Denis Norden Funny Quotes: Comedy Writer, TV Presenter Dies At 96

TV host and comedy writer Denis Norden died aged 96 Wednesday morning, his family said, adding the "It'll Be Alright on the Night" host spent "many weeks" at the Royal Free Hospital in London.

“We’d like to say a huge thank you to all the dedicated staff and doctors who have looked after him – with much devotion," the statement from the family read. “A wonderful dad, a loving grandfather and great great-grandfather — he gave his laughter mongering to so many... He will be in our hearts forever.”

Norden was part of the ITV bloopers show for 29 years from 1977 until his retirement in 2006. He wrote his first script for the BBC — Let's Go to the Holborn — at the age of 19.

Here are some quotes to remember him.

1. "It's like your children talking about holidays, you find they have a quite different memory of it from you. Perhaps everything is not how it is, but how it's remembered."

2." If the laughter of the audience was malicious we wouldn't show it."

3. "There’s an unseen force which lets birds know when you’ve just washed your car."

4. "It's funny kind of month, October. For the really keen cricket fan, it's when you realize that your wife left you in May."

5. "In China, the piano piece ‘Chopsticks’ is known as ‘Knife and Fork.’"

6. "What is a harp but an over-sized cheese-slicer with cultural pretensions?"

7. "He had the kind of handshake that ought never to be used except as a tourniquet."

8. "And if you can offer an explanation as to why it doesn't work then you've got to the whole root of comedy."

9. "And when you're on your own there is that terrifying possibility that you may be the only person on the planet who thinks it's funny — and you have no way of finding out."

10. "Everyone who appears in a scene gets paid."