[Ads-l] "A comic does funny things; a comedian does things funny"

[Ben Zimmer]

I'll get the ball rolling with these three variants credited to Ed Wynn in
late 1960...

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LA Times, Nov. 1, 1960, p. III8 (syndicated column by Hedda Hopper)
"A comic is a monologist who tells jokes but he isn't necessarily funny,"
says Ed Wynn. "He's a man who doesn't do funny things but who does things
funny. He doesn't open a funny door, he opens a door funny."
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/42670027/ed_wynn_funny_things/
---
Quad City Times (Iowa), Dec. 8, 1960, p. 36 (wire story from UPI)
[Ed Wynn:] "Red [Skelton] is saying things funny and the others are saying
funny things. There's a difference. Today, many comedians just stand up and
do a monologue."
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/42670146/ed_wynn_funny_things/
---
Anderson (Indiana) Herald, Dec. 22, 1960, p. 21 (wire story from UPI)
[Carol Burnett:] "I always remember what Ed Wynn once told me: 'Some people
say funny things -- but a true comedian says things funny.'"
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/42670216/ed_wynn_funny_things/
---

On Mon, Jan 20, 2020 at 3:32 PM Ben Yagoda <byagoda at udel.edu> wrote:

> Question for Garson: On Facebook, I just encountered a quote attributed to
> Buster Keaton: “A comedian things does funny things. A good comedian does
> things funny.” I was skeptical of the attribution (partly because of the
> flat adverb) but when I Googled the quote I found lots of Keaton
> attributions. But Wikipedia quoted a variant (citing Simpson’s Contemporary
> Quotations, 1988) and attributed it to Ed Wynn: "A comic says funny things;
> a comedian says things funny.”
>
> That jogged my memory that when I encountered the quote years ago the
> contrast was indeed comic/comedian instead of comedian/good comedian.
>
> Anyway, Garson, I’d appreciate it if you sleuth out this quote.
>
> Ben

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