A Quote by Keegan-Michael Key

Surprise is not humor. I think that there can be a fine line there.

Keegan-Michael Key

Quote Topics

Humor Fine Fine Line Line Surprise Think

Quote Author

Keegan-Michael Key
American - Actor
Born: March 22, 1971

Think about scary movies: There's a fine line between horror and humor.

Roy Blount, Jr.

I think of shock as kind of an uptown form of surprise. Comedy is filled with surprise, so when I cross a line... I like to find out where the line might be and then cross it deliberately, and then make the audience happy about crossing the line with me.

George Carlin

Humor is based on surprise, and surprise is a milder way of saying shock. It's surprise that makes the joke.

George Carlin

I think it's part of the responsibility of an artist to shock, to upset, to make people think differently, and to surprise people. And that's where the good humor is, if there's a surprise and there's something unexpected. Something that's not normal, not in the realm of general living expectations.

Bill Plympton

Humor has to surprise us; otherwise, it isn't funny. It's a death knell for a writer to be labeled a humorist because then it's not a surprise anymore.

Garrison Keillor

Theres a very fine line between not listening and not caring. I like to think I walk that line everyday of my life.

Burnie Burns

I've never had a surprise birthday party. I've had every other type of surprise. I've had surprise beatings, surprise drug tests, surprise daughter I think.

Dave Attell

Well, I think baseball should be fun, but there's always a line. There's a fine line with everything. Where's the line between making it fun and making it disrespectful.

Buster Posey

There's a very fine line between a groove and a rut; a fine line between eccentrics and people who are just plain nuts.

Christine Lavin

There's a very fine line between a groove and a rut a fine line between eccentrics and people who are just plain nuts.

Christine Lavin

Humor's always been the problem of my work, hasn't it? When working, I feel satisfied when I surprise myself. And when I surprise myself, I wind up laughing.

Kara Walker

The line between failure and success is so fine that we scarcely know when we pass it: so fine that we are often on the line and do not know it.

Elbert Hubbard

It does, Tennyson, because there’s a fine line between confidence and arrogance. There’s a fine line between being assertive and being a bully. And you’re on the wrong side of both lines.

Neal Shusterman

I think the essence of humor has not changed. It's all about surprise, facilitating follows. But the context of humor has changed. Previously, the jokes were more related to current issues, political. Today people make about each other either funny or about people like Kim Kardashian. It's brutal. Everything is so much vielschmutziger.

Bette Midler

When you think about it, there is really a fine line between being a proctologist and just being a perverted ass-freak. And according to the judge who sentenced me, that line is called a 'medical degree'.