Foreshadowing in comedy. Page 2
One of my favourites is Father Jack's brick, which ultimately saves Dougals life.
I think it works brilliantly - as long as you dont see it coming. Bit of a contradiction, but if you suddenly understand whats happening AS it happens, rather than waiting for it to happen, it can be magic. Its the difference between somebody giving you money to buy your own birthday present and being surprised with a specially wrapped gift - either way you get a treat, but its nice to know a bit of effort's gone into it!
Plus, you feel a bit clever, which never hurts.
The Mighty Boosh use this too - particularly (I think) in series 2. I've read Julian and Noel discussing it and they refer to it as a 'super joke'.
Quote: earman2009 @ October 12 2008, 12:17 PM BSTOne of my favourites is Father Jack's brick, which ultimately saves Dougals life.
A better example is the little square patch of dirt left on Father Ted's window.
A friend of mine came up with a brilliant idea for a bit of foreshadowing to be used in a sitcom. Absolute bloody genius. So ingenius in fact that I'm not going to tell you as you'd want to nick it.
Quote: Afinkawan @ October 13 2008, 1:09 PM BSTA friend of mine came up with a brilliant idea for a bit of foreshadowing to be used in a sitcom. Absolute bloody genius. So ingenius in fact that I'm not going to tell you as you'd want to nick it.
*Waits for this to be resolved three pages from now*
Quote: Afinkawan @ October 13 2008, 1:09 PM BSTA better example is the little square patch of dirt left on Father Ted's window.
*Does Nazi salute*
Quote: Ironhide @ October 10 2008, 11:49 PM BSTI think the best use of foreshadowing is where you don't see it coming at all. See Frasier, for example, where they manage it all the time. Brilliant, complex set ups that all come together for one ridiculous and yet perfectly logical pay off.
Definitely agree - like a good detective story, the clues are there but the viewer/reader doesn't spot their signicance until the end. There is the odd exception where it's funniest if the audience can see the crash happen in slow mo (normally due to the nature of the character it's going to happen to), although in these cases you should still make the pay-off occur, or develop, in a v.unexpected way.
Quote: Afinkawan @ October 13 2008, 1:09 PM BSTA better example is the little square patch of dirt left on Father Ted's window.
Yeah okay fine, but the brick's still better!