"I have to pay my respects to two very influential cinema figures for me. Laurel and Hardy are probably the biggest influence for me, just in terms of sense ofm humour, when I was a kid, and in terms of what I continue to laugh at. If I had to pick one I’d say it would be Way Out West. I watched it recently and it still holds up. The reason why I think I latched on to them so much is because as a team they had such a great balance. Oliver Hardy was such a great anal retentive straight man, but still funny in his own right. They had such different comedic perspectives but when they worked together they created such a perfect synthesis; just a perfect balance of extremes, of odd coupling. I feel like all of my favorite comedy since then in some way draws from that — Planes, Trains and Automobiles comes to mind, and What About Bob?, and Midnight Run; these all employ the same template and they’re my favorites, but I feel like I can trace it all the way to Way Out West."