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Adrian Veidt (Ozymandias)
The Comedian, also known as Edward Blake, is a masked vigilante and a member of the original Minutemen who later works for the American government as a paramilitary operative. The story begins with Blake’s mysterious murder, which is later revealed to have been carried out by Adrian Veidt because Blake learned of his secret plot. Through other characters’ flashbacks, the Comedian is revealed to be an amoral, violent man but also a firm patriot. He murders several people, hints that he killed the journalists who would have exposed the Watergate scandal, jokes that he assassinated John F. Kennedy, and tries to rape Sally Jupiter (the original Silk Spectre). Even so, the Comedian’s costume has a star on one shoulder and a stripe on the other, making him the embodiment of American patriotism—and thus criticizing American patriotism as loyalty to a war-mongering and corrupt government. Because he tried to rape her mother (Sally Jupiter), Laurie Juspeczyk hates the Comedian for most of her life. However, she eventually discovers that her mother fell in love with Blake in later years, despite what he did to her, and Blake is actually Laurie’s own father.
Edward Blake (The Comedian) Quotes in Watchmen
The Watchmen quotes below are all either spoken by Edward Blake (The Comedian) or refer to Edward Blake (The Comedian) . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1: At Midnight, All the Agents…
Quotes
This city is dying of rabies. Is the best I can do to wipe random flecks of foam from its lips? Never despair. Never surrender. I leave the human cockroaches to discuss their heroin and child pornography. I have business elsewhere with a better class of person.
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Chapter 2: Absent Friends
Quotes
Osterman: You sound bitter. You’re a strange man, Blake. You have a strange attitude to life and war.
Blake: Strange? Listen… Once you figure out what a joke everything is, being a comedian is the only thing makes sense.
Osterman: The charred villages, the boys with necklaces of human ears… these are part of the joke?
Blake: Hey… I never said it was a good joke. I’m just playin’ along with the gag…
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Dreiberg: […] The country’s disintegrating. What’s happened to the American dream?
Blake: It came true. You’re lookin’ at it.
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Chapter 4: Watchmaker
Quotes
As I come to understand Vietnam and what it implies about the human condition, I also realizes that few humans will permit themselves such an understanding.
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Chapter 6: The Abyss Gazes Also
Quotes
[The Comedian] understood man’s capacity for horrors and never quit. Saw the world’s black underbelly and never surrendered. Once a man has seen, he can never turn his back on it. Never pretend it doesn’t exist. No matter who orders him to look the other way. We do not do this thing because it is permitted. We do it because we are compelled.
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This rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphysical forces. It is not God who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. It’s us. Only us.
Get the entire Watchmen LitChart as a printable PDF.
Edward Blake (The Comedian) Quotes in Watchmen
The Watchmen quotes below are all either spoken by Edward Blake (The Comedian) or refer to Edward Blake (The Comedian) . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1: At Midnight, All the Agents…
Quotes
This city is dying of rabies. Is the best I can do to wipe random flecks of foam from its lips? Never despair. Never surrender. I leave the human cockroaches to discuss their heroin and child pornography. I have business elsewhere with a better class of person.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2: Absent Friends
Quotes
Osterman: You sound bitter. You’re a strange man, Blake. You have a strange attitude to life and war.
Blake: Strange? Listen… Once you figure out what a joke everything is, being a comedian is the only thing makes sense.
Osterman: The charred villages, the boys with necklaces of human ears… these are part of the joke?
Blake: Hey… I never said it was a good joke. I’m just playin’ along with the gag…
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Dreiberg: […] The country’s disintegrating. What’s happened to the American dream?
Blake: It came true. You’re lookin’ at it.
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Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4: Watchmaker
Quotes
As I come to understand Vietnam and what it implies about the human condition, I also realizes that few humans will permit themselves such an understanding.
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Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6: The Abyss Gazes Also
Quotes
[The Comedian] understood man’s capacity for horrors and never quit. Saw the world’s black underbelly and never surrendered. Once a man has seen, he can never turn his back on it. Never pretend it doesn’t exist. No matter who orders him to look the other way. We do not do this thing because it is permitted. We do it because we are compelled.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
This rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphysical forces. It is not God who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. It’s us. Only us.
