Quote

When a comic becomes enamored with his own views and foists them off on the public in a polemic way, he loses not only his sense of humor but his value as a humorist.

Johnny Carson

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Johnny Carson
Age: 79 †
Born: 1925
Born: October 23
Died: 2005
Died: January 23
Actor
Host
Journalist
Magician
Military Officer
Screenwriter
Stage Actor
Television Presenter
Writer
Corning
Iowa
John William Carson
Carson
The Great Carsoni
Loses
Humorist
Public
Enamored
Humorists
Values
Comic
Sense
Value
Way
Humor
Becomes
Polemic
Views
Polemics

More quotes by Johnny Carson

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As long as I don't commit any crimes, you have no right to judge me except by my performance as a professional. On that level, you're welcome to think whatever you want about me.
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It's the lack of this kind of open and honest education about sex that causes so many kids to grow up with sexual hang-ups.
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Democracy is welcoming people from other lands, and giving them something to hold onto. Usually a mop or a leaf blower.
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What's all this fuss about plutonium? How can something named after a Disney character be dangerous?
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I get sick of that old rationalization, We're staying together because of the children. Kids couldn't be more miserable living with parents who can't stand each other. They're far better off if there's an honest, clean divorce.
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A two-pound turkey and a fifty-pound cranberry-that's Thanksgiving dinner at Three Mile Island.
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Happiness is your dentist telling you it won't hurt and then having him catch his hand in the drill.
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Anytime four New Yorkers get into a cab together without arguing, a bank robbery has just taken place.
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Democracy is buying a big house you can't afford with money you don't have to impress people you wish were dead.
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Happiness is sitting down to watch some slides of your neighbor's vacation and finding out that he spent two weeks in a nudist colony.
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For days after death hair and fingernails continue to grow, but phone calls taper off.
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I know a guy who gave up smoking cigarettes, consuming, sex, and wealthy meals.
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Democracy means free television, not good television, but free.
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I have an ego like anybody else, but I don't need to be stoked by going before the public all the time.
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Entertainment is like any other major industry it's cold, big business. The business end wants to know one thing: Can you do the job? If you can, you're in, you're made if you can't, you're out.
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I'm an entertainer, not a commentator. If you're a comedian your job is to make people laugh.
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I think it's almost immoral to keep on with a marriage that's really bad. It just gets more and more rotten and vindictive and everybody gets more and more hurt. There's not enough honesty about marriage, I think. I wish more people would face the truth about their marital situations.
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Happiness is a tiger in your tank and a pussycat in your back seat.
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Pie throwing is kind of a lost art, and although it may be a rather rudimentary, burlesque humor, there's something inherently funny about taking a pie in the face, under the right conditions.
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There are very few Japanese Jews. As a result, there is no Japanese word for Alan King.
Johnny Carson