"I think when you dissect a joke too much, you have ruined whatever there is in comedy"
About this Quote
The intent isn’t anti-intellectual so much as anti-sterile. Saget spent a career navigating split-screen personas: the wholesome TV dad on Full House and America’s Funniest Home Videos, and a stand-up act that could be gleefully filthy, confrontational, even shocking. That gap taught him how much comedy depends on context and trust. If an audience doesn’t know which Saget is speaking, the joke changes shape. Over-analysis can be a way of withdrawing that trust, turning laughter into a moral hearing or a logic puzzle.
The subtext is also defensive in a familiar, modern way. In an era where jokes get screenshot, litigated, and decontextualized, “dissection” can mean the endless postmortem that treats humor as evidence. Saget isn’t claiming jokes are beyond critique; he’s arguing that the experience of comedy has its own physics. Once you force it to justify itself like a policy memo, you’ve already missed the point - and likely the laugh.
Quote Details
| Topic | Funny |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Saget, Bob. (2026, January 16). I think when you dissect a joke too much, you have ruined whatever there is in comedy. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-think-when-you-dissect-a-joke-too-much-you-have-139513/
Chicago Style
Saget, Bob. "I think when you dissect a joke too much, you have ruined whatever there is in comedy." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-think-when-you-dissect-a-joke-too-much-you-have-139513/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I think when you dissect a joke too much, you have ruined whatever there is in comedy." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-think-when-you-dissect-a-joke-too-much-you-have-139513/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.






