Humor & Life Quote by David Cross

A working comedian admitting he’s not chasing bigger laughs so much as cleaner ones is a quiet flex. David Cross isn’t talking about thrift; he’s talking about precision. “Articulate the joke more economically” frames comedy like editing a film or tightening a screw: the goal is less waste, fewer syllables between premise and impact, fewer escape routes for the audience to misunderstand what you meant to hit.

The intent is craft-forward and slightly defensive in the best way. Cross comes out of a strain of alt-comedy where ideas matter, where the joke isn’t just a punchline but an argument, a worldview, a moral irritation delivered with timing. Economy is how you keep that argument from turning into a lecture. It’s also how you preserve surprise. Every extra clause is a flashlight pointed at the trapdoor.

The subtext is impatience with indulgence: the comic who can’t stop explaining is really asking for permission to be funny. Cross is describing the opposite posture - trust the audience, trust the structure, cut the connective tissue. If you can make the same turn with fewer words, you’re not simplifying; you’re sharpening.

Context-wise, it’s a peek behind the curtain of stand-up as revision-heavy writing, not spontaneous riffing. The “try” matters too: even a veteran is still negotiating the constant tug-of-war between clarity and compression, between the clean line and the mess that sometimes gives a joke its sting.