Daily Inspiration Quote by Colin Mochrie

Colin Mochrie’s joke lands because it pretends to praise the solemn craft of “dramatic writing” while quietly slipping a banana peel under it. The first sentence reads like a respectable commencement speech: hard work, talent, discipline. Then he detonates the setup with “And that’s why I just make up crap,” a punch line that does two things at once: it deflates artistic sanctimony and elevates improvisation by posing as its irresponsible cousin.

The intent is classic Mochrie: defend a form that often gets treated as lesser by making it sound even less serious than it is. “Make up crap” is strategic self-deprecation. Improv is actually brutal in its own way, demanding hyper-attention, emotional agility, and collaboration under pressure. By calling it “crap,” he makes room for the audience to laugh without feeling like they’re being asked to admire something “high art.” It’s an invitation: you don’t have to revere this to enjoy it.

The subtext also jabs at prestige hierarchies in entertainment. Dramatic writing gets grants, reverent profiles, and awards-season vocabulary; improv gets billed as fun. Mochrie flips the hierarchy by implying he chose the low road out of laziness, knowing the crowd understands the opposite might be true. Context matters: as a Whose Line Is It Anyway? staple, he’s a master of producing coherent comedy from nothing on national television. The joke is a wink from someone whose “crap” routinely outperforms the disciplined stuff.