I'm interested in finding labels for the different types of gag/joke/funny bits that are available to us as writers, but I haven't found an article anywhere that goes into depth about this.
For example, one kind of gag is the "Pull Back And Reveal", explained best by Stewart Lee in this bit from Fist Of Fun:
"Comedians will never fail to surprise us with their inventive ways of doing the same pull back and reveal joke again and again. I will now demonstrate the "And Then I Got Off The Bus" joke.
You know the other day I got so drunk. I woke up bare ass naked, sick all over me, I had a traffic cone stuck up my bum. I was in a state of priapic excitement ... and then I got off the bus.
Rich: What? You were on a bus all along?
Stew: That's right.
Rich: I assumed you must have been at home on your own!
Stew: No. I was on a bus.
Rich: Wow! My expectations were confounded and from thence the humour arose!
--
So, "The Pull Back And Reveal" is one category - very often used in sitcoms as well as stand up (and I'm surprised by just how many jokes fall into this category).
Another might be the "Let's Pretend I'm X and You're Y" conversation, where two sitcom characters rehearse for an upcoming event (date, job interview etc) and it all goes hilariously wrong (example: Episode One of I'm Alan Partridge, when Alan prepares for his BBC pitch meeting).
Another could be called "Role Mix-Up" where characters suddenly start behaving as though their genders/familial roles have been swapped. Chandler and Joey behaving like husband and wife in Friends, for example - or characters playing parent/child roles during a scene.
I've invented these last two labels because I don't know what the standard ones are, or even if anyone has been nerdy enough to think any up.
Can anyone think of any more, or does anybody have a link to a page that discusses this?
