Tommy Smothers

“The Establishment is anyone who is standing in your way.”

“The controversial thing about us is that we're a couple of kids, and we're saying the same things that some of the old people are saying, and they don't like it.”

“Mom always liked you best.”

“We had a censorship problem. We were censored for the same reason all people are censored: we told the truth.”

“If you don't have something to say, then you're just a comedian. But if you have something to say, then you're a satirist.”

“The censors were our biggest fans. They gave us more material than we could ever have come up with on our own.”

“You can't be a satirist if you're not offending someone.”

“Our job was to reflect what was going on in the country.”

“We were just trying to be relevant. That’s what got us in trouble.”

“The whole basis of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour' was to be topical and to be able to make fun of the issues of the day.”

“Freedom of speech is for the speech you hate, not the speech you like.”

“We got canceled for being political, for being against the Vietnam War.”

“It’s hard to be a comic when you’re not feeling funny.”

“A censor is a man who knows more than he thinks you ought to.”