Inspirations
- Thread starter Holmes
- Start date
My main inspiration for doing comedy is growing up being a lazy stoner loser and watching nothing but comedy central and other comedy related things (Also, conspiracy theory videos www.zeitgeistmovie.com). I loved watching Steve Martin, Bill Murray, Bill Hicks, George Carlin, Jim Carrey, David Cross, Richard Pryor and the UCB. Lately, I've been watching some Andy Kaufman clips but that's about it. I try to stay away from watching comedy now besides live shows and the daily show/colbert. OH, I shouldn't forget my parents, they're the ones who screwed me up from the start.
Tracey Ullman, The Simpsons, The Muppet Show, Cosby records
SNL
SNL re-runs from the original cast
Are You Being Served?
stand-ups from the early 90s like Rosie O'Donnell, Ellen DeGeneres, Jeff Dunham
MAD Magazine and to a lesser extent Cracked Magazine
shows like All in the Family and MASH
In Living Color, Laugh-In, Carol Burnett
John Hughes movies
MadTV, Kids in the Hall, The State
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Monty Python
Skits-o-phrenics, Elephant Larry
The Reckoning, Mother, WeirDass, Baby Wants Candy, I Eat Pandas, Dr. Fantastic, Scheer/McBrayer
South Park, Coupling
Family Guy, Wonder Showzen, Stella, Lonely Island, Derrick, BriTaNick
old comedy like Burns and Allen and Jack Benny (I should investigate that more)
Little Britain, Catherine Tate, Flight of the Conchords, French & Saunders, Big Train, The Young Ones, Mitchell & Webb, Armstrong & Miller
SNL
SNL re-runs from the original cast
Are You Being Served?
stand-ups from the early 90s like Rosie O'Donnell, Ellen DeGeneres, Jeff Dunham
MAD Magazine and to a lesser extent Cracked Magazine
shows like All in the Family and MASH
In Living Color, Laugh-In, Carol Burnett
John Hughes movies
MadTV, Kids in the Hall, The State
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Monty Python
Skits-o-phrenics, Elephant Larry
The Reckoning, Mother, WeirDass, Baby Wants Candy, I Eat Pandas, Dr. Fantastic, Scheer/McBrayer
South Park, Coupling
Family Guy, Wonder Showzen, Stella, Lonely Island, Derrick, BriTaNick
old comedy like Burns and Allen and Jack Benny (I should investigate that more)
Little Britain, Catherine Tate, Flight of the Conchords, French & Saunders, Big Train, The Young Ones, Mitchell & Webb, Armstrong & Miller
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Well proably
Comedy shows such as
In living Color-->Jim Carrey Especially
Saturday Night Live
Mad TV
Even that comedy sketch that was on nicolodeon "All That"
I havent really gave it alot of thought but im guessing these shows made me want to pursue this career.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4ez7EaQcrQ
Comedy shows such as
In living Color-->Jim Carrey Especially
Saturday Night Live
Mad TV
Even that comedy sketch that was on nicolodeon "All That"
I havent really gave it alot of thought but im guessing these shows made me want to pursue this career.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4ez7EaQcrQ
SNL. I remember watching when I was younger and Ferrell and Kattan doing their Roxbury sketch and thinking it was the funniest thing I'd ever seen.
My friends.
I was introduced to Stella in college. Huge inspiration. All those videos gave the feel that they were all just friends who said "let's make a video" and it was shot in an hour. I love that.
Kids in the Hall.
Rare Bird Show. First time seeing improv in Philly, and realizing "holy shit, you can do that here?" Then, every other show.
Any time I have a really good character I feel like I'm just ripping off Scott Sheppard.
My friends.
I was introduced to Stella in college. Huge inspiration. All those videos gave the feel that they were all just friends who said "let's make a video" and it was shot in an hour. I love that.
Kids in the Hall.
Rare Bird Show. First time seeing improv in Philly, and realizing "holy shit, you can do that here?" Then, every other show.
Any time I have a really good character I feel like I'm just ripping off Scott Sheppard.
My parents’ first date was to see Steve Martin at The Pub in New Jersey in 1975 or ’76. The way they talk about that night made me want to do whatever it is he did. I knew an arrow on his head was involved. I remember the first times I saw Steve Martin, Candice Bergen and Julia Louis-Dreyfus on SNL. Clearly, Gilda. I thought they were gods. I remember reciting 20 minutes of Paula Poundstone to my mom almost verbatim when I was about 10. I also loved Ellen DeGeneres and George Carlin.
I think the things that first made me want to do comedy (and the things that could get credit for so much more, like most of my early friendships and surviving puberty) were Mel Brooks vehicles. Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, later History of the World: Part I. I can’t believe I missed that one when I was little. I really liked Laugh-In, Lily Tomlin, Goldie Hawn, The Carol Burnett Show, The Muppet Show.
When I was a junior in high school (1996-1997) we started a Comedy Sportz team with the help of Kelly Jennings. She was awesome. There was also a guy from my class, Craig Smith, who I’m still convinced may have been one of the funniest people to ever live. Everything he said cracked me up. I couldn’t believe he thought I was funny too. The first improv scene I ever did in front of an audience was a game of Arms Expert with him as my arms. The suggestion was “bandana expert,” so he took mine out of my hair and did a million crazy things with it. Some of them were things any short-former could have thought of, but some of them were truly brilliant, especially for a 16 year old doing his first show. My “History of the Struggle In Vietnam” teacher was literally falling out of her seat and crying she was laughing so hard. It’s a feeling I will never forget.
After college I thought the only way for me to ever do anything involved in any of these comedy worlds again was to get the discipline to write and submit things for the rest of my life. That wasn’t working out well. Polywumpus was not answering my emails either. (I guess they had already disbanded and I didn’t know.) Then Matt Holmes (with whom I went to college) got in touch and said I needed to meet BJ Ellis and Greg Maughan (and some other fools who have since disappeared) bc they weren’t doing anything at the moment either. I figured if Matt thought I could still do this, I would try it. History.
Now there are a million people and groups and shows (You all watch The Mighty Boosh, right?) that I love, but one thing that stands out is watching Alexis Simpson coach. You can actually see her mind working far faster and funnier than anyone else’s can. She can see what something really is, what it could be and what is missing between. And she doesn’t lie or pretend to understand the stuff that nobody understands about what is funny.
Also, Steve Cohen.
I think the things that first made me want to do comedy (and the things that could get credit for so much more, like most of my early friendships and surviving puberty) were Mel Brooks vehicles. Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, later History of the World: Part I. I can’t believe I missed that one when I was little. I really liked Laugh-In, Lily Tomlin, Goldie Hawn, The Carol Burnett Show, The Muppet Show.
When I was a junior in high school (1996-1997) we started a Comedy Sportz team with the help of Kelly Jennings. She was awesome. There was also a guy from my class, Craig Smith, who I’m still convinced may have been one of the funniest people to ever live. Everything he said cracked me up. I couldn’t believe he thought I was funny too. The first improv scene I ever did in front of an audience was a game of Arms Expert with him as my arms. The suggestion was “bandana expert,” so he took mine out of my hair and did a million crazy things with it. Some of them were things any short-former could have thought of, but some of them were truly brilliant, especially for a 16 year old doing his first show. My “History of the Struggle In Vietnam” teacher was literally falling out of her seat and crying she was laughing so hard. It’s a feeling I will never forget.
After college I thought the only way for me to ever do anything involved in any of these comedy worlds again was to get the discipline to write and submit things for the rest of my life. That wasn’t working out well. Polywumpus was not answering my emails either. (I guess they had already disbanded and I didn’t know.) Then Matt Holmes (with whom I went to college) got in touch and said I needed to meet BJ Ellis and Greg Maughan (and some other fools who have since disappeared) bc they weren’t doing anything at the moment either. I figured if Matt thought I could still do this, I would try it. History.
Now there are a million people and groups and shows (You all watch The Mighty Boosh, right?) that I love, but one thing that stands out is watching Alexis Simpson coach. You can actually see her mind working far faster and funnier than anyone else’s can. She can see what something really is, what it could be and what is missing between. And she doesn’t lie or pretend to understand the stuff that nobody understands about what is funny.
Also, Steve Cohen.
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My father.
Warner Brothers cartoons. Tom & Jerry. Practically any animated cat.
The Muppets, The Electric Company.
The only time I tried stand-up was at my elementary school talent show. I must have been in first grade. I was wearing my allosaurus costume and I delivered a series of old jokes I'd cribbed from Bennett Cerf's Book Of Laughs, replacing every mention of a farmyard animal with an analogous dinosaur. "Doc, my husband thinks he's an archaeopteryx . . . but we need the eggs!" etc. No one knew what the hell I was talking about but maybe I was cute.
M*A*S*H, Soap, Police Squad.
Not so much SNL as its imitators: Fridays; the premiere of The New Show with Steve Martin where they parodied 1984. Ok, I'll grant SNL Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo but after that I mostly watched for Billy Crystal.
My parents were taking me to the Cleveland Play House and the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival a lot in those days, so there's some A.R. Gurney in there, some weird production of The Canturbury Tales where the Wife Of Bath rode a motorcycle, even some Shakespeare in there. Also, the Play House's production of Tomfoolery was my introduction to Tom Lehrer.
Dr. Demento.
Douglas Adams. The Radio Scripts especially.
Dave Barry. Woody Allen's Without Feathers.
Airplane, Top Secret, a bunch of late seventies comedies my father and I wore out our VHS copies of: Slap Shot, Animal House, Foul Play.
A Fish Called Wanda. Not so much the Monty Python stuff everyone quotes but the Oscar Wilde sketch.
Samuel Beckett, Albert Camus, anyone who was laughing (in French) about how screwed over the world was between 1945 and 1960.
Dave Barry.
My college improv troupe, 6 Milks, for which I never auditioned, afraid that I wouldn't get in.
My college newspaper column, the best and funniest writing I'll ever do.
Uh, NewsRadio, Seinfeld, the "Monorail" episode of The Simpsons. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Homicide, two dramas that were funnier than most of the comedies of the late '90s.
Torque, which at the time I started playing was Cleveland's only performing long-form troupe. Especially Mark McKenzie and Josh Logan. I Eat Pandas at the Oberlin Improv Festival. Shaun Landry at Oberlin. Bunches of improv books. YesAnd when I could read it in a linear fashion. I Eat Pandas at the UCB. Baby Wants Candy, Adsit & Gausas, Improvised Shakespeare, Code Duello. Glennis MacMurray, Thomas Middleditch, Topher Bellavia, the Billy guy from BillyHawk. Eliza's "Fuck Your 'I'm Sorry' " from the Pandas set at the last DCM. Chelsea Clarke's "I feel that this is something you're saying to Chelsea Clarke, the improviser" from Bombardo at this year's PHIF. Lots and lots of Jill Bernard.
(The guy who's older than me in Penthouse Riot. That septuagenarian in Everything Must Go. Anyone trying something new and strange while surrounded by a bunch of twenty-four year olds.)
Warner Brothers cartoons. Tom & Jerry. Practically any animated cat.
The Muppets, The Electric Company.
The only time I tried stand-up was at my elementary school talent show. I must have been in first grade. I was wearing my allosaurus costume and I delivered a series of old jokes I'd cribbed from Bennett Cerf's Book Of Laughs, replacing every mention of a farmyard animal with an analogous dinosaur. "Doc, my husband thinks he's an archaeopteryx . . . but we need the eggs!" etc. No one knew what the hell I was talking about but maybe I was cute.
M*A*S*H, Soap, Police Squad.
Not so much SNL as its imitators: Fridays; the premiere of The New Show with Steve Martin where they parodied 1984. Ok, I'll grant SNL Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo but after that I mostly watched for Billy Crystal.
My parents were taking me to the Cleveland Play House and the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival a lot in those days, so there's some A.R. Gurney in there, some weird production of The Canturbury Tales where the Wife Of Bath rode a motorcycle, even some Shakespeare in there. Also, the Play House's production of Tomfoolery was my introduction to Tom Lehrer.
Dr. Demento.
Douglas Adams. The Radio Scripts especially.
Dave Barry. Woody Allen's Without Feathers.
Airplane, Top Secret, a bunch of late seventies comedies my father and I wore out our VHS copies of: Slap Shot, Animal House, Foul Play.
A Fish Called Wanda. Not so much the Monty Python stuff everyone quotes but the Oscar Wilde sketch.
Samuel Beckett, Albert Camus, anyone who was laughing (in French) about how screwed over the world was between 1945 and 1960.
Dave Barry.
My college improv troupe, 6 Milks, for which I never auditioned, afraid that I wouldn't get in.
My college newspaper column, the best and funniest writing I'll ever do.
Uh, NewsRadio, Seinfeld, the "Monorail" episode of The Simpsons. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Homicide, two dramas that were funnier than most of the comedies of the late '90s.
Torque, which at the time I started playing was Cleveland's only performing long-form troupe. Especially Mark McKenzie and Josh Logan. I Eat Pandas at the Oberlin Improv Festival. Shaun Landry at Oberlin. Bunches of improv books. YesAnd when I could read it in a linear fashion. I Eat Pandas at the UCB. Baby Wants Candy, Adsit & Gausas, Improvised Shakespeare, Code Duello. Glennis MacMurray, Thomas Middleditch, Topher Bellavia, the Billy guy from BillyHawk. Eliza's "Fuck Your 'I'm Sorry' " from the Pandas set at the last DCM. Chelsea Clarke's "I feel that this is something you're saying to Chelsea Clarke, the improviser" from Bombardo at this year's PHIF. Lots and lots of Jill Bernard.
(The guy who's older than me in Penthouse Riot. That septuagenarian in Everything Must Go. Anyone trying something new and strange while surrounded by a bunch of twenty-four year olds.)
Carol Burnett, Gilda Radner, Lily Tomlin. Then Whoopi Goldberg (who got her start doing one-woman shows).
Saw "The Ark" do improv a million years ago and thought: I've found my tribe! Those are my people! I was CONVINCED I could do what they were doing.
I took a class and found out there's a BIT more to it than what I had thought.
Now, everyone is a potential scene partner to play with. Everything is a premise for a scene. I love to meet people and sense how much "yes, and" they have.
Am new to Philly and love this IRC, this question, and learning about all of you through your answers.
Saw "The Ark" do improv a million years ago and thought: I've found my tribe! Those are my people! I was CONVINCED I could do what they were doing.
I took a class and found out there's a BIT more to it than what I had thought.
Now, everyone is a potential scene partner to play with. Everything is a premise for a scene. I love to meet people and sense how much "yes, and" they have.
Am new to Philly and love this IRC, this question, and learning about all of you through your answers.
-Saturday Night Live. I've been a fan forever. I really started watching in the Dana Carvey era. Seeing him do impressions inspired me to start trying to work on impressions of my own.
-Seinfeld. I watched the show since the original airings. I was in line to get his book when it came out. He inspired me to do stand-up, write for myself and to just look at things more closely overall.
-Jim Carrey / Billy Crystal / Robin Williams / Kevin Pollak. All pushed on the stand-up/impressions button and inspired me to try new characters/voices.
-Old Comedy. I've always been a fan of the golden age guys. Jack Benny, Milton Berle, George Burns and others. They did it all. Sang, danced, made people laugh... they inspired to me attempt all areas of show biz.
-Chicago. Inpsired me to continue on the path by introducing me to improv which allows me to utilize everything else everyone else has inspired me to do/be.
-Philly Improv. Moving back and seeing all the great things y'all are doing inspires me to keep at it till you can't throw a rock in this city without hitting an improviser or someone that's been to a show.
-Seinfeld. I watched the show since the original airings. I was in line to get his book when it came out. He inspired me to do stand-up, write for myself and to just look at things more closely overall.
-Jim Carrey / Billy Crystal / Robin Williams / Kevin Pollak. All pushed on the stand-up/impressions button and inspired me to try new characters/voices.
-Old Comedy. I've always been a fan of the golden age guys. Jack Benny, Milton Berle, George Burns and others. They did it all. Sang, danced, made people laugh... they inspired to me attempt all areas of show biz.
-Chicago. Inpsired me to continue on the path by introducing me to improv which allows me to utilize everything else everyone else has inspired me to do/be.
-Philly Improv. Moving back and seeing all the great things y'all are doing inspires me to keep at it till you can't throw a rock in this city without hitting an improviser or someone that's been to a show.
matt thanks for your list above. i will borrow it even though there are maybe three or four things on your list i don't know of, but i am sure if i did i would love them because everything else on your list makes me very happy! i am pleased to find such similar tastes with someone whose sense of humor i admire so
i have come to believe deeply that we are all great clowns - some of us just do not know how or are afraid to play the clown. to acknowledge we are flawed is to acknowledge our mortality and shortcomings - and to let go of the idea of perfection, because that belongs elsewhere.
being funny is very important to me, it is a characteristic i have come to value highly in myself and others, ranking right up there with kindness and humility.
here is to those people, professional or otherwise, that make us laugh - whom i dare say we keep closer to ourselves than others because there is some profound trust implied in the honesty of humor, like a dog rolling over on its belly.
i know there are many in my life who make me laugh - and you, yes you, are probably one - so i thank you for that hearty laugh you called forth from me when i was down, because for that moment i lost control of myself in an involuntary response of joy and i was open to new possibilities
i love you all.
i have come to believe deeply that we are all great clowns - some of us just do not know how or are afraid to play the clown. to acknowledge we are flawed is to acknowledge our mortality and shortcomings - and to let go of the idea of perfection, because that belongs elsewhere.
being funny is very important to me, it is a characteristic i have come to value highly in myself and others, ranking right up there with kindness and humility.
here is to those people, professional or otherwise, that make us laugh - whom i dare say we keep closer to ourselves than others because there is some profound trust implied in the honesty of humor, like a dog rolling over on its belly.
i know there are many in my life who make me laugh - and you, yes you, are probably one - so i thank you for that hearty laugh you called forth from me when i was down, because for that moment i lost control of myself in an involuntary response of joy and i was open to new possibilities
i love you all.
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I was first inspired to try my hand at improv by attending the Comedy Warehouse at Pleasure Island in Florida. Thankfully, I was able to return several times since that first time before they closed down P.I. altogether. Boo!
When I was young, I was inspired comedically by the Muppet Show, Carol Burnett, SNL...then later by Kids in the Hall, In Living Color, MadTV, etc.
My first experiences watching improv in Philly were Rare Bird Show and ComedySportz. Both groups definitely inspirational then...and still inspirational today!!!
The improv coming out of Washington, D.C. blows my mind!!!
When I was young, I was inspired comedically by the Muppet Show, Carol Burnett, SNL...then later by Kids in the Hall, In Living Color, MadTV, etc.
My first experiences watching improv in Philly were Rare Bird Show and ComedySportz. Both groups definitely inspirational then...and still inspirational today!!!
The improv coming out of Washington, D.C. blows my mind!!!
Was that the Oberlin Conference where I laid face down in a pile of Beer Cups, the Oberlin Conference where I found my teaching check in my back pocket onstage recreating getting booze two hours beforehand..
Or the last Oberlin Conference where the hotel waitress mistook Me, Kevin McShane, and Graham Hinde (with his crew from New York) with the band and I was spinning in my own hell going "You White Cats think this shit is funny...when the cops come, I'm the *first one in handcuffs* It is also the same Conference this picture came from:
Thank you for calling me an inspiration, Andrew. Now if I can only find that picture of me laying in a sea of beer cups.
Shaun
PS: I'm inspired by anyone who cares enough about this type of theater to go the extra mile to make it great artistically and commercially. I have a warm place in my heart especially for Jill Bernard.
Or the last Oberlin Conference where the hotel waitress mistook Me, Kevin McShane, and Graham Hinde (with his crew from New York) with the band and I was spinning in my own hell going "You White Cats think this shit is funny...when the cops come, I'm the *first one in handcuffs* It is also the same Conference this picture came from:
Thank you for calling me an inspiration, Andrew. Now if I can only find that picture of me laying in a sea of beer cups.
Shaun
PS: I'm inspired by anyone who cares enough about this type of theater to go the extra mile to make it great artistically and commercially. I have a warm place in my heart especially for Jill Bernard.
Your most recent Oberlin Improv Conference, Shaun. Last workshop of the day, you put me in a two-person Harold which turned into something all about aging. "You've never heard of the Rolling Stones? What about the Beatles? Chuck Berry? Elvis Presley? The Ink Spots? Can I have some pudding?"
First time I was ever in a long-form that spontaneously generated its own theme. Thank you again.
But I didn't party much that year because I was driving the hour back home every night. Next time you come to town, I'll get a room at the inn.
First time I was ever in a long-form that spontaneously generated its own theme. Thank you again.
But I didn't party much that year because I was driving the hour back home every night. Next time you come to town, I'll get a room at the inn.
Yes. I remember that Harold. All I needed to do was watch you create. All I ever ask is to take the inspirations you make for yourselves in classes and workshops and apply them to a live performance.
Share the joy.
I spent a good majority of that festival writing for my friend (Now R.I.P) Jeffrey Hartgraves benefit to raise money for his medical bills in San Francisco in a thing called "Daytrippers". The writers get a theme that night....you write all night long...turn in the script to the directors and the actors and directors rehearse all day long to perform the piece that night. I was told I could write anything, but Jeffrey specifically asked me to use the line "I don't think it was worth the climb" (A phrase he used regarding him being so short...and the tall men he dated).
A room full of improvisers in mine and McShane's adjoining room with me on my laptop writing. It was also 4/20 so you can imagine....I gave writing credit to Kevin and Graeme to put into the San Francisco Program for the show, as they stuck it out and added to the script.
The end of an improv conference was me "Writing a script"
I was actually more anti social than what I ususally am at that festival. Kevin is the founder of the Sunshine Scouts, so it was his time to shine. He seemed happy to be back at his university...and for me that is all that mattered.
The next time I'm at Oberlin, Yes...you need a hotel room. If you go this year...get a hotel room. I think Kevin is going back with either Trophy Wife or Middleseat. from iO West.
Both are quite inspirational.
Back to Lurking....
-S
Share the joy.
I spent a good majority of that festival writing for my friend (Now R.I.P) Jeffrey Hartgraves benefit to raise money for his medical bills in San Francisco in a thing called "Daytrippers". The writers get a theme that night....you write all night long...turn in the script to the directors and the actors and directors rehearse all day long to perform the piece that night. I was told I could write anything, but Jeffrey specifically asked me to use the line "I don't think it was worth the climb" (A phrase he used regarding him being so short...and the tall men he dated).
A room full of improvisers in mine and McShane's adjoining room with me on my laptop writing. It was also 4/20 so you can imagine....I gave writing credit to Kevin and Graeme to put into the San Francisco Program for the show, as they stuck it out and added to the script.
The end of an improv conference was me "Writing a script"
I was actually more anti social than what I ususally am at that festival. Kevin is the founder of the Sunshine Scouts, so it was his time to shine. He seemed happy to be back at his university...and for me that is all that mattered.
The next time I'm at Oberlin, Yes...you need a hotel room. If you go this year...get a hotel room. I think Kevin is going back with either Trophy Wife or Middleseat. from iO West.
Both are quite inspirational.
Back to Lurking....
-S
If you haven't chimed in on this topic, I'd love to hear your inspirations. If you have, I'd love to hear more insight into them.
For me, I remember watching shows like All in the Family and MASH and Are You Being Served? (being really young and without really understanding a lot of what was happening and certainly not understanding references from Britain or the 70s or the 50s) and learning how jokes work, how stories work, how helpful it is to have a routine format and how interesting it can be to break routine and do something weird. I think you can really see that in my improv; the experimentation.
For me, I remember watching shows like All in the Family and MASH and Are You Being Served? (being really young and without really understanding a lot of what was happening and certainly not understanding references from Britain or the 70s or the 50s) and learning how jokes work, how stories work, how helpful it is to have a routine format and how interesting it can be to break routine and do something weird. I think you can really see that in my improv; the experimentation.
I don't think I can say honestly that I've been inspired to involve myself with comedy by anyone or anything. I just do it because it comes naturally to me and I'm not good at anything else. Fortunately I like it so it's all good.
I guess I could go and list examples of comedy that I enjoy/ think is great/ whatever, but I suppose it might inaccurate to say that any of those things "inspired" me because I don't think I really started to appreciate comedy on the level I do now until I started to do it myself. I suppose it could be that it was all the comedy I've enjoyed over the years and how much I've loved it all as a whole that has served as an "inspiration", but really I don't want to sit here and try to list it all... though I feel really compelled to mention MST3k in this post, so there it is.
Having said all that, if I had to name one person in the world of comedy who I felt most exemplified the way I feel about it or how I think it should be, that person would be Ricky Gervais.
I guess I could go and list examples of comedy that I enjoy/ think is great/ whatever, but I suppose it might inaccurate to say that any of those things "inspired" me because I don't think I really started to appreciate comedy on the level I do now until I started to do it myself. I suppose it could be that it was all the comedy I've enjoyed over the years and how much I've loved it all as a whole that has served as an "inspiration", but really I don't want to sit here and try to list it all... though I feel really compelled to mention MST3k in this post, so there it is.
Having said all that, if I had to name one person in the world of comedy who I felt most exemplified the way I feel about it or how I think it should be, that person would be Ricky Gervais.