Tom Green Quotes

Yes, I worked hard to put together an experimental show on a budget of zero. But I was not being exploited by anyone. I was in charge.

When you work in television, working for a big corporation, no matter who you are, you can always get cancelled. That sucks. Do you really want to work with an axe over your head for the rest of your life? Not me, not really, and not if you don’t have to.

As comedians, we all get into that mode of thinking of the worst thing imaginable – but you usually have the ability to pull back before releasing it to the world.

Whenever I do something, I tend to focus on it and spend all of my time and energy on it.

Vegas is exciting, and it’s nice to be somewhere on a regular basis rather than just criss-crossing the country. It allows me to have a semblance of a life.

It was just a very short period of time that I had a brief marriage.

I tend to find comedy in dark places. I also tend to find comedy in taking on the status quo – which has always been something I find important.

All comedy is really talking about social issues and things that are affecting our lives.

I’m a little bit of a techie.

I’ve got friends all around the world, but it still never ceases to amaze me when I come to a place on the other side of the planet that I’ve always imagined going to, and to get there and be meeting people all over on the street who know me – it’s very exciting and humbling.

Steve Jobs is considered an amazing genius and made billions of dollars. Sure, we overlook that he didn’t pay his share of taxes and didn’t believe in charity. But other than these occasional rumblings of dissent, he is pretty much held in high esteem.

When my first show was on MTV, and it was this outrageous persona, I think people certainly didn’t know what to think. But it was a performance. I’m sure people didn’t know that it was a performance; they thought maybe I was just nuts, but that was all intentional.

When I started doing stand-up again, a lot of it was coming from an angrier place, and I quickly learned that doesn’t spell a good time in a comedy club.

For about three or four years, I was in a lot more physical pain and stress than anybody knew. When I would meet people, I was kind of standoffish. That was because I was in a bit of a funk.

I’d love to interview Mark Cuban!

I first met the ‘Trailer Park Boys’ when they did my web television show, and since then, I’ve hung out with them a few times.

There is something romantic about the world being a diverse place, where every place has a Starbucks and Denny’s.

The thing to keep in mind is that’s how I started long before MTV and Twitter and Facebook. I studied at broadcasting school so I could learn how to shoot and edit videos, and tried to create my own television show so we could see through these wacky visions we had of funny bits we wanted to shoot.

Whenever you go on TV, there are so many checks and balances; it’s a big business with a lot of rules. Stand-up is intimate and the freest, most lawless place I’ve ever been able to go.

The moment for me, thinking I might actually want to do comedy professionally, was when I did public speaking at school. I found out I was good at getting up in front of class. In the fifth grade, I did a speech on comedy.

You might remember me from Eminem‘s rap lyrics.

Comedy is delivered to people in the same form that music is being delivered: by YouTube. People are sharing music and comedy in the same way now.

I think that young people – teenagers, college-age people, anyone under the age of 30 – know when they’re being pandered to.

The truth of the matter is, I worry about nearly every bit I’ve ever done. I’m very critical of myself.

I essentially have always directed everything on my TV show without using that title; I edited and wrote all my stuff.

Everyone on ‘The Apprentice‘ hates each other. They put you in a room, and they don’t give you anything to do. They leave you there for 10 hours… they don’t give you any food or water, and you start getting angry and arguing with each other.

It bothers me when people say ‘shock comic‘ or ‘gross-out’ because that was only one type of comedy I did. There was prank comedy. Man-on-the-street-reaction comedy. Visually surreal comedy. But you do something shocking, and that becomes your label.

I basically went into broadcasting when I was in college because I knew that there was nothing like what I had in my mind on TV at the time.

You can’t let regret stifle your creativity.

I assumed I’d never be divorced.

I definitely think L.A. would be a very difficult city to move to and try to make it in. There’s a lot of people down there, and it’s tough to stand out in the crowd.

I was a huge fan of Tom Snyder.

I think somebody getting repulsed is a positive reaction. Any reaction is positive.

I found myself trying to work within the Los Angeles system. I had an agent and a manager, which I still do, and going to meetings with networks about game shows and reality shows and projects that weren’t mine. It was fun, but it wasn’t what I’d set out to do.

It takes a long time to put a movie together. It can take years.

I want people to know that I’m not just this crazy person flailing around. A lot of thought goes into what I do.

I’ve always liked outrageous comedy and pushing the envelope.

I always have gotten nervous before every show. But the second I step onstage, it’s all gone. It’s sort of like an adrenaline rush for me.

Social media is making us more anti-social.

I was happy to be turning 40. It was a good one.

Not many people get that chance to have multiple studios wanting you to make a movie with them.

After my show and others like it began airing on TV, network executives started to see that there was a market for outrageous, over-the-top content.

I’ve always found success in sort of separating myself from the pack mentality things.

I have a different perspective on the world than the way I looked at the world when I was 20. I was kind of naive. I’m a cancer survivor, been working in this industry for a time, and older with more opinions, more experience.

I clearly remember what it was like before Facebook and before cellphones. They didn’t have any of that when I was in high school.

I grew up practically getting into this business because of David Letterman. I wanted to do comedy-based interviews.

I’ve always had fun looking forward, seeing where technology is going, and finding interesting ways of applying that to comedy.

When I was younger, I was emulating David Letterman. David Letterman would yell out of his office window with a megaphone, and the next thing I’m doing is standing on the roof of a parking garage with a megaphone.

Sometimes it’s nice when you go out on the road, and you come back, and your girlfriend‘s left you. You have complete freedom at that point.

I used to love ‘The Late Late Show.’ It was nice to be able to be up late at night and see an extended conversation.

Performing on stage is addictive. The adrenaline rush is exhilarating. When I stop touring for a couple weeks, I get antsy.

I have the version of me where I’m interviewing someone, where I definitely am the straight man, and I like to show a lot of respect to my guest and let them take the reins. I don’t like to compete with my guests. I don’t like to be funnier than my guests or get into a ‘Who’s wackier?’ sort of thing.

I could sit here and say, ‘What would have happened if I hadn’t made that crazy television show, if I hadn’t made those crazy movies?’ Well, I’d be back in Canada working at Dairy Queen.

When I’m 65 and still performing every week, I’d like people to say, ‘You know, when that guy was a kid, he made these weird, crazy videos?’ And they’ll have to go look for them – rather than it being the first thing they know about me.

I’m always making micro-adjustments onstage, listening to the audience, and what a crowd is like can be infectious.

The dirty little secret that nobody likes to talk about is that things just might have been better before the Internet. We had more time to ourselves before cell phones and text messaging and Facebook consumed our lives.

I try to make a point in my life to leave the cell phone in the car sometimes, to try to unplug as much as possible.

I love playing in Vegas because you’ve got people from all over the world, and you’re already accepted. It’s kind of a great mixture of people that come out to the shows, and that makes it fun.

I’m incredibly proud to bring back ‘Tom Green Live’ for a third season on AXS TV. AXS TV’s commitment to unique, out-of-the-box humor, in a completely open and uncensored format, is unparalleled.

My show on MTV, as outrageous as it was, it was also making a point, which was, ‘Look at what we’re doing here. This is something that you don’t see on television every day, because you’re not allowed to do this on television.’