#writing comedy

This is what I do to research writing comedy:

What helped me most was analyzing a lot of jokes: "It's funny. Why is it funny? How does this joke work?" Usually it's something that subverses the expectations in a specific way or an unexpected collision of two things. (Like a pun is a collision of sound and meaning.) For my analysis, I wonder: "What is the expectation after the set-up? Why do I have this expectation? How does the pay-off subverse the expectation? Why does it still make sense in relation to the set-up?"

For example: I unleashed this kind of analysis on the movie George of the Jungle. It has a surprisingly high hit rate, I think around three jokes per minute in the first one third of the movie, and it still manages to get the story going and the characters introduced. I’ve mentioned this before, but I don’t think I gave examples, and you know I’m all about the teaching.

I found at least 17 types. Heads up, this is going to be a longread.

Type 1: Puns

Narrator: “When they finally beheld the mighty Ape Mountain…” [They see a mountain shaped like a gorilla head.] Narrator, cont’d: “… they reacted with awe.” All: “Aww.” Narrator: “I said ‘awe”. A-W-E.” All: “Ooh!” Narrator: “That’s better.”

Explanation:

The pun lies in the fact that “awe” and “aww” sound the same.

There is a visual type of comedy as well that we can’t effectively reproduce in writing: the mountain is shaped like a gorilla head.

BTW: the narrator defies genre expectations by interacting with the characters, and the characters defy genre expectations by being able to hear the narrator.

Type 2: Tone of voice

Narrator, about the main characters: “Scraped and boo-booed, they searched high and low.

Explanation:

“Boo-booed” is a children’s word, not the tone you would use for a hero. Compare “tummy” and “stomach”.

Type 3: Defying genre expectations

[The guide falls off a rope bridge into a deep chasm.] Narrator: “Don’t worry—nobody dies in this story. They just get really big boo-boos.”

Explanation:

The narrator is breaking the fourth wall.

Again: tone of voice with the “boo-boos”.

Contrast between the boo-boo and the injuries one usually suffers after falling into a deep chasm.

Type 4: Not defying genre expectations

[A lion appears from the bushes. A baby monkey makes a sound like “uh-oh”.] [The baby monkey does the Tarzan call and bangs its chest.] [The lion flees.] [The monkey giggles.] [The monkey gives George a thumbs up.] [From the bushes, the lion winks at George. George winks back.]

Explanation:

Expectation: the lion is a danger to the baby monkey and George will need to fight it to save the monkey.

Defying expectations: the monkey and the lion are in on the plan.

Not defying genre expectations: George of the Jungle is clearly based on Tarzan. George doesn’t refer to that fact, but the monkey does, by doing the Tarzan call and banging its chest.

Improbable: monkeys who giggle and give thumbs up.

Impossible: lions who wink.

Type 5: Contrast

Narrator: “Meanwhile, 43 vines away, George’s kingdom is being threatened by a terrifying intruder.” [We see the adorable Leslie Mann, who plays Ursula, smiling and talking to the camera.] Ursula: “Hi! It’s me again!”

Explanation:

Contrast between what the narrator says and what we see.

The narrator isn’t lying. He refers to Lyle and the poachers who will be introduced in this scene.

There’s also humor in the phrase “43 vines away”, because of the overt specificity and because a vine is not a measure of distance.

Type 6: Oblivious character

[Lyle takes a Polaroid picture of one of the guides.] Lyle: “Do you like it? Magic picture. Yet another gift from America. Here you go. You’re welcome.” [The guide replies in Swahili. There is no translation in the subtitles.] [All the guides laugh.] [The guide continues in Swahili. Only the last few words are in English: “35 mm.” The guide takes his own camera and snaps a picture of Lyle.] [All the guides and Ursula laugh.] Lyle, not amused: “Translation, please.” Other guide: “He says he likes your magic pictures, but he prefers the resolution of the Leica 35 mm transparencies.” [Everyone but Lyle laughs.] Other guide, cont'd: “He also says your lens is dirty, but he has the equipment to clean it for you.”

Explanation:

Lyle doesn’t understand Swahili, while the guides understand everything Lyle says to them in English.

The fact that Ursula, Lyle's fianceé, understands Swahili and laughs along with the guides, is adds contrast to his obliviousness.

Lyle is the butt of the joke. He humiliates the guides and now he’s humiliated on his own turf while the guides don’t stoop down to his level.

This joke is threefold: 1. The set-up: Lyle is the arrogant asshole who thinks he’ll show the locals about technological development. 2. The guide is not only not impressed, he knows Polaroid and has a camera of his own, and is knowledgeable. 3. And he demonstrates his superiority in a (more or less) polite way.

Type 7: Slapstick

[George is swinging on the vines.] Narrator: “He is swift. He is strong. He is sure. He is smart.” [George hits a tree and falls.] Narrator, deadpan: “He is unconscious.”

Explanation:

Slapstick is another type of humor that barely translates to written fiction, when the actors behave silly, for example by falling over, hurting themselves, or others. It's often over the top. Laurel & Hardy is a well-known example of slapstick.

Type 8: Alliteration

Narrator: “The tired trekkers trudged on feverish footsies over perilous paths.”

Explanation:

If several words in each other’s vicinity start with the same letter, it’s called alliteration.

Note that "footsies" is another example of a contrast in tone of voice—it’s another children’s word.

Type 9: Improbable things

[George spins a lion over his head.] George: “George not even trying hard.”

Explanation:

While not impossible, spinning an actual lion over one’s head is improbable and thus goes against real-world expectations.

Type 10: Impossible things

[A gorilla called Ape enters George’s tree house and scares Ursula.] Ursula: “What does it want? What does it want?” Ape: [points at a big book] “It wants its Physician’s Desk Reference, if you don’t mind, unless you’d rather die of dengue fever, of course.” [Ursula faints again.]

Explanation:

Gorillas can’t talk, can’t read, and aren’t usually well-versed in curing tropical diseases.

Type 11: Breaking social norms

[Ursula is unconscious. George licks her face, clearly meaning well.]

Explanation:

In our society, it is not only considered impolite but also gross to lick the face of a stranger. The fact that George does this anyway, clearly not realizing he does something wrong, is a subversion of what we’d expect of social norms and behavior.

Type 12 and 13: Hyperbole and understatement

[Earlier, Ursula fainted when she saw Ape talk and do human things.] [Ape is reading when he sees Ursula look at him. He panics, throws the book away, starts grunting, and bangs his chest.] [Ursula faints again.] Ape: “Eh.”

Explanation:

Ursula fainting again is a hyperbole: a reaction that is stronger than expected.

Ape saying “Eh.” is an understatement: a reaction less strong than expected.

Type 14: Obvious repetitions

Ursula: “… And I didn’t want my fianc—Um, this guy I was with, to worry.” Narrator, a few moments later: “George and Ursula set out on a desperate search to find her fianc—Uh, that guy she was with.”

Type 15: Stating the obvious

[We see the guide’s hand, pointing at a really big footprint in the mud.] Narrator: “Meanwhile, back at the really big footprint in the mud, (...)”

Explanation:

Stating the obvious can be funny because the audience doesn’t expect you to do or say this because it is so very obvious.

Type 16: Adult humor

[George watches Ursula sleep.] George: “George having stirrings of special feelings right now.” Ape, drily: “I see.” George: “Good thing she same species, huh?”

Explanation:

Ape’s reply, “I see”, could be an innuendo, but it doesn’t come across as a joke (to me at least). Maybe it’s downplayed because it’s a children’s movie.

If this is an innuendo, it’s a play on words. “I see”, figuratively, for “I understand”, or literally for “Yes, I can tell from your erection.”

“Good thing she same species” because George shouldn’t have stirrings of special feelings for animals.

Type 17: Rhyme

[George is swinging on a vine.] George: “Look, like this!” Song: “He flies through the air with the greatest ease.” Song, cont’d: “Our daring young man on the flying trapeze.” [George hangs upside down from a vine.] George: “Look, no hands.” Song, cont’d: “His movements so grateful, all girls he could please.” Song, cont’d: “And with love he is swinging away…” [On the ground, gorillas frantically run back and forth with a safety net.] Song, cont’d: “He flies through the air with the greatest of ease.” Ursula: “George, watch out for that—” Song, cont’d while George yelps: “Our daring young man on the—” [Song stops abruptly.] [Thud] [George grunts.] Ursula: “… tree.”

Explanation:

When words end in the same sounds, we call it rhyme.

It’s physically impossible to hang from a vine with no hands.

The gorillas with the safety net imply that they expect George to fall.

Also, it’s improbable that gorillas would do this.

Slapstick: George hitting the tree.

Comedic timing: Ursula being just too late to warn George about the tree.

Song + Ursula: “Our daring young man on the—tree.” Because by then he is literally stuck to the tree.

Or throw everything at the audience, whatever.

[George has a pet elephant, Shep, who behaves like a happy doggy.] [Shep is chewing a humongous bone.] Narrator: “Later, they rested, while the tired tusker teethed on a… Wait a second, the dog bone is too much. Lose it.” [The dog bone disappears.] Narrator: “That’s better.” [Shep whines.]

Explanation:

Improbable: Pet elephant who behaves like a doggy.

Alliteration: “tired tusker teethed”

Fourth wall: the narrator comments on the story while it is going on, and edits it.

*** Here are some other funny situations from the movie. Try to analyze what’s going on. Usually you can spot several types.

Situation 1

Narrator: “Meanwhile, at a very big and expensive waterfall set, Ursula was amazed that she was lost in the wilderness with a jungle man.” Ursula: “And here I am, lost in the wilderness with a jungle man.”

Situation 2

Narrator: “The guides came dangerously close—” Narrator: “That is, dangerously close to shove a coconut up in Kyle’s—” Narrator: “Sleeping bag.”

Situation 3

Lyle: “I am the richest, handsomest, smartest guy here, so I get to go first!” [Lyle pushes past everyone, trips over a tree stump and lands face first in a steaming pile of elephant poop.] Lyle: “There’s an elephant here.” Guide, while looking straight into the camera: “Bad guy falls into poop. Classical element of physical comedy.” Guide, cont’d: “Now comes the element where we throw our heads back and laugh.” Guide, cont’d: “Ready?” Other guides, while also looking straight into the camera: “Ready!” [All the guides throw their heads back and laugh.] [Monkey laughs and points at Lyle.] [Off-screen, other animals make laughing sounds.] Lyle, spitting out poop: “Those are nowhere near properly digested.” Lyle, cont’d: “In case anyone is wondering, I’m okay.”

Situation 4

[Cliffhanger: it looks like Lyle has shot George from up close.] Narrator: “Whew! Okay kids, let’s settle down and review the important information. Lyle is a big doofus. Poor George was actually shot but can’t die because, let’s face it, he’s the hero. So, the naturally concerned and preternaturally wealthy Ursula Stanhope whisked George away on a private jet bound for the country of his birth—” [George has a tiny band-aid on his forehead.] Narrator, cont’d: “—where he’s gonna get the finest medical treatment available!” Ursula: “I’m gonna get you the finest medical treatment available.”

Situation 5

Narrator: “Well, Ursula […] could use a best friend now.” Best friend: “Hi!” Ursula: “He’s in the shower.” Best friend, distracted: “Not anymore.” George, naked: “Bad waterfall. First, water get hot—” [A sexy saxophone plays] George, cont’d: “Then George slips on this strange yellow rock.” [Perspective: the camera looks at the two women, seen from between George’s legs. They are clearly ogling his crotch.] [Ursula swoons.] George, noticing the friend: “Hi! George of jungle.” Friend, eager: “Charmed, I’m sure.” [Ursula hands George objects that barely cover his crotch. The camera switches back to a frontal view of George. The friend is still ogling George.] Best friend, mumbling appreciatively: “I see why they made him king of the jungle.” *** I hope this was helpful. Don’t hesitate to ask me any questions, and happy writing!

Follow me for more writing advice, or check out my other writing tips here. New topics to write advice about are also always appreciated.

1) A character in desperate circumstances is barely keeping their sanity together. They can not meaningfully improve their life, so they instead pursue a smaller, more attainable goal. It could be an item, an experience, a relationship, or some act of emotional catharsis.

2) While pursuing their goal, they become mentally unstable and take reckless actions. They will take unreasonable risks and cause harm to themselves or others along the way.

3) During their pursuit of their minor goal, an opportunity to improve their life meaningfully presents itself. They become conflicted and can not decide what action to take.

4) When the chance to get what they want finally comes within reach, the consequences of their reckless actions catch up to them in an unforseen way, and they lose out as a result.

5) They further descend, and begin clashing with more and more characters and of their life. This worsens their already unstable mental state until they reach a breaking point.

6) The character fundamentally changes, and their relationship to other characters and their own lives change as a result. They begin to succeed in ways they could not before, whether or not they realize it.

7) The new and changed character finally finds fulfillment, possibly in an unexpected way. The previously comedically tormented character that the audience has laughed at but rooted for all along self-actualizes and gives the audience an emotionally satisfying ending.

First Rule Of Comedy That Filmmakers Need To Know - David Zucker (Naked Gun, Airplane!)

When I think of writing comedy, I struggle too. But there are Definitely some things I've learnt from those experiences:

LET IT FLOW:

Honestly, just let your writing flow. When you're done with it, you have a few options. Go back to the scene where you want to incorporate humor and observe the surrounding scenes you've written. On basis of that, try brainstorming and you night come up with something.>Put yourself in your character's shoes and instead of spoken banter, focus on the situation. I'll give you a bit of an example:Character A and B are rivals and Character brings coffee for everyone and a caramel mocha specifically for Character B, knowing they hate it.

FIGURE OUT YOUR TYPE OF HUMOR:

Not everyone can have the same type of writing style and similarly it affects your humor. Things will differ A LOT from what you read and like to what you write. Because you're different and you need to realize that it's not necessarily bad. Your type of humor could be dry humor, based on irony, something easy to pick up or simply endearing.

So figure out what works best for you and work on it instead of letting it drag you down.

Problem: The Story Is Tonally Confused

Solution: What is the novel's general attitude, particularly given the story's descriptive specificity, the characters' emotional latitude, and the atmospheric dynamic of the feelings a specific scene is written to elicit? Tone is an interrelated mix of narrative forms and attributes. Identifying, organizing, and manipulating tone means establishing and controlling these attributes. But a word of caution is often warranted: Mixing and matching and glibly contrasting tone doesn't always come across as clever, to the reader, as the writer might imagine. Consistency and relevance are important.

Authors must know the difference between recognizing a scene's tone and sustaining it such that its rhythm lends the appropriate heft. Word choice matters. Character mood matters. Point of view matters. Scene structure matters. And in the end, disruptions matter, too.

Writing Resources:

How Do You Build a Novel's Tone? (Now Novel)

Suspense Writing: Examples and Devices for Tenser Stories (Now Novel)

Feeling Overwhelmed by Plot Points (Writing Questions Answered)

How to Fix Characters Who Are Too Similar (Writing Questions Answered)

Working Comedy and Romance Into Drama (Writing Questions Answered)

Selecting the Right Sentence Structure for the Right Emotion (September C. Fawkes)

Exactly How to Create and Control Tone (September C. Fawkes; ahbwrites)

By Alastair Craig

My nine years of co-writing for Cheeky Moon have been among the great joys of my life, ranking somewhere between the birth of my child and the time I accidentally touched a crowd-surfing Bruce Springsteen’s left buttock.

But creating amateur, low-budget comedy vignettes in your spare time isn’t always the glamorous life it’s made out to be. Here are five common problems everybody in the field faces — and which every newcomer should watch out for.

1. The medium isn’t widely respected

It’s not standup comedy. It’s not improv. By the time you describe what you actually do to a stranger, they’re already chatting to another wedding guest about their kitchen renovations. You didn’t even correct them when they said “skit”.

I can only extrapolate from my own experience, but you probably feel that your 35-year-old sister Hannah (an outstanding artist) and 32-year-old brother Anthony (a successful musical theatre star and children’s entertainer) have chosen far wiser creative paths, far easier to quantify and discuss; far worthier of respect and admiration.

Please rest assured you are not alone. I, too, have had these exact thoughts. We all have.

2. People will automatically assume you’re either siblings with or dating your writing partner, creating some awkward social misunderstandings

Also, she and your wife will share the same birthday. It’s very confusing.

3. You will accidentally go viral several times in the international nudist community

Be honest: who among us hasn't, at one time or another, co-created a YouTube comedy channel, cultivated a "shy and polite" image for its hosts, decided to subvert said image for laughs with the obligatory censored naked comedy sketch, then ended said sketch with a punchline so comedically body-positive that a lot of super-lovely nudists thought it was a genuinely good example of their own healthy message, causing said video to go viral among online naturist circles, then win a laurel for "BEST NUDIST FILM" at a clothing-optional film festival in Texas, in turn propelling it to a film program on an international nude cruise to the Caribbean, despite the original sketch in question exposing nary the faintest buttock?

It's a tale as old as time.

4. It is impossible to get a skin check with your dermatologist, a very kind and very bald man who stands just under nose height, without thinking about leaning forward and giving him a lovely little kiss on the head

Is there a sketch in this? Writer, beware these six dangerous words, for they may be your undoing.

When you have trained your brain to search for absurdity in every situation, ideas can surface in the worst of places.

Again, every writing journey is unique, but from my own research, I’ve found you’re most likely to encounter this problem at your scheduled twice-yearly skin cancer check in Brisbane’s eastern suburbs.

Standing in your underpants, trying not to get too ticklish under cold hands, you’re already on the defensive. There is precious little in this sterile room to focus on except the bald head of the kind specialist carefully inspecting that mole on your collarbone; a head seemingly bowed down and neatly presented to you, sitting so close he can surely feel your calm, controlled nasal breathing.

Then the inevitable thought arrives: if you really wanted to mess with the status quo — which you don’t, but what if you did — it would be the work of a mere moment to lean forward and give this very nice doctor a lovely little kiss on the head. Nothing weird. Just a quick peck to thank him for his hard work. Is there a sketch in this?

Once the idea is spinning - once the adjectives "lovely" and "little" have embellished it with a certain benign mischief - it cannot be unthought. Already your mind is racing ahead to structure and possible endings.

So you roll with it: what if a fictional character in your situation did have a strange urge to do this? How funny would it be to see a calm, collected patient standing there while a panicked inner voiceover urges “don’t lean forward and give your dermatologist a lovely little kiss on the head, don’t lean forward and give your dermatologist a lovely little-”, etc? What strange places would that thought process go? What bizarre leaps of logic would follow en route to the inevitable snap?

All the while you’re trying desperately not to laugh at this idea. Remember: at this distance, he can feel your breath. Any variation in rhythm or intensity could give you away. How sensitive is an unprotected human scalp to nearby nasal chortles?

Then you realise: your character’s situation (trying not to lean forward and give their doctor a lovely little kiss on the head) has functionally the same energy as yours (trying not to laugh about a character trying not to lean forward and give their doctor a lovely little kiss on the head). Both scenarios require one to keep a straight face and maintain the aforementioned calm, controlled nasal breathing.

Oh no. Oh no. Have you been controlling your breathing, or did a hint of mirth rush out of your traitorous nostrils just now?

At this point you realise your real life monologue has gotten just as frantic as the fictional one. This only makes the situation funnier, and the urge to laugh stronger. Hypothetical sketch and stark reality begin to blur. You wonder if it isn’t easier to cut out the middleman and just give him a lovely little kiss on the head yourself.

Should this, in fact, be a meta-sketch about a writer in your predicament? And while we’re here, who could play the doctor? Local actor and improviser Scott Driscoll seems to wear his baldness with a handsome confidence. Would it be insensitive to ask him based solely on a physical trait, even if — now you think of it — he’d be fantastic in the role regardless? And why is the doctor’s head still hovering under your nose? Is he still inspecting that same mole? Should you be worried? Has it been that long, or does time simply warp and congeal and lose all meaning around the conceptual gravity of leaning forward and giving your doctor a lovely little kiss on the head?

It’s a problem we all face, and there are no easy answers. After three years of increasingly difficult visits to same clinic, I can only impart the following advice:

Have a fallback excuse on standby if you do giggle, ideally one based on the truth (that you, like me, are famously ticklish).

It’s probably fine to ask Scott, so long as you offer something fun and interesting in the role and broach the topic in a transparent, respectful way. Alternatively, just namedrop him in a blog and passively hope he reads it at some point in the next two years.

Remind yourself: this whole bizarre situation is just wonderful. You are not only finding inspiration, but feeling a very specific energy you can channel almost 1:1 into your writing.

The mole is probably benign, but with your family history and pasty Irish/Scottish lineage, it’s very important to play it safe.

Above all: celebrate the absurdity of it all. This is the path you have chosen, and it makes life more interesting in the most surprising of ways. Whoever you are, and whatever your reasons for getting here, you need to be able to look in the mirror and say: “Alastair Craig, you are living your best life, and you are going to be okay”.

5. Your boss will earnestly recommend your work to colleagues by telling them you’re a “naked stand up comedian”

me: damn i wish i was that confident-