"I've an idea for doing a Situation Comedy myself but its always difficult to get people to listen to you because they like to put their own ideas forward"
About this Quote
Norman Wisdom speaks with wry resignation about the hardest part of making people laugh: getting a roomful of decision-makers to listen. He imagines a situation comedy of his own, yet finds the machinery of television stacked with people who want their fingerprints on everything. For a performer whose fame was built on an unmistakable persona, the move from star to originator forces a confrontation with the hierarchies that shape what gets made.
The line also captures the politics of the writers room before the term became ubiquitous. Comedy is collaborative, but collaboration can blur into a tug-of-war over authorship. Wisdom thrived in the 1950s film system, where studios built vehicles around his hapless everyman and where physical comedy translated easily into box-office success. As British tastes shifted toward sharper, more writer-led sitcoms in the 1960s and 70s, power migrated to producers and committees. Even a beloved figure could be nudged aside when executives chased fashionable tones or writers guarded their creative territory.
There is a neat symmetry between his on-screen character and this off-screen frustration. Wisdom often played the plucky underdog, forever talking past managers and authority figures who would not take him seriously. Here the same dynamic reappears at the conference table: a lone voice competing with louder egos and entrenched preferences. The comedy of exasperation becomes a professional reality.
Rather than sourness, the observation carries a practical lesson about how culture is made. Ideas rarely travel unaltered from the performers who spark them to the audiences who might enjoy them; they pass through layers of taste, insecurity, and ambition. Talent and reputation open doors, but persuasion, stamina, and a willingness to navigate other people’s agendas are what keep them open. Wisdom’s enduring appeal lay in his resilient persistence, and that persistence is exactly what the business of sitcoms demands.
The line also captures the politics of the writers room before the term became ubiquitous. Comedy is collaborative, but collaboration can blur into a tug-of-war over authorship. Wisdom thrived in the 1950s film system, where studios built vehicles around his hapless everyman and where physical comedy translated easily into box-office success. As British tastes shifted toward sharper, more writer-led sitcoms in the 1960s and 70s, power migrated to producers and committees. Even a beloved figure could be nudged aside when executives chased fashionable tones or writers guarded their creative territory.
There is a neat symmetry between his on-screen character and this off-screen frustration. Wisdom often played the plucky underdog, forever talking past managers and authority figures who would not take him seriously. Here the same dynamic reappears at the conference table: a lone voice competing with louder egos and entrenched preferences. The comedy of exasperation becomes a professional reality.
Rather than sourness, the observation carries a practical lesson about how culture is made. Ideas rarely travel unaltered from the performers who spark them to the audiences who might enjoy them; they pass through layers of taste, insecurity, and ambition. Talent and reputation open doors, but persuasion, stamina, and a willingness to navigate other people’s agendas are what keep them open. Wisdom’s enduring appeal lay in his resilient persistence, and that persistence is exactly what the business of sitcoms demands.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
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