[Ads-l] Quote Origin: Tragedy is if I'll cut my finger. Comedy is if you walk into an open sewer and die

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Comedian and filmmaker Mel Brooks has received credit for the saying
in the subject line. An inquiry inspired the creation of a Quote
Investigator article located here:

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2026/01/24/comedy-manhole/

In 1962 Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks recorded an album during the Cannes
Film Festival which was released in early 1963. During one sketch Mel
Brooks played a character called the 2000-Year-Old Man, and Carl
Reiner acted as an interviewer. The 2000-Year-Old Man described a
person being eaten by a tiger while indicating that observers found
this event funny. The interviewer was shocked.

[Begin excerpt]
Interviewer (Carl Reiner): I would consider that in the realm of
tragedy rather than comedy. How do you differentiate between tragedy
and comedy?

2000-Year-Old Man (Mel Brooks): To me, tragedy is if I'll cut my
finger. That's tragedy. It bleeds, and I'll cry, and I'll run around,
and I'll go into Mount Sinai for a day and a half. I'm very nervous
about it. And to me, comedy is if you walk into an open sewer and die.
What do I care? That's comedy. My finger is important.
[End excerpt]

Below is an outline showing precursors and variants with dates:

1904: Life is a comedy when you're well. A tragedy when you're sick.

1913: Comedy — When he deceives her; Tragedy — When she deceives him.

1917: HAPPY THOUGHT: It's always funny when somebody else falls down.

1934: COMEDY is when you see a fat man take a tumble. TRAGEDY is when
you feel your own feet start to stumble! (Attributed to Betty
Brainerd)

1950: If you fall down it hurts; if somebody else falls down, it's
funny. (S. Sylvan Simon)

1962: Tragedy is if I'll cut my finger … comedy is if you walk into an
open sewer and die. (Mel Brooks as the 2000-Year-Old Man)

1963: Tragedy is if I'll cut my finger—comedy is if you'll walk into
an open sewer and die. (Attributed to Mel Brooks by Kenneth Tynan)

1964: If I hurt my finger it's a tragedy, but if you fall down a
manhole, it's funny. (Attributed to Joey Bishop)

1977: If you fall down a manhole that's funny. If I cut my finger that
is tragedy. (Mel Brooks)

1988: Comedy is when a man slips on a banana peel and tragedy is when
you, yourself, take the fall (Old saw)

1989: Comedy is when somebody else falls and breaks his neck, while
tragedy is when I stub my toe. (Attributed to Mel Brooks)

1990: If you would be walking on the street in a tuxedo and slip on a
banana peel and fall down a manhole and break your head that would be
comedy. If I would get a paper cut on my finger that would be tragedy.
(Attributed to Mel Brooks)

1993: Tragedy is when I get a paper cut; comedy is when you fall into
an open manhole and die. (Attributed to Mel Brooks)

1995: Tragedy is when I cut my finger; comedy is when you fall down a
well and die. (Joe Fiorito)

2000: If I fall and stub my toe, that's tragedy, if you fall and stub
your toe, that's comedy. (Attributed to anonymous by Peter Boyle)

Feedback welcome
Garson O'Toole
QuoteInvestigator.com

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