Skip to main content

Daily Inspiration Quote by Werner Klemperer

"But when they offered this little situation for me to do this voice in this special segment, I found it so incredibly humorous that I said yes, and I enjoyed it. It was fun"

About this Quote

There is a quiet defiance in how modestly Klemperer frames the decision: not legacy, not craft, not even “art,” just a “little situation” that struck him as “incredibly humorous.” That understatement matters because his career was shadowed by one towering association: playing Colonel Klink on Hogan's Heroes, a Nazi buffoon in a sitcom that’s still argued over for turning historical horror into weekly farce. When an actor with that baggage says he agreed to “do this voice” for a “special segment,” he’s not merely describing a gig; he’s staking out terms.

The phrasing does a few things at once. First, it shrinks the production’s importance (“little situation”) while elevating the internal bar that cleared it: he said yes only because he genuinely laughed. That’s a subtle ethical filter. Klemperer, a German-born Jewish refugee, repeatedly insisted he wouldn’t dignify Nazis as competent or admirable. Comedy, for him, wasn’t escapism; it was a containment strategy. Let the tyrant be ridiculous. Let the “voice” become a tool of caricature, not homage.

The repetition - “I enjoyed it. It was fun” - is telling, too. It’s almost childlike, like he’s stripping away the solemnity audiences project onto him and reasserting actorly pleasure. Subtext: I’m allowed to take delight in the performance without endorsing the history it evokes. In an era when celebrities are expected to narrate their choices as moral manifestos, Klemperer’s breezy insistence on humor reads like a boundary line: the joke is the point, and the joke is also the shield.

Quote Details

TopicFunny
SourceHelp us find the source
Cite

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Klemperer, Werner. (2026, January 15). But when they offered this little situation for me to do this voice in this special segment, I found it so incredibly humorous that I said yes, and I enjoyed it. It was fun. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/but-when-they-offered-this-little-situation-for-160234/

Chicago Style
Klemperer, Werner. "But when they offered this little situation for me to do this voice in this special segment, I found it so incredibly humorous that I said yes, and I enjoyed it. It was fun." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/but-when-they-offered-this-little-situation-for-160234/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"But when they offered this little situation for me to do this voice in this special segment, I found it so incredibly humorous that I said yes, and I enjoyed it. It was fun." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/but-when-they-offered-this-little-situation-for-160234/. Accessed 10 Feb. 2026.

More Quotes by Werner Add to List
Werner Klemperer on revisiting Colonel Klink
Click to enlarge Portrait | Landscape

About the Author

Germany Flag

Werner Klemperer (March 22, 1920 - December 6, 2000) was a Actor from Germany.

5 more quotes available

View Profile

Similar Quotes