All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman, and a pretty girl.

The line distills Chaplin’s early silent-film method into a minimalist recipe: a public space (the park) for chance encounters, an authority figure (the policeman) to generate pursuit and social friction, and a romantic or sympathetic focus (the pretty girl) to humanize the tramp-like protagonist. It reflects how slapstick comedy can arise from simple, universally legible elements—setting, conflict, and desire—without elaborate dialogue or plot. The quote also hints at Chaplin’s confidence in visual storytelling and in comedy’s ability to spring from everyday urban life, where class, order, and courtship collide in instantly readable ways.