Screenwriting : Comedy Writers - Best Techniques / Approaches to Generate Jokes for a Scene? by Lit Kilpatrick

Nick Assunto - Stage 32 Script Services Coordinator - I was hoping you would answer this one!! Thank you for a tiny portion of your comedy wisdom!! I can see how key it is to lay out the rules and restrictions (for characters and / or for situations) and use them to create funny and difficult conflicts for the characters to try to navigate. Thank you for the concrete techniques - I kinda thought no one was going to answer my question in part because it's so broad and in part because it doesn't seem like many writers here write comedy (or maybe I'm mistaken). I took a webinar by Vijal Patel on S32 and also signed up for the comedy pilot webinar that takes place tomorrow, and I have been reading a bunch of half-hour comedy pilots. The tone for this new idea I'm working on is somewhere on the spectrum of Parks n Rec and Barry - or Parks n Rec but with goofy and shocking violence allowed from time to time. But not pushed as far as The Boys.

Subverting expectations is always a good route to take. Try to go somewhere unexpected or that isn’t the natural path for a dialogue exchange. A good example is this 30 Rock one:

Tracy: I’ll have an orange juice.

Waiter: I’m sorry, sir, we don’t have any orange juice.

Tracy: Then I’ll have a vodka tonic.

Jenny Rauch and Nick - this is so helpful and clear - setup an expectation, then give an unexpected result, but that result is best it if it comes from the character or situation so that it doesn't devolve into total random absurdity. Keep the techniques coming if you have them. I watched the waiters who are nauseated by food - very funny!

Sweet Jesus Nick Assunto - Stage 32 Script Services Coordinator you are so detailed!!!

Giving a character a secret nobody else knows about/having a character flaw that causes them to take a physical action only they could/ turning audiences expectations against them,(similar to @Jenny's comment) are three off top of my head.

I like the idea of a character having a limited toolset for whatever reason - due to flaw or weakness - and then having to apply the wrong 'tool' for the 'job' (scenario / problem at hand) or applying the right tool but in a totally inept way - and that leading to funny or unexpected or awkward or unintentional, etc. result.

Lit Kilpatrick I love both of those shows so I love the tonal mashup. Like Nick said it’s kind of all about doing the opposite of what’s expected/wanted by a character in a situation. And just write what you think is funny. Let the comedy come through in your voice as well.

Nick Assunto - Stage 32 Script Services Coordinator I am a huge fan of tiny setups with big payoffs. Throw away jokes becoming major storylines down the road. It seems like you approach your writing with such love and care. No wonder you’re optioned now! ;)

Imagine if Leslie Knope had rivals mauled and maimed every once in a while (not every episode) to get what she wanted, but most everything else about the tone, plotlines, etc. remained the same, so the blood and injuries were treated as being goofy-funny. That doesn't get at my series setup, but that's the tone that I'm playing with for the show. It's set in a semi-famous (and real) small coastal town in the U.S. with a very wide array of people living there in a specific kind of 'paradise' but very different from Pawnee.

Lit Kilpatrick are you going mockumentary? I think it’ll be a fine line to walk because with Barry your lead is inherently a bad guy (i.e. being a hit man) so the violent rules he is playing by make sense. Whereas a Leslie Knope is very much not that. I’m super interested to see where you go with this.

Great post! I'm learning comedy techniques to bolster my rom-com, so am taking notes. Two other things to heighten comedy: (1) Comedic irony. It's the same technique as dramatic irony (Jason Mirch did a breakdown webinar on this recently), namely have a character or your viewers know something that the main character doesn't know, to build the comedy as he/she says/does the totally wrong thing, and we wait for the situation to "blow up". (2) Visual comedy. See the video "Every Frame a Painting", which Nick Assunto - Stage 32 Script Services Coordinator and Richard RB Botto posted a few days ago. It features Edgar Wright, director of HOT FUZZ, SHAUN OF THE DEAD, and THE WORLD'S END. I watched these genre-blending comedies at Nick's suggestion, and they had me laughing out loud.

Hey Lit, Tim Ferguson is a very well known Australian comedian who teaches comedy. I found his insights to be the best I've seen, demystifying what comedy actually is and he starts out by explaining what laughter is and why we do it. He teaches narrative comedy and bases it in Aristotle, but has done all sorts of comedy - live, sketch etc. He also has a (one page?) list of every type of gag there is in his course - every gag is some kind variation on these, its great. He explains comic principles too...I could go on. His blog may be worth checking out for ideas - https://www.cheekymonkeycomedy.com

Jenny Rauch, Nick Assunto - Stage 32 Script Services Coordinator - I wonder if you might have further ideas on comedy style / direction / dynamics with this concept in mind - in a nutshell it's centered mostly on a father-daughter relationship where she / daughter hates that they moved to a new small-ish town so when a local cult decides she is their leader re-incarnated she uses them to flip the power dynamic on her poor dad (who has deep seeded issues with authority) and go from defying him to trying to completely taking over, but of course the cult often takes matters into their own hands and things go off the rails frequently as they all struggle for control. (I'm a father and have a very smart and strong-willed young daughter, so this concept is channelling that love mixed with that power struggle.) I have specific, very dynamic town in mind that will offer an unusually wide mix of characters but don't want to give it all away here. Jenny Rauch - are you part of the S32 Writers' Room? If I can get a good draft of this done I might share it with a script swapping group there that I co-lead called the Coverage Report where we give one another written and verbal coverage / feedback / notes on drafts of our scripts. Martha Caprarotta - will we ever get to read on of your scripts for Coverage Report - your feedback is always so helpful and I would love to read one!!

Writing comedy for fun is a very serious business - much harder than writing drama, I think. I would watch the classics - the Marx Brothers, Jack Benny, Charlie Chaplin, watch Buster Keaton, Billy Wilder to name a few - things haven't changed as much as you might think --but there is so much you can learn from these masters.

Lit, I like to listen to comedy albums...especially those by Flip Wilson, Justin Wilson, Moms Mabley, George Carlin, Lily Tomlin, Bob Newhart, Mort Sahl, Dick Gregory, Jonathan Winters, and (I might get some people upset at me for this) Bill Cosby.

Justin and Flip were more storytellers than conventional standup comics...but they still packed in the laughs. Mort, Dick, George, and Moms were four of the most topical comics I've ever heard (and four of the most topical comedians who ever lived...okay, I like to think so!).

I like Lily's style, and I like the craziness Jonathan and Bob brought to the table...as well as Bill's amazing sense of humor (that is...the sense of humor he flashed before Stuff happened in Bill's life).

But listening to albums by those artists helps give me inspiration when I'm hacking out my own scripts.

All the VERY BEST to you, Lit! Glad you're here on Stage 32!

I take a lot of inspiration from life experiences and conversations with friends.

The secret ingredient, and I can't stress this enough, is to hold a void of self loathing within your soul so impossible to fill that distracting people via laugher is the only hope you have of hiding the worthless sociopath you truly are.

That and butt jokes. LOL. Butts.

I hate routines, techniques, jokes especially, when it comes to comedy. My experience, people legit think I'm funny when I'm being DEAD SERIOUS... it's annoying but I accept my fate.

Funny is just people who have things to say or stories to tell... maybe their is a craft to it... but any craft related to comedy would involve something that almost is the antithesis of comedy... just be yourself, if u funny u funny w/e

Jessica B , thanks for sharing that link! Will check it out. Lit Kilpatrick, gee, thank you. I've been writing my horror rom-com and promise that you'll see it when it's done. But had to set that aside temporarily to write the opening of my inspirational true story screenplay, for this month's Write Now Challenge. Yeah, I'm writing in several different genres, wherever the story takes me.

Selma Karayalcin agreed! Martha Caprarotta hope it goes well :) Lit Kilpatrick I'd watch that, pretty sure cults are the best source of comic inspiraton there is... With the father and daughter, it might be good to get their character down to one word (again Tim Ferguson's suggestion). Then three words that stem from that one word. So think of the characters in Simpsons. They're funny because they're over simplified, predictable and flawed as hell. The surprise comes in the way you set them up to fail, and the way they react. That's your unique voice. Remember that the laugh comes from that surprise, but also from expectaiton. People laugh because they're uncomfortable - it's a release of tension, but in situations where they know their life isn't in danger. Comic characters inevitably revert to their character, they inevitably fail, get in their own way and it's funny because its true to life and it makes us squirm a little. Comedy is the most difficult to write because it's closest to truth. If they do grow and evolve through the series, it may be a dramedy (?). HOpe some of this helps and sorry if it's obvious, it was a revealation to me haha.

My brother is the best comedic writer I know. He believes you keep it serious and let the ridiculous come from that. A misunderstanding, people acting inappropriately etc.

Lit Kilpatrick I am and I’d love to read it! I also agree with Nick Assunto - Stage 32 Script Services Coordinator that it all kind of depends on where you want the humor to come from. Like does it feel like a regular sit com but just with these outrageous situations? Is the dialogue quippy? Does the daughter break the 4th wall, or is it a mockumentary? I think it’ll be really important how the characters relate and react to each other in this world you’re creating. To take a lesson from Parks and Rec, the biggest change they made in season 2 was how the other characters reacted to Leslie. When they started taking her seriously instead of finding her annoying, so did we as the audience.

Also I have a 3 year old daughter who frequently holds up her hand and says “just hold on mommy” so I love that your relationship with your daughter is part of your inspiration!

Nick Assunto - Stage 32 Script Services Coordinator , Jenny Rauch , Jessica B - thank you for the advice and recommendations!! I want to explain a little more to see if the brain trust here has a good example to study. I love the 1-word and then the 3-word character exercise. The dad is generally the straight man, though just as that dynamic can change or flip for a particular scene or situation, I'll allow him to be a bit more extreme and locked into his ways from time to time in scenes where the wife (who I didn't mention), or certain officials or others become the straight man as they check in on things. In terms of the mix of violence, gore, comedy, and cult activity, it's going to be more Fargo than Sam Raimi. My cult as it stands takes an extreme (in a mostly goofy and lighthearted way) view of 'non-attachment'. (the cult's philosophy is ultimately contradictory, but that's central to the challenges they will face as a group, causing crises for them in future episodes, and part of the fun.) They want to bring civilization to a standstill by slowing everything way down and simplifying as much as possible. So they see getting key jobs and not doing them as a worthy cause, and generally interfering with incompetence and non-action, which sets small disasters in motion all over the place and they're not allowed to grieve because that's attachment. They think their source of bliss is pure negligence and laziness. And allowing bedlam and disaster is good because how they and others react to these things is a test of how unattached and unaffected they are. But for the purposes of the show concept, by the end of the pilot they are interpreting how to do this in service of the daughter's desires to not have to obey her parents and to ultimately try to have power over them. Admittedly I'm working how how the tone and 'mechanics' of its expression in the comedy and sometimes violence will work as I begin to write the pilot. So with that - any new advice or references to check out would be great!! (Though this has already been really helpful - thank you!)

I love the book "the Eight Characters of Comedy' By Scott Sedita! It's gold for writing comedy and it highlights the different types of characters and their different rhythms in 99% of all sitcoms

Maddison Bullock - that looks like a great book - thank you!

Sometimes the characters just come up with the jokes themselves. I guess that goes along with what y'all have been saying above! I'm a big fan of characters with one stupid quirk and wondering how they'd react in certain situations (like what Debbie said above, the flaw). Also, drop a nugget and then bring it back around for the payoff.

Fish out of water situations are funny too. Sign up for Team Comedywire and you'll get good practice writing one-liners and being upvoted on them (or not).

I have to disagree with Craig...misunderstandings in comedy STRESS me out. Watching the Flinstones as a kid gave me heartburn.

Thanks for asking the question, it's so great to get ideas from all you brilliant minds.

Cannon Rosenau - Comedywire looks great - fun way to get warmed up!

Lit Kilpatrick Based on that cult concept, I think you’ll get a lot of comedy out of the audience seeing and laughing at the hypocritical words and actions of the cult members. Is the daughter the protagonist? If we are seeing this through her lens, her reaction to the crazy and violent stuff happening around her will inform how the audience feels about it. Like if someone has their arm cut off in front of her and some blood spatters on her shirt, she gets really upset and then is like “this was my favorite shirt! That’s never coming out!” You get the joke with the subverting expectations and you also tell the audience that this is normal shit in this world

To me character comedy is the richest. Not based on jokes. Neil Simon. Seinfeld. Jack Benny. All In the Family. Schitt's Creek.

Break expectations of the character in a funny way, this generates laughter. Example : Fred talks about this wonderful restaurant to his friend Tom and when they sit down an angry waitress serves cold hamburger instead of the expected delicious food. Show how the character trys to deal with the situation and maybe in ignoring it and keeping a smile or saying something funny as an excuse..

CJ Walley - I just did a page-1 rewrite and now it's 100% butt jokes. So much better. (All character driven butt jokes, obv.)