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For me, most comedy scripts fail in the mechanical playing-out of the setup. They'll pay lip service to a moral lesson or a psychological progression.

Harold Ramis

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Harold Ramis
Age: 69 †
Born: 1944
Born: November 21
Died: 2014
Died: February 24
Actor
Comedian
Director
Film Actor
Film Director
Film Producer
Screenwriter
Television Actor
Writer
Chicago
Illinois
Harold Allen Ramis
Moral
Lips
Fail
Setup
Service
Setups
Lessons
Progression
Failing
Mechanical
Pay
Lesson
Playing
Psychological
Comedy
Scripts

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There's a personal story of my own that I will write at some point, and it's a film that I will happily make. It could very well be the next thing I do, unless someone shows me something great.
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At a certain point, you have to convince the actors that you've done the right thing. The way I work, if I can't convince them, I've got to move on. I can't coerce them or browbeat them.
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I'm sure that the liability for doing a tracheotomy would be tremendous. You make one mistake, and it's over. Most doctors won't even do it.
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I collect spores, molds, and fungus.
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Never hit anyone in anger, unless you're absolutely sure you can get away with it.
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Somebody once told me that if you laugh at a George Bush joke, or you send an email cartoon to your friends that makes Bush look like a fool, you feel like you've done something significant. But really, what have you actually done? Just expressing contempt for your leaders doesn't really accomplish anything.
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I'd rather do comedies that strike at some bigger ideas.
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When I've written for Bill Murray - I've written six films for him - people would read it and say, Oh, that's so perfectly Bill. He'd read it and say, Are you kidding? I can't say these words. So it's all about perception.
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I have tons of rescuing fantasies based on the movies I saw when I was growing up. I wanted to be Robin Hood and the Three Musketeers and the Scarlet Pimpernel.
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The cutting room is where you discover the optimal length of the movie.
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Find the most talented person in the room and if it's not you, go stand next to him. Hang out with him. try to be helpful.
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Most people live somewhere on the spectrum of anxiety and depression.
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No one will laugh at how great things are for somebody.
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I'm not a believer in the pratfall. I don't think it's funny just to have someone fall down.
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Films are big hits when they touch a lot of people. Things are not funny in a vacuum, they're funny because we respond to some personal dislocation, some embarrassment, some humiliation, some pain we've suffered, or some desire we have.
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Nothing reinforces a professional relationship more than enjoying success with someone.
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You don't have to know much, just a little bit more than everybody else.
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Life has all of these contradictory feelings and contradictory results. People spend their whole lives struggling to get what they think they want, and even if they get it, they find that it's either not what they wanted, or it comes with so many unwanted consequences. We're always shut off from pure joy.
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If Chevy Chase had not been an actor, he might have been a very popular guy in advertising or whatever field he would have gone into, because of his charisma.
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Where's the great pay? Where's the travel? Where's the Winnebago, Goddamnit!
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