Hello, hello, hello. What's going on here then?
Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder Page 4
Quote: Badge @ March 4 2009, 12:47 AM GMTIs it really necessary to italicise my post? (For later readers my earlier effort was censored for not putting "Allo Allo" in italics. Which I suppose might happen again)
No, but it was necessary to correct the name of the show. 
Quote: Aaron @ March 4 2009, 1:26 AM GMTNo, but it was necessary to correct the name of the show.
I knew you'd say that! But you've left it wrong second time, so there is seemingly a limit to your obsession.
Nah, just thought I'd leave it in order to show the incorrectness. Or something.
Anyway. Gay Nazi. Funny.
Quote: Aaron @ March 3 2009, 9:52 PM GMTCertainly as a viewer, and I would hope and expect as a writer, being funny is the primary concern. If it's original too, then that's a nice bonus.
As a writer and as a viewer I find if I'm writing/watching something that has been done countless times before in the exact same way, then I don't find it funny. Being funny and original play in to each other.
I think some people have this unwarranted idea of 'original' as meaning artsy and up itself, but that is a very narrowminded view of originality.
Quote: Lee Henman @ March 3 2009, 10:06 PM GMTWell obviously. But it's always a mistake to assume that just because something's been done before, it should be avoided. How many family-related shows have been on our screens in the past? You'd think the subject would've been done to death (and perhaps it has), but still they keep getting commissioned, and still continue to pull huge audiences.
That is kind of what I saying, if you can put a new spin or add something to a well known format then by all means go ahead. Not Going Out uses the flat-share set up which has been done many times, but the style of the show, basically fast flowing gags makes it original.
The mistake a lot of new writers make is to try to be too experimental and out-there with their ideas. What they don't know is what that actually does is turn commissioners off. (Believe me, I know this from experience) Unless you're a writer-performer who has demonstrated in the flesh that your bizarre new black and white musical comedy with Rumanian lyrics actually works and is funny, it won't get past the first page. Do you think The Boosh would've been commissioned if it hadn't been a successful live stage show first? Not a chance.
So if anything, as new writers we have to toe the line and stick to safe-ish ideas until such time as we're extraordinarily successful and can go out and write that hilarious comedy set on Venus starring a many-penised alien milkman called Horatio.
See, I just can't buy that. And hey maybe I'll never make it as a writer, but I just wouldn't see the point if I was creating something uninspired and unoriginal, that any old writer could churn out. If I was working on someone else's uninspired and unoriginal show, then fair enough, it wouldn't be ideal but at least it isn't your creation and it can be a good place to start and build your way up.
But personally I wouldn't write something that I don't enjoy and that to me, would be something that has been done countless times over and taken past the point of being able to add anything new to it.
So yeah, maybe that is a negative as far as trying to break in to the business goes, but I'll take the Larry David/Charlie Kaufman route for now. 
Oh and The Boosh should have never been comissioned in the first place.
Quote: Martin Holmes @ March 4 2009, 4:40 PM GMTSee, I just can't buy that.
Exactly the words of commissioners dealing with most new writers.
I'm going off personal advice from people like Shane Allen (C4 commissioner), Micheal Jacob, Head Of Comedy at Hat Trick...
Honestly, if you want to get on and break in, you have to be a bit "safe". That doesn't mean you have to be boring or uninspiring though. But as a new writer you're meant to be breaking down walls, not building them. You have to understand it from a producer's or commissioners POV. You're an unknown quantity. A risky bet. That's why most people in the industry "rise through the ranks" as it were. It takes very small steps, believe me. And the chances of getting an untried, untested format off the ground by a new writer are almost nil.
Quote: Lee Henman @ March 4 2009, 5:24 PM GMTAnd the chances of getting an untried, untested format off the ground by a new writer are almost nil.
WHAT?!?
Right, I give up then . . .
Quote: Martin Holmes @ March 4 2009, 4:40 PM GMTAs a writer and as a viewer I find if I'm writing/watching something that has been done countless times before in the exact same way, then I don't find it funny. Being funny and original play in to each other.
So in other words, still all you care about is being funny - but for you, originality is (generally) requisite for something to be funny.
Quote: Seefacts @ March 4 2009, 5:52 PM GMTWHAT?!?
Right, I give up then . . .
Don't tease me!
Anyway, this needs moving to another thread if the conversation is to be continued. Stick to Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder now please!
Quote: Lee Henman @ March 4 2009, 5:24 PM GMTExactly the words of commissioners dealing with most new writers.
I'm going off personal advice from people like Shane Allen (C4 commissioner), Micheal Jacob, Head Of Comedy at Hat Trick...
Honestly, if you want to get on and break in, you have to be a bit "safe". That doesn't mean you have to be boring or uninspiring though. But as a new writer you're meant to be breaking down walls, not building them. You have to understand it from a producer's or commissioners POV. You're an unknown quantity. A risky bet. That's why most people in the industry "rise through the ranks" as it were. It takes very small steps, believe me. And the chances of getting an untried, untested format off the ground by a new writer are almost nil.
But you see many comments from commissioners saying that they get too many scripts that are similar and too much like current popular shows. Like just after The Office finished its second series, the BBC received hundreds of scripts in the style of The Office and that isn't what they wanted. I think they definitely encourage you to add your own voice and style, so that it stands out.
When I say original, I don't mean I'd send in a script in a completely ludicrous setting, with off-the-wall characters. I think that most of the scripts I've written are grounded and the setting isn't too wild (a rundown service station, a group of street performers, a bungalow and most recently a shabby house near a cemetary), but I like to come at each script with original ideas and unique twists which for me add the humour.
As I said earlier, I think people mistake the idea of 'originality' as artsy, up itself, mad-cap concepts, that as you rightly say, would find it very difficult getting commissioned if you are a new writer. That wasn't the definition of originality I was getting at, I was simply talking about bringing a fresh perspective to a script, whether it be a commonly used setting or otherwise.
That Al Murry's Multiple Personality Disorder eh?
Well, with one episode left (moved to Sunday next week), this has been an excellent series, perhaps particularly so as ITV's first venture into sketch since ... God knows. (Even though it's been produced outside.)
Great cameo by Sylvester McCoy in episode six, but for me the fabulous Laura Solon has stolen the series. Carol Price is a work of art, both in writing and characterisation. Superb. IMO, she's probably the greatest female comic performer we have in this country at the moment.
And of course honourable mention to Duncan Bannatyne for his role.