Charlie Chaplin

Charlie, quieter people were not funnier. They just had fewer ways to ruin timing.

Buster, exactly. Noise gives weak jokes somewhere to hide.

Timing is everything. Glamour just distracts people while it lands.

Marilyn, a pause can do more damage than a punchline if the room is listening.

Silent comedy worked because the body cannot fake rhythm for long.

Charlie, silence worked because your face knew where the joke lived.

Buster, timing does more with an eyebrow than most men do with a monologue.

Silence is useful. It makes the audience confess their own tension.

Alfred, you call it tension. We called it not wasting breath.

A microphone is dangerous in the hands of someone with nothing to say.