Adam McKay Quotes

I'm not against banking. Banking allowed our modern society to happen, it is essential. It connects the work through finance, so banking is good.

There's always way less improv than people think. The truth is something like 15 percent.

Nothing is funnier than confidently doing the wrong thing.

The way you really stop Al-Qaeda is by stopping their funding. It's not by carpet-bombing or land invasions or anything.

The easiest time to be funny is during a fairly serious situation. That way you can break the ice.

Anyone in the comedy world knows that Horatio Sanz and Chris Parnell are two of the funniest guys around.

The crush of lobbyists on Washington and purchase of the media by corporations has created a big business-run government and a worthless press leaving Americans screwed and ill-informed.

When you screen it the first couple times, you're just trying to get the movie to work, trying to get the story to flow, trying to find out where your areas are where you have enough breath to laugh a little bit. So you're doing that the first two or three screenings, and then finally, you dial the movie in and it's working, and at that point, it's 50/50 as far as what's funny and what's working. Sometimes you'll put something in and it will just die so hard that it'll almost kill the movie.

White-collar crime has been marketed - billions of dollars have been put in to have us be bored by it.

I'm just a giant film fan, so I love action movies out of all kinds of movies. As a film geek, it's amazing to be able to shoot this stuff.

David O. Russell is probably my favorite filmmaker. He's not only a great director, but he's also a great writer.

Creative freedom is a huge carrot.

I gotta say - if I clicked on a movie interview, and the first part was all about Walt Whitman, I'd love that article.

All you can really do as director is sort of set a tone.

You could feel America starting to ease up a little bit on racism, against blacks in certain pockets, and then suddenly The Cosby Show bubbled up and it was the right time for it.

Hollywood has to appeal to the broadest audience, and when it comes to most social and economic issues, America is progressive. Because of that, the messages that are in Hollywood movies tend to be, for instance, pro-environment.

There are so many shoot-'em-up, action, jingoistic TV shows and movies that are made every year. I think the final line is that Hollywood is populist.

I don't want to speak for my movies; you could say my movies are just completely silly and dumb, but in the case of 'Idiocracy' and 'Borat,' without a doubt there is a really subversive and sophisticated assault on American culture. It's one thing to mess stuff up and break stuff, but [Borat] is really pointing out the ideology of America. It's one thing to break stuff and damage people's possessions, but when you start aiming at the ideology of America, that's dangerous comedy.

There are many aspects to directing that have a romantic place in people's minds.

Can anything good come of a backward way of thinking like judging someone based on skin color? No way.

The idea of 24-hour news, if you really step back, is pretty insane. Just even saying '24-hour news' almost has satire laced in it.

Animals talking are very rarely funny. But animals behaving as animals - always funny.

Celebrities and 'famous' people are just regular folks. I know, it's a shocking and potentially dangerous statement.

I think what's dangerous [about comedy] is that you're coming into the room announcing your intentions.

Dave Herman as Michael Bolton is one of my favorite performances ever.

I got the sense that Alabama is a place where people don't want handouts and don't much care for people talking out of the side of their mouth.

You have to be able to fail with the improv. You have to not care.

I don't think there's ever been a moment in history where that, as an artistic message, has played very well, because people in their hearts know that's terrible and a lie.

I grew up with a single mom who was a waitress. We were on food stamps. My mom then got Pell Grants, put herself through college to get a degree to get a better job. Because we were broke, I then had to go to a state school. I went to Temple University, and had to get loans. So I grew up in a world where I saw the government helping individuals pull themselves up, and saw it work very successfully.

I always give myself a little part in every movie.

Everyone is sort of in their own little area counting lines and no one talks when film's not rolling. There's constantly actors coming to me back behind the monitor screaming at me, "Why did my line count drop?" It's a nasty tense environment.

The only way that Hollywood ever skews toward liberal is because part of what we make out of Hollywood involves writers, actors, directors, musicians, set designers, and photographers. In general, people like that are going to be more progressive, more open minded, a little more altruistic.

Blanket cynicism toward government has always existed.

For my money, I don't think there's been a better comedy than 'Kung Fu Hustle' in a lot of years. That movie just knocked me over.

I've gotten like five laughs in movies, just off guy hugs.

In general, the final filter of Hollywood is for-profit. Nothing goes through unless it can make money.

The one thing for sure is, I don't ever want to waste a movie. I don't ever want to waste effort.

Every time a congressman or pundit says its 'class warfare' to increase taxes on the wealthy, it's a massive lie.

The easiest time to be funny is during a fairly serious situation. That way, you can break the ice. It's crazy, but even at funerals, people will get huge laughs.

Hollywood is for-profit, is what Hollywood is. All the studios are owned by big, megacorporations that are the furthest thing from liberal you can possibly imagine.

It so happens that America, according to all the polls that are out there, is pretty progressive. So you're not going to see messages that support Ayn Randian individualism at the cost of the whole, because most people don't agree with that.

In general foreign invested companies who come to America to start a company, to open a manufacturing business or whatnot, they actually provide much higher wages than American companies.

I could see how people get addicted to animation, and I understand why it's so great for comedy. You can do whatever you want and it just happens.

Most of what's tricky about comedy is the perception of it and the audience's expectation.

'Blazing Saddles' is one of the funniest movies ever made.

It's just funny that Americans have to contend with 2000 channels, and 60 different specific news sources, and the confusion that it creates, and the junk that we get to see is hilarious.

Obamacare is a private mandate that will drive billions to the insurance industry, much like the auto insurance mandate. Hardly socialism. In fact, it was a Republican plan to begin with.

There's nothing the people love more than a Federal Reserve joke.