Adam McKay Quotes

Sequels are desperate.

Michael Lewis has the amazing ability to take complex formulas and concepts and turn them into page-turners.

Nothing heightens chaos more than a berserk wild animal right in the middle.

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

Depending on what state you live in, you may only have right-wing talk radio and FOX or CBN with MSNBC three hundred channels down the dial.

I can't exactly say why there's not much protest music to speak off. And I know there are acts out there still putting a message in their music.

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

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

It's time Hawaii answer doubters and produce documents proving that it is a state. What are they hiding? And why haven't we seen these documents?

Old man with an old phone. That's never not funny.

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

You need the audience to go on the ride with you. You can't just isolate them.

A lot of shorts spend too much time setting up the idea; sometimes they meander.

I would never call myself cultural elite, but you might be cultural elite.

I think that the job of art and culture is to jump on that time and realize that it's there and to push it just a little bit faster.

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

I want to see Brian Williams with no irony wearing a mustache.

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

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

I have no tax breaks or corporate interests to be supported by Barack Obama.

When you do comedy, you get impervious to good and bad reviews.

There's nothing more fun than making fun of what's sacred.

I love Paul Rudd.

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.

I'm a huge hip hop fan going way back, like, back to '83. I had my Gemini mixer listening to Run-DMC and Kurtis Blow.

We get so much information during the day that doesn't really tell us anything.

If you do a Western that's funny, there's no way people don't call it a spoof or a parody, even though it may not be.

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

After thousands of hours of news coverage, we have learned that Hillary is a liar and Barack is a terrorist or something.

Having two kids, I don't get out to see stand up much anymore.

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

I'm sure when they partied when Rome was burning, that was a really great party.

The hardest thing in the world to do is to have someone in a seat in a theater laughing so hard that they're making weird sounds.

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

I was a huge fan of comedy in high school.

I think I'm better than Mamet, I would say.

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.

As for movies, what's great about comedy is that if your movie gets laughs and makes money, you have freedom.

Other than Green Day, we haven't had a lot of protest music over the past few decades.

I think when a lot of actors hear improv, they think of throwing a line in or doing a slightly different take.

We're always looking for the backbone, the central idea, and once you have that you know everything can circle around it.

Governor Palin leans far closer to 'spokesperson' than representative of the people.

Tom Brokaw was never young.

The 'Police Academy' stuff was all hyper-slapsticky.

Ultimately, the only people who are in any way edified by hanging with famous people are you at the age of 11 and your mom.

Any time Chris Nolan wants to call me for advice, he can.

Arnold Schwarzenegger cut teacher's salaries and parks and libraries rather than raise taxes for the many California millionaires and billionaires.

All we have is our vote. But it's powerful.

A dry stretch of commentary in the middle of an 'Anchorman' movie would have been a terrible thing.

My theme song is 'One Tin Soldier' by Coven.

I was born in Colorado and grew up in Pennsylvania with family in Texas and Oklahoma.

Matt Braunger really makes me laugh; I like that guy a lot.

Having a guy on a microphone yelling lines at you is counter to a lot of acting techniques.

With the derivatives market larger than ever, we need way more regulation of Wall Street, not less.

There's nothing more American than movies.

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 always give myself a little part in every movie.

Pete Wilson deregulated energy as a pay out to Enron, and we blamed Gray Davis.

There's nothing more fun to me than new characters and a new world.

If you make action movies, the critics will savage you, and then your movies are outdated the following week with the new wave of special effects.

I think everyone knows the news has become ridiculous. It's entertainment driven.

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

It should be a law for one whole year that all laugh tracks are Seth Rogen. The world would get ever so slightly better.

There's nothing more fun than mean-spirited characters.

For a documentary it's so important to find the characters and to find people who will give you access to film

Blanket cynicism toward government has always existed.

You're not a slave to those test audiences.

Bush already gave obscene tax breaks to people like me and Warren Buffet, and we are saying it's not fair.

The living nightmare for a red state NASCAR driver would be a gay French driver.

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

Actually, 'Wayne's World 2' I kind of liked. I think 'Wayne's World 2' does have some creative things in it, some ideas in it.

First off, no one award-wise ever rewards comedy, which is ... whatever. I don't care about that.

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

McCain is the kid who was really cool in middle school but never got high school game and people are sick of him acting like he's still popular.

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.

Every time I wrote a sketch that was in my voice, Ferrell would just do it better.

I like to remind myself how hard acting is. I do parts in friends' stuff.

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

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.

Nothing is funnier than confidently doing the wrong thing.

My first joke was about a company called Five Star Parking that was all over Philadelphia: 'Who's reviewing parking lots?'

For 'Breaking Bad,' people were with Walter White for 99% of that show, even though that guy is a monster.

When the movie starts playing on TV and DVD, that's when you really see what the movie is.

Dick Cheney and Bush's rise to power were built on tons of money from corporations and a dulled press.

Things I used to get in trouble for writing at 'SNL,' suddenly other people like it.

You think of movies like 'Midnight Run' and '48 Hours', those are great movies, especially 'Midnight Run.'

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

I love action movies.

I love 'The Wire;' that's my favorite show, so I'll watch that.

I am actually talking about possibly adapting 'The Boys,' by Garth Ennis, which would not be a comedy, but an action movie with comedy elements to it.

I would never do 'Stardust Memories' because I don't particularly like that kind of movie - that would be why I wouldn't do that.

I do have to give it up for Sarah Palin on one account. She is brave.

'Firewall' seems both scary and protective at the same time. And how often does that happen within one word besides 'military' and 'government?'

Truth is like poetry.
And most people fucking hate poetry.

The thing is, I've gotten massages to Enya. I like Enya. If you ate fantastic steaks to Celine Dion, you'd like Celine Dion.

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.

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

Word of mouth and the Internet are the only press we have left.

If you aim for parody right off the bat and it misses, no offense to the filmmakers, but it is Meet the Spartans.

I hired Tina Fey for 'SNL,' which was certainly a good match. She took off right away there.