Top 102 Quotes & Sayings by David Baddiel
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an English comedian David Baddiel.
Last updated on November 10, 2024.
The majority of Jews are secular... the Nazis never checked if anyone was going to the synagogue or eating kosher.
Frank Skinner was a terrible flatmate in some respects. He never cooked and the cleaning lady refused to go into his room. But he was brilliant because he was very, very funny. You could just sit around at home and have a laugh without having to rely on any social arrangements.
I've always been an insomniac, and as I've got older that's got harder.
If you go on stage, or on TV, then there is an impetus that comes about to be a persona. A completely different character. But when you're someone like me, you don't want to have a persona. I want to be exactly who I am on stage.
The first proper car I had was an old Nissan Micra.
My dad has dementia, so I monitor my own memory in a way that other people may not. As an atheist, I don't believe in an afterlife so I feel I need to fit in as much as I can while I'm here.
Without wishing to sound pretentious, my basic standard of happiness is to do with being who I am.
Why is it kind of acceptable to say that the Germans are better at penalties, but not that blacks are better at boxing? Is it simply that you're allowed to stereotype a group perceived as oppressive, but not one perceived as oppressed - which is why it's fine for women columnists constantly to rail against men, but never the other way round?
It was definitely a challenging upbringing. My parents were by no means perfect.
Dad was hyper-furious about money all the time and we didn't mix with high-flying or media families.
Because I've been around for quite a long time and done a lot of different stuff, there's a shifting idea of who I am.
Neurosis, an obsession with stupidly named food, bookishness - these are all OK to class as attributes that come hand in hand with a name that ends in 'berg'; the only possible exception being the money thing, although clearly we are better at accountancy.
It gives me cancer to have an idea but not do it. Whether I get into trouble for it is not as important as the need to chase the idea.
I've adapted my own work a couple of times, and I've also given my novels to other people to adapt, and I do find that quite difficult.
I am a comedian. I do feel I have to put my experience on a public stage. As an artist, that's what I do. Even though that sounds poncey.
I've seen episodes of 'Friends' which are as funny as any sitcom I've ever seen.
Baddiel is a slightly quizzical name - it comes from Latvia but people thought it sounded vaguely Hindustani or something. I thought it might be a good idea to write a body swap movie, like 'Trading Places' or 'Freaky Friday,' about somebody who believes they are one thing but suddenly become another.
We were much poorer than many families.
There are no gatekeepers in children's literature. There are children who like what you write because it's funny.
Mum died on a Saturday - apparently that's quite common. Dad already had dementia, and my brother and I had to let him know the news. Forty-five minutes later we had to tell him again. We spent the whole of that Sunday reminding him over and over.
I feel uncomfortable if I'm not my self in any situation.
Everyone should try a taxi, as it is part of the New York experience.
Unfortunately, we no longer live in a culture where what is spoken about and what truths are told and what lies are told are objective any more, so my personal feeling is that you have to try to take them on.
I think 'Friends' is brilliant and it was massively underrated in this country for a very British reason, which is the assumption that because the cast is beautiful, it must be vacuous. Whereas in fact, it's brilliantly, brilliantly written.
Our culture is being shaped by trolls and the Holocaust deniers are a very extreme example of the trolls. Ignoring them has not worked. It doesn't mean that confronting them will work completely but I think it's a debate we have to have.
To disarm a troll, you don't try and destroy them straight away, you take onboard what they're saying and then destroy them.
I'm not saying Jews should only play Jews... I personally think actors should be allowed to act.
I am not a very good actor.
Now 'South Park' - they are interested in blasphemy. They're interested in creating offence for its own sake.
My contention is even people who are living without social media are not just aware of it, they are affected by it.
I remember watching an episode of 'Seinfeld' in which George can't understand why security guards can't sit down. He gets obsessed with it and eventually buys a chair for a security guard who sits down and goes to sleep. The shop gets robbed. That's a brilliant extrapolation of what is essentially observational comedy.
An academic is what I would have been if I hadn't been successful as a comedian. I've never had a proper job.
I went to a Jewish primary school and all my parents' friends were Jewish.
I wasn't thinking about becoming a children's writer. I just have an idea and if it sounds like a kids' book I'll write a kids' book. If it's a film or a play, I'll write that.
All of my children's books are attempts to tap into what I believe to be children's, and to some extent human beings', fantasies.
I am an intellectual.
I admire identity politics for raising the fact that there are terrible and constant microaggressions against all minorities.
I can't bear the idea that I might be in any way deluded about myself.
I cook roasts and pasta and curries and all sorts of things - generally things that aren't one composite thing, like a cake is.
Everyone is complicated, but when you're famous, you have to be pigeon-holed. By doing different stuff, that's rubbed up in complicated ways against the culture.
Most people who know me well say I am almost autistically myself. I like to never change.
If you can get tickets, a show on Broadway is worth the effort and expense.
I am a nice boy.
I see social media mainly just talked about as if it has just changed us technologically and in terms of data. I think it has changed absolutely everything. It has changed truth, it has changed culture. It has certainly changed the way that we relate to each other and in a very short amount of time.
I always think of Ireland as a place for complex ideas and prose. I like Irishness. I like Irish culture and Irish literature.
If you're going to talk about the devil, at some point you've got to meet the devil.
When I first started, stand-up comedians writing novels was thought of as a great encroachment on the art form and people got very angsty. But comedians are storytellers so it's really a hop, skip and a jump.
I had probably never met a non-Jew until the age of 12.
I might be the most unpractical person in the world.
Furious protesters don't come after you for jokes at the expense of people; they come after you for jokes at the expense of their gods.
Virtually any practical task becomes chaos within seconds of me getting near it.
When I first started on telly, I used to get quite a lot of fan mail from Indians saying it's great that an Indian is on!
I can't really do characters. I don't do voices.
He's a very sweary sort of bad tempered curmudgeon of a man. That's the joy of my dad, that he's not a conventional nice grandpa, or indeed a conventional nice dad.
Basically, out of the sphere of what I do - being a comedian/writer, and out of the sphere of football, I am incredibly uncompetitive.
Comedy is a difficult thing for a critic, as, unlike all other art-forms, it has an inbuilt success-o-meter: laughter. Therefore, there's no real need for critics.
I don't want to be one of those old people getting up at 5 A.M. to potter.
I hate predicting football scores that mean a lot to me, because even though I'm an absolute materialist and don't believe in anything superstitious, I get superstitious.
I thought I was great at football. For a long time I thought I could have been a professional if I'd wanted to.
My theory as to why I first became a comedian is that my mother was always keenest on my younger brother, Dan. It doesn't bother me now, but it did then and the way I compensated for that was to publicise myself as myself - to tell people who I was in 100 per cent detail, going into every crevice of my life.
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