you sure?' I literally said, 'You took me to see Barbra Streisand at Madison Square Garden.'
If you really think you have something good, you can't take no for an answer. You've got to get in there and ignore the people who say no.
Award shows are fun but completely arbitrary and absurd. And yet, I will watch every single one of them.
My mom had a heart attack, and it came out of nowhere - she was 54. My dad had leukemia for about 3 months. He was 80 when he passed. My dad had me later in life, and so he had leukemia and was alive for about 3 months between diagnosis and passing away.
I took the Oscars very seriously as a child.
Every actor-performer says this, and it sounds so irritating, but I'm not the most outgoing person.
I would not have a career without Facebook and Twitter. That's the truth.
It's been a very strange trajectory because I struggled for so many years. I mean, I was doing these videos, I was doing these live shows, I had a lot of fans in New York, the press would write about me, but I couldn't get a paying job, and so my father and I were really like a team.
For some reasons, I have WWE wrestlers tweeting me all the time. Like, my biggest fans. Why they can connect with my love for Meryl Streep, I don't know.
Facebook is weird. They have all of these seemingly random rules that I'm sure make sense to them, but don't make sense to me or any people.
If you're faking it, people will know, and it's going to turn a lot of people off.
I grew up worshipping Pee-wee Herman.
People come up to me all the time and say, 'I just found out about you!' Part of me is happy, and part of me is, like, Where the hell have you been?'
Entertainment, Hollywood, award shows - these are the things that really captivated me.
All I wanted to do as a kid was go to the post-Oscar parties I was seeing on 'Entertainment Tonight.'
I'm not a bro.
I would watch the Oscars and every award show with my parents. I would make lists of who was going to win. I'd be doing Oscar predictions months ahead of time, and not only for the Oscars, for the Grammys. This is just what excited me as a kid.
People going off on politics on Grindr is one of the stupidest things I've ever seen. That's an immediate sign to run in the other direction. — © Billy Eichner
People going off on politics on Grindr is one of the stupidest things I've ever seen. That's an immediate sign to run in the other direction.
Even when I was struggling and had horrible day jobs and wanted to be successful but wasn't finding my way in, I knew what I had to do. I knew I had to keep working at it and keep putting material out there, even if no one was paying me for it.
I learned early on that 'Billy on the Street' is a great lesson in 'Don't judge a book by its cover.'
If you're on TV, you can't complain, right? And I understand that, and it's true to a certain degree.
I don't mean to sound like a Pollyanna, but for me, New York is the ideal because of the diversity here. 'Billy on the Street' is really informed by that.
I was obsessed with award shows and made charts and graphs and stuff when I was 7 years old. I found the entertainment business hilarious, ridiculous, and alluring - and my parents supported it, for better or worse.
I've never even been invited to the GLAAD awards, to sit in the audience. I don't necessarily care, and I'm sure they will one day, and it will be fine, but I've never been invited to anything like that.
No one was asking me to be on TV. So I made my own late-night TV talk show.
I always turn to Wendy Williams when there's any type of ethical or moral crisis in our country.
The streets of New York are diverse, but when you go into a Broadway show, unless Denzel Washington is in it, or Fantasia's in it, it's a lot of old white people and gay men.
I thought I was going to be like Kevin Spacey in college.
Our pop cultural likes and dislikes are still very segregated, and that is not true of 'Billy on the Street.'
I haven't done many commercials, and I'm very picky about it because it comes down to creative control.
People saw 'Moonlight' because it was excellent.
I was a terrible waiter. — © Billy Eichner
I was a terrible waiter.
There are certain people you're allowed to pick apart and certain people you're not.
Everyone's life experience is different.
One thing that I love about 'Difficult People' is that Julie Klausner and our showrunner, Scott King, have written the lead character I play as a fully formed man.
'Billy On The Street' has no doubt always been about the people we talk to. That being said, it thrills me that the show really has a dedicated following in the comedy world.
A lot of comics aren't their on-screen personas; Chris Rock isn't always ranting and raving. What I do is make myself this over-the-top character that people either find endearing or they think is a joke. Then I can do anything I want.
The 'Billy On The Street' persona is truly inspired by who I was as a child - obviously not having an adult perspective on the world.
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