My mother was being hounded by a debt collector over a debt that she didn't owe, and she eventually just paid it because she wanted the calls to stop. I was very surprised. It sounded so strange. I started poking around on the Internet and found this was extremely common.

Jake Halpern

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I love poking fun at myself. I have a rather mean sense of humor.

I could suddenly see the pressures all around; these endless magazines and cheap reality TV programmes poking at women, humiliating us for every flaw. It makes me so angry. I really wonder what it is we are doing to ourselves, because I do think women can be the worst ones for picking each other apart.

Amanda Burton

Women Men Art

Since the very beginning, Emeril's had a sense of humor about me calling him names and poking fun at him.

Anthony Bourdain

Humor Very UN

As women gain weight, they start judging themselves. But who cares! Embrace what you have. Say, 'Belly, you might be poking out today, but I'm going to choose to love you and nurture you.'

Ashley Graham

Women Men Love

We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States.

Barack Obama

God Age Worship

Being a woman in music was fine, but when I wanted to direct, I was poking my head into a man's world.

Barbra Streisand

Music World Woman

I think that what comes through in Chicago humor is the affection. Even though you're poking fun at someone or something, there's still an affection for it.

Bob Newhart

Humor You UN

I don't want people poking around in my private stuff. They've no business in it. My work is what I give to people, that's my job, and that's where it stops.

Brendan Gleeson

Work Business Where

Facebook people are finding me that I don't really know. People poke you on Facebook. I'm like, 'Why? Why are you poking me?'

Bridget Kelly

You Why T

The president's poking fun at himself over what goes down. I thought it was a good-natured performance. It made him look good. But he certainly doesn't disguise the record on weapons of mass destruction. And you feel like saying to people, Just get over it.

Brit Hume

Nature Good You

For reasons that aren't quite clear I derive a weird and almost inappropriate pleasure from making a cake that looks like a decomposing log. Essentially, that's what a Buche de Noel is supposed to look like, complete with meringue 'mushrooms' poking out of the chocolate buttercream 'bark.'

Claire Saffitz

Wit Weird Utter

I started out poking fun at this YouTube thing.

Colleen Ballinger

Art YouTube You

I was a crazy Pee-wee Herman fan when I was in my early teens. Before he had the kids' TV show, he had a nightclub show in L.A., and I had gotten a VHS copy of it. It was a kids' show, but onstage in a bar, so it's sort of poking fun at the kids' show. And I was obsessed with that, and then 'Pee-wee's Big Adventure.'

Dallas Roberts

Teen Age Wit

I was on paper earning more money and having more success than I'd ever had. And it was also the most miserable I've ever been. When those things collided, I realised something was off. That's when I started poking around to figure out what was wrong.

Damien Rice

Success Money Art

The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called 'truth'.

Dan Rather

Truth Time Teacher

I wanted to write 'In Harm's Way' from the young men's point of view of being in a raft, or hanging in a life vest with just their nose poking above the water.

Doug Stanton

Men Life Young Men

Some people have told me that I'm grumpy; it's not something that I'm aware of. It's not like I walk around poking children in the eye... not very small ones, anyway.

Dylan Moran

War Way Walk

There are a lot of new opportunities that are poking their head up in my future. I've been very fortunate that way, but for right now, what I like is what I'm doing.

Gavin MacLeod

Future Way Very

I had a stunt double for 'The Bronze.' She's literally the most amazing human being I've ever seen. She's NCAA women's gymnastics champion. She was incredible. I would poke her thighs, and my nail would break because it was like poking a rock.

Haley Lu Richardson

Women Men Amazing

I created this character that I still have of a guy who is a little bit of a nincompoop - I'm poking fun at street hustlers. I didn't quite make as much money as one would gambling, but it was a lot safer.

Harry Anderson

Money Would Who

I like poking my nose into other people's lives.

Helen Garner

I grew up in a bit of a vacuum. And as a kid, you see 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' and you're like, 'Oh, it's a cartoon.' There's mixed media. It's funny, and there's stop-motion. But as an adult, you figure it out, how the entire underpinnings of their comedy was poking fun at the rank and file of the British aristocracy and the monarchy.

Iliza Shlesinger

My mother was being hounded by a debt collector over a debt that she didn't owe, and she eventually just paid it because she wanted the calls to stop. I was very surprised. It sounded so strange. I started poking around on the Internet and found this was extremely common.

Jake Halpern

I like antagonizing the audience, poking at them.

Jason Mantzoukas

For centuries, native Eskimos cut blocks of oil-soaked tundra from natural seeps to use as fuel. In the 1920s, explorers arrived and began poking holes. In 1968, they discovered Prudhoe Bay State No. 1, the largest oil field in North America and one of the largest in the world, and a year later the adjacent Kuparuk field, the second-largest.

Jeanne Marie Laskas

In the media, I always seemed to come across as someone who was poking fun at the Scots and their football. I guess the Scottish public needed someone to blame for their international defeats, and I fitted the bill perfectly.

Jimmy Hill

I guess there's a certain amount of poking fun at certain characters, but that's because there is something amusing about them or about the way they behave, so I guess you can say that that's poking fun at the character. But the character is your own invention, so who cares?

Joel Coen

People who like my stuff and know what my agenda is have never mistaken me for being racist or poking fun at the wrong thing.

Katherine Ryan

My idea of a good time abroad is to visit someone's house and hang out, poking into their cupboards if they will let me.

Laurie Colwin

You always have to have a bit of fun if somebody is dead in a scene. That's a red rag to a bull for an actor. You do a little poking. You do things to annoy the actor. It's your job. You have to utilize the opportunity. You have to get through the day.

Liam Cunningham

Washington is nothing if not an orchard of absurdities, and poking fun at power brokers is neither sex blind nor for the faint of heart.

Lisa Kennedy Montgomery

I have nothing wrong with comics and writers poking fun at the President, as long as it's funny. When it's the same retread jokes with predictable punchlines, that's when it's offensive.

Lisa Kennedy Montgomery

Poking fun at other people's beliefs, while it may seem frivolous and offensive, is a non-negotiable right. It is a principle that underpins free speech, the basis for progress.

Maajid Nawaz

I think for us - and for a lot of people in the Church of Satan - we definitely like ruffling people's feathers and poking fun at organized religion a little bit.

Matt Skiba

My only memories of school are of being beaten, of being hit in the playground, of masters poking their fingers in my chest all day.

Michael Gambon

Given the choice of Hollywood or poking steel pins in my eyes, I'd prefer steel pins.

Mike Leigh

I enjoy upsetting the right people. I love poking fun at earnest censors. I want to push the bounds of what can be said on the Internet.

Milo Yiannopoulos

I'm not afraid of poking fun at myself.

Neil Sedaka

We don't want other people poking into our artistic pie.

Neville Marriner

Like most women, I thought it would be easy once I decided to start a family. I was surprised that Mother Nature kept poking me in the eye, saying, 'Nope, nope, nope.'

Nia Vardalos

Politics is a thing that is kind of the same over and over and over again. But we have to find new ways of poking fun at it and letting the air out of people and satirizing things that are worthy of satire.

Paul F. Tompkins

Even when I begin with a situation that's basically funny or sad, I like to keep poking around in it. I like to get into the middle of a relationship, to explore the subtle places.

Paul Mazursky

People should stop poking fun at other people and worry about themselves.

Pauly Shore

I'm a great admirer of 'The Simpsons.' It's very surprising because it's backed by a right-wing television company in the U.S., and quite often it's poking fun at the people who would be its audience.

Peter Higgs

The fundamental essence of science, which I think we've lost in our education system, is poking something with a stick and seeing what happens. Embrace that process of inquiry.

Philippe Cousteau, Jr.

I still love Delhi but get scared of the madness sometime. I know that my fans love me. But it gets a bit tough to handle when, in their excitement, they start touching and poking you to see if you're for real.

Preity Zinta

I knew that I wanted to be an actor; how to go about it was the question. I went to Australia for my studies; from there I told my dad that I also want to do a course in performing arts, but my father refused. So I completed my studies and came back. But I kept poking him, saying that acting is something that I want to do.

Randeep Hooda

I really like the 'Silicon Valley' show. It's good to do a little rib-poking and not take yourself too seriously, so I think it's awesome the show does that.

Reid Hoffman

I think my admiration is really for Belichick more than anything. As a coach, that's the guy. He'll go down as probably the best in the history of the game. I like poking fun at him and all that stuff, but there's no coach I respect more than him.

Rex Ryan

Despite being a classical musician, I keep poking my nose in other genres of music.

Shankar Mahadevan