"Comedians walk out, get a feel for the crowd. If it's not going good, we change directions. If we got to drag your momma into this thing, we will. Whatever we got to do"
About this Quote
The pivot line - “If it’s not going good, we change directions” - is the industry’s quiet truth: “authenticity” is nice, but landing the plane matters. Harvey’s kicker, “If we got to drag your momma into this thing, we will,” is both a joke and a boundary-test. “Your momma” is shorthand for the most universally legible pressure point: family, pride, the soft underbelly of respectability. It signals a willingness to escalate, to go personal, to use the oldest crowd-pleasing weapon in the book. The humor is in the mock-brutal pragmatism: the comic as a charming hostage negotiator who will start taking emotional collateral if the room won’t cooperate.
Context matters: Harvey comes out of Black comedy circuits where “working the room” isn’t optional, it’s survival. The subtext is professionalism disguised as swagger. “Whatever we got to do” isn’t cruelty for its own sake; it’s the ethos of a performer paid to control chaos, keep the energy up, and turn a failing set into a shared event - even if that means playfully threatening the sacred.
Quote Details
| Topic | Funny |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Harvey, Steve. (2026, January 16). Comedians walk out, get a feel for the crowd. If it's not going good, we change directions. If we got to drag your momma into this thing, we will. Whatever we got to do. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/comedians-walk-out-get-a-feel-for-the-crowd-if-88288/
Chicago Style
Harvey, Steve. "Comedians walk out, get a feel for the crowd. If it's not going good, we change directions. If we got to drag your momma into this thing, we will. Whatever we got to do." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/comedians-walk-out-get-a-feel-for-the-crowd-if-88288/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Comedians walk out, get a feel for the crowd. If it's not going good, we change directions. If we got to drag your momma into this thing, we will. Whatever we got to do." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/comedians-walk-out-get-a-feel-for-the-crowd-if-88288/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.




