Saying Funny Things VS Saying things Funny

I hear the latter holds more water. I agree.

If your characters are solid, and their dialogue distinguishable (basically they have their own personality) then you can pull off comedy without one-liners, in my opinion.

Personally I loathe the idea of having canned laughter on a show I wrote, because I think it's a con to make your audience laugh at what is otherwise not very funny. Amusing, maybe, but not laugh-out-loud funny.

EXAMPLE:

INT. FLORISTS - DAY

It's raining outside. A SWEET OLD LADY enters holding a motorbike helmet.

TONY is a florist and he's arranging some flowers in a vase fairly heavy-handedly. Some of the flowers are breaking under the strain and petals are falling all over the desk.

OLD LADY
Hello. Have you got any Lillies?

TONY
(Still focused on the flower arranging)
No.

OLD LADY
Well, have you got any roses? It's
for my husband's funeral you see.

TONY
No Roses. Got Daisies.

OLD LADY
Is that all you've got? I was planning
on spending a bit more on him you see.

TONY
Got daisies and that's it.

OLD LADY
Are you alright? You seem a bit upset.

TONY
(Stops arranging and looks at her)
I don't know the first thing about
flowers. I know we've got daisies.
They're over there.

He points to a pot of decomposing daisies.

OLD LADY
OK I'll take a dozen.

TONY stops what he's doing and gets the daisies. Puts them in a piece of Newspaper.

TONY
Open or wrapped?

OLD LADY
Oh, wrapped please.

TONY
Salt and vinegar?

God that was shit! But just an example of character exposition. Here's the one-liner version...

INT. FLORISTS - DAY

It's raining outside. A SWEET OLD LADY enters holding a motorbike helmet.

TONY is a florist and he's arranging some flowers in a vase fairly heavy-handedly. Some of the flowers are breaking under the strain and petals are falling all over the desk.

OLD LADY
Excuse me, have you got any Lillies?

TONY
Do I look like a bloody florist?

OLD LADY
It's just I wanted some flowers
for my husband's funeral. He had
dissentary.

TONY
Shit happens.

OLD LADY
That wasn't very nice.

TONY
Neither is Syphillis dear. Trust me.
You want some or not?

OLD LADY
Go on then.

TONY Nods.

TONY
You... erm... wanna go out back?

OLD LADY
Where shall I put my helmet?

TONY
Anywhere you like love. Where
shall I put mine?

Even though both are worth a laugh, I think one liners hinder dramatic tension which I think is an important aspect of a comic scene.

Feel free to discuss and rip apart my shitty examples!

I see what you're getting at. And that is why generally I find that some jokes only work in a certain situation because of how they are said and the meaning.

Put the same line in another situation and it's just not remotely funny.

That's one reason I don't like Friends because its just joke after joke after joke.

Although of course Not Going Out is similar.

Another thing, a string of one liners seems desperate. In my experience, if you concentrate on writing line after line of comebacks and absurdities you can lose perspective of the bigger picture of the scene.

Lose that concept and it could spread throughout your entire works.

Friends is the standard comedy: set-up, punchline. Repeat.

I think as a comedy writer, not a performer, a lot of my work is quite gag-heavy because i somehow don't trust potential actors to deliver the lines in as funny a way as i would like.

I think this is a problem for amateur writers as they rely too heavily on literary gags and less on subtle quips and visual humour. I suppose when you have something produced/filmed you get more of a feel for these factors.

IMHO

Quote: Jeremy Smith @ October 24, 2007, 9:49 PM

Friends is the standard comedy: set-up, punchline. Repeat.

View original

Friends is the ultimate Sitcom. I hate the canned laughter though, and would love to see if my enjoyment of it would differ if I saw it without the canned laughter.

I know it's conventional for Sitcoms/Sketch shows to have canned laughter. And as for the set-up, punchline, repeat, it's hardly very sophisticated. Innovation is what keeps civilisation running. Does that concept apply to writing comedy?

Great thread. I'm totally with you. I'm not a "joke" man myself, either. I like realism in my sitcoms.

Personally, Hardcorr, I think it's a false comparison. The example you gave of the two sketches? They start the same, go in a very broadly similar direction (the idea that she wants flowers but only daisies are available is the common ground) but they end in different ways.

IMO they are not the same sketch done two different ways, they are two different sketches based loosely around a similar premise.

PS I liked both.

BTW the first sketch which is supposedly more 'character driven' and 'natural' I found contained as many absurdities and one-liners as the latter. For example, the salt and vinegar line, open or wrapped, etc. One man's one-liner is another man's character-driven line seems to be the lesson I picked up.

To comment on the original thread's premise. I think a great comedy needs the two in equal measure, not one at the expense of the other.

Quote: Hardcorr @ October 24, 2007, 9:57 PM

Friends is the ultimate Sitcom. I hate the canned laughter though, and would love to see if my enjoyment of it would differ if I saw it without the canned laughter.

View original

For a good example of this: Operation Good Guys. First series no canned laughter and great. Second and third ruined by canned laughter. So obtrusive. Canned laughter is for the moronic lazy passive generation that need to be prompted like Pavlovian dogs for their 'expected' response. So I totally agree, canned laughter is cringeworthy.

Quote: Hardcorr @ October 24, 2007, 9:57 PM

And as for the set-up, punchline, repeat, it's hardly very sophisticated. Innovation is what keeps civilisation running. Does that concept apply to writing comedy?

View original

Yes, but the nature of humans and what they laugh at doesn't really change. The joke remains the same, it's only the context that changes and makes it 'new'.

As I said before, the true great comedies that have lasted time have both elements in equal measure.

SlagA you rock. I love you!

What I was trying to do was juxtapose the 2 styles of comedy onto a similar premise. Yeah, they ended differently. I wasn't writing a textbook. Just trying to show my interpretation of the two different styles as an execise.

I agree that Humans laugh at the same thing. And comedy isn't a science. My point is exactly that.

Set-up, Punchline, repeat ad infinitum. That's a science!

It all depends on whether you can write decent, traditional gags. Friends, Fraiser, hey even Seinfeld had those style gags and they worked brilliantly. After the recent surge of 'cringe humour' where there are no jokes instead just a bunch of people 'reacting' I'm in the mood for some good old jokes. The characters can still be rich and the humour can still be derived from many other points, but a sitcom can still be full of one-liners...like Fraiser and more recently Not Going Out.

Even a sitcom like Curb Your Enthusiasm from time to time drops in a really witty one-liner.

How about saying funny things funny?

Hello,

What are the chances of garnering a ban on the use of the word 'juxtapose'?

Maybe we can Paraphrase the word Juxtapose in any impending forum dialogue

Just can't tell I've got a Thesaurus/Lexicon handy/accessible.

Quote: jdubya @ October 25, 2007, 9:23 AM

What are the chances of garnering a ban on the use of the word 'juxtapose'?

View original

I rather like 'juxtapose'; not so keen on 'garnering', though.

Quote: Martin Holmes @ October 25, 2007, 12:08 AM

After the recent surge of 'cringe humour' where there are no jokes instead just a bunch of people 'reacting'

View original

There are tons of one liners in these types of shows. They're just not laid out on a plate for you to see. If we're talking mockumentary and the interviewer asks a question, that's the set up and then the interviewee give the answer, that being the punchline. It's just presented differently.

Traditional:

MAN1: Your dog has no nose mate.
MAN2: Yeah I know.
MAN1: Well how does he smell?
MAN2: Awful.

Cringe homour:

MAN1: Can I ask what's wrong with your dog?
MAN2: His previous owner treated him...
MAN1: Woof?
MAN2: Sorry?
MAN1: Nothing.
MAN2: Yeah, he was badly beaten, even lost his nose.
MAN1: So how does he smell?
MAN2: Awful.
(MAN1 tries to hide his laugh)

Sorry, got a bit carried away there but yeah, same joke - packaged differently.

I'm not saying one is better then the other.

Although I do prefer the traditional lately.