"There's nothing more difficult to do than comedy"
About this Quote
Comedy is the art that looks like it’s getting away with something. Robert Evans’ line cuts against the common industry tell that comedy is “light,” a palate cleanser between prestige dramas. Coming from a producer-director figure who lived inside the Hollywood machine, it reads less like a humblebrag for funny people and more like a warning: comedy is where your control slips, because the audience becomes the editor.
The intent is defensive and respectful at once. Defining comedy as “more difficult” elevates it above the studio-era assumption that jokes are cheap and dramatic suffering is automatically serious. Evans is also talking craft. Drama can lean on music, atmosphere, and the viewer’s empathy to smooth over a shaky beat. Comedy is mercilessly binary: the laugh lands or it doesn’t, and timing exposes every seam - in performance, in cutting, in writing, in how long you hold a reaction shot before it curdles.
The subtext is about risk. Comedy courts embarrassment in a way drama rarely does. When it fails, it fails publicly, instantly, and often cruelly; it makes everyone involved look like they’re trying too hard. That makes it harder for directors and producers whose careers depend on seeming in control.
Contextually, Evans is nodding to a perennial Hollywood paradox: comedies are treated as disposable yet are among the most technically and socially fragile films to make, because they’re built on cultural codes that expire. The line is also an argument for comedy as high-wire work, not dessert.
The intent is defensive and respectful at once. Defining comedy as “more difficult” elevates it above the studio-era assumption that jokes are cheap and dramatic suffering is automatically serious. Evans is also talking craft. Drama can lean on music, atmosphere, and the viewer’s empathy to smooth over a shaky beat. Comedy is mercilessly binary: the laugh lands or it doesn’t, and timing exposes every seam - in performance, in cutting, in writing, in how long you hold a reaction shot before it curdles.
The subtext is about risk. Comedy courts embarrassment in a way drama rarely does. When it fails, it fails publicly, instantly, and often cruelly; it makes everyone involved look like they’re trying too hard. That makes it harder for directors and producers whose careers depend on seeming in control.
Contextually, Evans is nodding to a perennial Hollywood paradox: comedies are treated as disposable yet are among the most technically and socially fragile films to make, because they’re built on cultural codes that expire. The line is also an argument for comedy as high-wire work, not dessert.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
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