Contrast between Posts and Scripts

I've noticed something strange about the would-be writers on this forum-myself included or especially.We all seem to write terrific(not me,I'm too false modest to say I'm terrific)posts/comments/critiques that are very well constructed and very well written then post material that for some strange reason has become slightly stilted and self-conscious and worse of all is probably trying a bit too hard.Look at me!I'm really really really funny!Here's a joke!Here's another!And another!And I'm cutting edge too!This is so f**king post-modern it's unbelievable!If you don't "get" this then you haven't a clue,Grand-dad!This is what all the production companies and broadcasters are crying out for!Are they, though?Just write about what you know,experiences you've had,people you've known and believe in what you're writing.If you worked as a plumber for 10 years and hated every second of it then write about that.It'll be a comedy gold-mine for you.If you're a teacher write about that.If you work in the Job Centre write about that - The Job Lot ,anyone?If you smoke the happy fags regularly with other people write about that.Best of all,if you're angry about something write about it.I'm thinking of Pauline,Mickey Love and Ross in the Job Club on League of Gentleman which was so full of venomous rage and hatred but very funny.Go in peace.

Makes a lot of sense that. Though I think it's more vital for anyone wanting to write a decent sitcom to draw on their own experiences than for say a throwaway sketch or joke.
Didn't John Cleese say Fawlty was based on an actual hotel he had the good fortune to stop at?
Same with League of Gentlemen, I saw Reece Shearsmith say in an interview how 'Dave' came about after a landlord kept ringing up and kept asking for and would would only speak to 'Dave' though he meant Steve Pemberton.

What a peculiar posting.

I've written for the news revue a topical show for years. I've never held high public office or visited much of the world, hasn't stopped me writing about it.

I just sold a nice little script about golf management systems. But I wouldn't know one end of a club from another; or which one you hit the ball with and which one you get pissed in. (if anyone wants to see it I'll post up a link)

Some of us use critique to test ideas it's what it's there for. So the sitcoms I post up there are deeply flawed because I'm learning the trade.

But the mistakes I made in them helped me sell the 2 pilot scripts that I sold (neither produced c'est la vie still much to learn).

The pacing and gag writing skills in my sketch may not be perfect, but they've taught me alot. And opened a few doors that would otherwise have been closed.

You only really learn when you begin that long quest outside of your comfort zone. (indeed much of my writing earnings comes from writing jokes for women motivational speakers and comediennes I don't even know what a woman looks like with her clothes off).

Quote: Shandonbelle @ July 29 2013, 10:44 AM BST

Makes a lot of sense that. Though I think it's more vital for anyone wanting to write a decent sitcom to draw on their own experiences than for say a throwaway sketch or joke.
Didn't John Cleese say Fawlty was based on an actual hotel he had the good fortune to stop at?
Same with League of Gentlemen, I saw Reece Shearsmith say in an interview how 'Dave' came about after a landlord kept ringing up and kept asking for and would would only speak to 'Dave' though he meant Steve Pemberton.

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Those were both nuggets that were blown up too full size by genius.

kinda like the Aesops fable about stone soup.

Quote: sootyj @ July 29 2013, 10:47 AM BST

Those were both nuggets that were blown up too full size by genius.

kinda like the Aesops fable about stone soup.

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Nuggets yes, blown up, no....why would they need to blow them up? or do you mean the nuggets grew because of their genius as writers??
It's common knowledge I would have thought that writers draw on their own experiences, tap into things they see around them and have ideas spring from everyday situations.

Quote: sootyj @ July 29 2013, 10:47 AM BST

What a peculiar posting.

I've written for the news revue a topical show for years. I've never held high public office or visited much of the world, hasn't stopped me writing about it.

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Yes but you trawl the news stories for that sort of writing.

Yes but it's still completely outside of my experience in the real world.
I wrote a couple of scripts based on my work life, but meh I like to have fun as well.

I've started work on a sitcom idea with a friend, he also says that you should write what you know, I disagree. I think a writer's naivety/ignorance can lead to far more comic situations that a limited number of first-hand anecdotes.

I have a rule; if the characters do something technical for example, as long as my solution would literally work then it's good to go. This can result in characters using bizarre methods/tools/logic etc.

E.g. Rocket Scientists probably use complex 3D applications, number crunching and theorising. Our sitcom scientists could use Blue Peter-like materials and fireworks... and small children in jet-powered prams with a traffic cone stuck on the front. Which scenario will get the laughs?

Real life experience is a limited resource, imagination is boundless. And paragraphs are pretty.

Good point often if you write what you know alot about you get stuck in minutaie or jokes that are only funny to you.

So for example in my job subtle diferences in welfare benefits or mental health conditions are funny. To anyone else boring and incomprehensible. Not to mention probably in poor taste.

I think you need a little interest and awareness on the subject. But Pauline was created by a talented writer stuck in a sure start course, not the manager of a job centre.

We all know about the human experience, it is the universal translated through the individual and back to the universal that constitutes art.

Quote: Marc P @ July 29 2013, 2:21 PM BST

We all know about the "human experience", they were my prog rock group that I was in the 1970s. I remember when me David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Ming Campbell had a yard of benelyn contest. Lovely boys I do wonder what became of them?

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You're like a literary Austin Powers!

The last thing I want to do when I get home from work is write about my job. Which is actually a shame, because my last boss was a sitcom all in himself; but then that is the point. it is the character in the situation, not the situation itself, that is funny. In comedy it is after all who you know, not what you know that counts.

Quote: sootyj @ July 29 2013, 2:26 PM BST

You're like a literary Austin Powers!

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Yeah baby!

Wise words dolphin chap.

A good sitcom should be equally set on the moon or in Halfords, its the character and situation that's important.

My postings are concise masterpieces of wit, as is my sitcom.

Wit is the distillation of observation with humour. So the concise is tautological and you pluralise your sitcom with your postings, but yet the sitcom is singular. 3/10

Quote: sootyj @ July 29 2013, 2:36 PM BST

Wise words dolphin chap.

A good sitcom should be equally set on the moon or in Halfords, its the character and situation that's important.

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I like the idea of a shop on the moon for Moon-Bikes.

Off-road bikes with really, really fat wheels and soft suspension with long-travel.