Bad taste is simply saying the truth before it should be said.
Mel Brooks
- Born
- 1926
- Occupations
- actor, comedian, film director
- Notable works
- The Producers, The Twelve Chairs, Blazing Saddles
Facts: Wikidata (CC0), as of 2026-07-09
Brooks's tragedy-versus-comedy line has been in print since the 1970s and circulates in a dozen wordings -- cut finger constant, the other party variously falling into an open sewer or manhole and dying. The instability is the tell of a line honed on stage rather than on the page; Brooks repeated it for decades, and no two tellings quite match.
Tragedy is if I cut my finger, comedy is if I walk into an open sewer and die.
Mel Brooks