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About this quote

What does it mean?
Comedy has very few hard rules, limited mostly to basic taste and legal boundaries.
In plain terms
In comedy, the only rules are being tasteful and not breaking the law.
What can you take from it?
Comedy is mostly unrestricted except for taste and law.

Where it applies

  • writing comedy
  • criticism
  • legal review

Putting it to work

  • respect legal limits
  • trust taste

Questions to consider

  • Should comedy have more rules?
  • What is taste in humor?

Another view

Some forms of comedy require strict structural rules to work.

More from James Thurber

  1. Man has gone long enough, or even too long, without being man enough to face the simple truth that the trouble with Man is Man.

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  2. Discussion in America means dissent.

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  3. Now I am not a cat man, but a dog man, and all felines can tell this at a glance - a sharp, vindictive glance.

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