Wilder says that he was influenced early on to write and be funny. When he was eight years old, his mother had a heart attack and her doctor told him not to frighten her and to make her laugh, and then he saw his sister in a dramatic recital, and decided he wanted to write and act (Braiker 3)
He couldn't just be funny, he had to be funnier than anybody else. It made him fearless to the point of frantic" (Williams 1)