Humor & Life Quote by Ben Elton

A comedian admitting he “tries hard not to preach” is already half a joke: it frames moral certainty as a bad habit, like checking your phone at dinner. Ben Elton’s line works because it performs the very balancing act it describes. He acknowledges the audience’s allergy to being lectured, then confesses he can’t always resist - not out of holiness, but momentum. “I get carried away” is a disarming phrase; it suggests the sermon isn’t planned so much as it’s what happens when the bit hits a nerve and adrenaline takes the wheel.

The subtext is an argument about the social contract of comedy. Stand-up and satire are supposed to be entertainment first, but Elton comes from a tradition (alternative comedy in 1980s Britain) where jokes were also weapons: anti-racist, anti-Thatcher, anti-complacency. In that context, “preaching” isn’t just scolding; it’s taking a side when neutrality is the default pose. He calls it “a mistake” to signal humility and to protect the crowd’s sense of autonomy. Nobody wants to feel trapped in a TED Talk they didn’t consent to.

Then he pivots: “a risk worth running.” That’s the real thesis. Preaching may cost laughs, likability, even bookings, but the upside is urgency - comedy that doesn’t just dissipate but leaves a bruise. Elton is saying: I know the line between wit and sermonizing; I cross it anyway, because some subjects demand more than cleverness. The sentence is an ethics statement disguised as self-deprecation, which is exactly how a seasoned comedian sneaks conviction past our defenses.