Bankrate: Have you ever said anything to an audience member you later felt was over the line?

Lisa Lampanelli: There's no line. There just isn't. There were good comics doing 9/11 jokes on Sept. 12. I wasn't one of them because I couldn't make it funny, but there were good guys doing good jokes about that. So there really isn't any line, and I don't remember ever cringing. I remember other comics criticizing me and saying, "You shouldn't have said that." For example, I was working in Massachusetts, and this black guy was with a white chick, so I asked his name and he said "Rod." I said, "I didn't ask what you did for a living." That got a big laugh. But then this other comic said, "You know, that was way too harsh, because he was with a white girl, and that's hard enough as it is." I was like, "What? I don't get it." Here I am at 35 years old listening to some guy who's still earning $125 a set? I'm doing what I'm doing.

Bankrate: There's an interesting comparison that can be made between you and Sarah Silverman, in that you both cross a line in ways that are more similar than most people would admit. Yet she's seen as the intelligent comic, and you're seen as more ...

Lisa Lampanelli: Everyman.

Bankrate: Yeah. Do you think that's fair?

Lisa Lampanelli: I think Sarah and I are just as smart as each other, because I'm really educated and I'm sure she is as well. I'm sure we both have well above-average IQs. But the path is different. The simpler the joke, the better for me. I like hitting really hard in that Don Rickles slam style. She's got a different delivery and she's really sweet-looking. She's adorable. I'm a big fan, because if I were a cute girl like that, there's no way I'd even be doing comedy. I would have a rich husband and be sitting on my ass in a house in Greenwich, playing tennis every day. But yeah, we are definitely alike. I'm the low budget, poor man's Sarah Silverman, the lowlife one. I'm the lowlife cousin, which is fine.