Bob Newhart

Comedian

1929-09-05 – 2024-07-18

American comedian and actor known for his deadpan style. He starred in The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart. He was one of the most recognizable figures in American television comedy.

Quotes by Bob Newhart

There was a sea of change in comedy in the late 1950s and '60s. We were dealing with vignettes as opposed to jokes. We were more socially aware.
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I don't know how doctors pick one specialty over another. Some you can understand. Pediatricians. Or gynecologists delivering babies, bringing a new life into the world, but how does someone want to be a proctologist? How can you fall in love with proctology?
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I don't have a stack of scripts that, when I get home, studios are clamoring, saying, 'Has Bob read ours yet?'
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I don't have a stack of scripts.
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I've been told to speed up my delivery when I perform. But if I lose the stammer, I'm just another slightly amusing accountant.
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I remember seeing a movie with Jose Ferrer and Rosemary Clooney where they were husband and wife, and they got in bed, and he had on polka-dot pajamas and she had on striped pajamas, and when they got up the next morning he had on the striped pajamas and she had the polka dot pajamas, and that was considered racy at that time!
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People with a sense of humor tend to be less egocentric and more realistic in their view of the world and more humble in moments of success and less defeated in times of travail.
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The only way to survive is to have a sense of humour.
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Stammering is different than stuttering. Stutterers have trouble with the letters, while stammerers trip over entire parts of a sentence. We stammerers generally think of ourselves as very bright.
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Mark Twain gave us an insight into the life on the Mississippi at the turn of the century.
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'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' was the best television, the best cast, the best-written television show ever.
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The schizophrenic has no sense of humor. His world is a constantly daunting, unfriendly place.
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I really don't know what makes a comedian. I think it's a family background and environment. Yet if you put the same ingredients in another person, he may never utter a funny line.
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Comedians are never really on vacation because you're always at attention... that antenna is always out there.
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I always stayed away from political commentary. First of all, I didn't feel entitled. What I may feel about a candidate, I'm a comedian. I mean, if people like my comedy, that doesn't mean they should vote for the person I like. That's why I always kind of stayed away from endorsements.
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I have to warn you, I'm not just some sitcom guy. I'm now an author.
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Don't live in the past. There's no point. You can't change anything. What a waste of time.
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For some reason, comedians are still children. The social skills somehow never reach us, so we say exactly what we think without weighing the results.
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I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down'.
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When I first started out, 'Time' magazine did an article on what it called 'the sick comics,' and they were myself, Shelley Berman, Nichols & May, Jonathan Winters, Lenny Bruce, and Mort Sahl. We were considered 'sick.'
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