All i'm saying if your characters have a believable history the dialogue will be believable just like real people. I think it's a bad mistake to listen to conversations from strangers and working it in the dialogue. Every person is different you see. So are your characters.
Surely backstory helps you work out WHAT your characters will say.
Dialogue is about HOW they say it. I like that to sound like real people. So I like to listen to real people.
Anyway, we all work differently I guess.
As the original question was about sketches, it depends what sort of stuff you write.
Character stuff like Ted & Ralph, or stuff that's more wordy like Fry & Laurie then dialogue is important, but if you writing quicker, sillier stuff like Big Train than dialogue isn't really important I don't think. Just get to the joke as soon as possible.
I wouldn't bother writing big back stories for sitcoms. I like stuff to come out of the writing process - attitudes, words, and lines show who the character is.
Thanks everyone for your help.
No-one has yet mentioned 'rhythme'.
I think this is vital in comedy writing.
Listen to the way Groucho Marx speaks, or the way a great comedian tells a joke.
It's almost musical.
The stress has to fall on the right[usually funny] word naturally.
you have to control that with your sentence structure
Sometimes it means adding words, some times cutting them out.
When it's read back it should be easy with no 'lumpy' bits that hold things up.
Of course real people don't talk like that.
But most real people aren't funny.
Of course real people don't talk like that.
But most real people aren't funny.
You have to take the right bits from real people. Phrases, vocabulary, what they talk about, how they talk about it. Of course you can't quote their speech verbatim. It's all about trying to observe the world around you. The danger in not doing that is that all of your characters just sound like you talking.
Then again, some forms of comedy are completely removed from real people, so then it doesn't matter. I don't think there was ever anybody in the world who talked like any of the characters on Blackadder except for possibly General Melchett who is a recognisable silly-buffer archetype.
Eliminating clichés is always a good plan. Don't start sentences with 'well', 'basically', 'as it happens' etc.
Quote: Lazzard @ October 13 2008, 12:55 PM BSTNo-one has yet mentioned 'rhythme'.
I think this is vital in comedy writing.
Listen to the way Groucho Marx speaks, or the way a great comedian tells a joke.
It's almost musical.
The stress has to fall on the right[usually funny] word naturally.
you have to control that with your sentence structure
Sometimes it means adding words, some times cutting them out.
When it's read back it should be easy with no 'lumpy' bits that hold things up.
Of course real people don't talk like that.
But most real people aren't funny.
I can read a script with some low classical music on in the background. I don't like it when I am writing dialogue though.
Rhythyme - is that like Rhythm in time or Rhyme in reason?