Saying Funny Things VS Saying things Funny Page 2

Quote: JohnnyD @ October 25, 2007, 12:19 PM

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

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yeah 'garnering' stinks too. IMHO 'juxtapose' is a horrible word only used by students trying to sound clever (no disrespect HC). 'Juxtaposition' is even worse.

'contrast' does the job much better I find.

meanwhile back on topic...

I feel there's more of a trend at the moment to more realistic dialogue. That's not to say you can't have jokes there. Certain characters do tell jokes/ respond with one liners as part of their everyday life.

So in summary either done well are fine by me.

I hadn't watched Alan Partridge for a good long while and was horrified when I caught an episode on UK Gold the other night, only to find it had a laughter track puked all over it. Maybe it's the post Office (post office?) world we live in now, but slapping a braying audience on top of proceedings seems more unneccesary than ever.

Sorry about the word use of JUXTAPOSE guys. Unfortunately it was the only word that had the right meaning for what I was trying to explicate.

I would like also to mention that I'm not a student, and I'll try to use shorter, more pleasant sounding words in future to avoid seeming to be trying to be clever.

I don't want to seem clever, as I am not clever. I have never contributed to the conception or construction of a particle accelerator, for example. Neither have I decoded any section of the human genome.

I can't multiply 3.1 by 79.8 in my head. I would have to be clever to do this. Of course even if I could, I would resist claiming I had the ability to perform such a task as it might look like I was trying to be clever.

In contrast, if someone else had this ability and naively demonstrated it on this forum, I would not hesitate to ridicule them, especially if someone else had beaten me to the punch.

My bad! So if anyone has a better word for me to use in future (as short and pleasant sounding as possible) please post it. But please bear in mind it has to have the exact same meaning...

jux·ta·pose (jŭk'stə-pōz')
tr.v. jux·ta·posed, jux·ta·pos·ing, jux·ta·pos·es
To place side by side, especially for comparison or contrast.

[French juxtaposer : Latin iūxtā, close by; see yeug- in Indo-European roots + French poser, to place (from Old French; see pose1).]

Feel free to check a thesaurus. Or maybe I should just not bother juxtaposing stuff in future, (unless I become a student)?

Just a pose?
Sorry.
Couldn't resist.

OK you got me, I was showing off really!

I know another word, existential. I don't know what it means but I use it to describe my sitcoms in all my synopses.

Example 1: In a crummy part of town, with crusty old whores on every street corner, there is a hotel with only one room. The owner charges by the hour, and her existential toothbrush is awash with seaweed.

Harold is a joyful young teenager, with a passion for go-cart racing. But as his voice starts to crack and hair begins to grow in strange places, he turns to the introverted passtime of model aircraft building. His existential mother becomes worried and breaks all of his models to encourage him to get out of the house. But this enrages him and he turns to a life of illegal existential crack dealing.

I would be grateful if someone could suggest a better word!

Quote: Leevil @ October 25, 2007, 12:19 PM

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.

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True it can be done like that, like Larry Sanders, Curb and I suppose even The Office. But then you get things like Extras where there are rarely any jokes, it's just a bunch of people saying 'inappropriate things' in front of usually a 'minority' and then everyone 'reacting'.

What a kind way of calling Extras a load of bullshit.

Quote: Cinnamon @ October 25, 2007, 3:50 PM

What a kind way of calling Extras a load of bullshit.

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Ha yeah, that's what I meant.

Oh and another point I wanted to mention 'canned laughter' and 'studio audience' aren't exactly the same thing. Friends for example doesn't have 'canned laughter', it's filmed in front of an actual live studio audience and the laughter is natural (or as natural as it can be after you've watched about 10 or 20 takes). I have no problem with shows that have a studio audience, two of my favourite sitcoms both have them Seinfeld and I'm Alan Partridge.

'Canned laughter' on the other hand, where laughter is dubbed on after the show has been filmed, sometimes there are even screenings of the shows just so they can record the laughter and dub it on where they see fit, so it doesn't sound natural and can become obtrusive. That type of laugh-track does annoy me.

God, yeah, that really irritates me too.

As for studio audiences, do they have flashing signs telling them to laugh? What if a particularly revolutionary member of the audience stood up and shouted "Courtney Cox is a Slut!"

What if the audience were completely honest, normal, straight-up people and they just honestly found none of the jokes funny? Is that when the studios break out the Kalashnikovs?

If you're watching Friends at home with some friends and Joey says something that really isn't that funny, and the laughter comes, and your friends laugh, do you laugh to be polite, and not embarrass your friends?

And why don't the characters on Friends laugh at the jokes they make? If Joey was my housemate I would laugh all the time.

I watched Celebrity Come Dancing once and they had a live studio audience and no one was laughing. I was in hysterics, cringing. I guess the audience weren't laughing because the BBC couldn't use Kalashnikovs because of the UK gun laws.

Why don't they have half hour Sit-Horrors? I guess you could call Most Haunted a Sit-Horror-Com. That Derek Acorah is a freaking hack-loon who's worth a laugh, but again, nobody's laughing.

Quote: Martin Holmes @ October 25, 2007, 3:50 PM

But then you get things like Extras where there are rarely any jokes, it's just a bunch of people saying 'inappropriate things' in front of usually a 'minority' and then everyone 'reacting'.

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Yeah, Extras really doesn't have any jokes in it. It's still somewhat funny though, but I wouldn't miss it if I never saw it again, lol.

Personally I liked Extras. Sure, some of the jokes fell a bit flat, but the exchanges between Gervais and Merchant were priceless. And Patrick Stewart as a sex-crazed dunderhead - I mean, what's not to love?

The Merchant/Barry bits are quite likable and series 1 wasn't that bad, the Les Dennis episode was good and as mentioned the Patrick Stewart bit, but series 2 was appalling.

I found that the problem with Extras was that pretty much every guest star was portrayed as a self obsessed egomaniac - it got a bit formulaic.

The Les Dennis episode was good though and I loved the episode where Ricky Gervais gets that balding fat bloke latching on to him. Series 2 wasn't as good, but I could not believe it when Robert De Niro turned up as 'Very Special Guest Star'.

Quote: Winterlight @ October 25, 2007, 6:45 PM

I found that the problem with Extras was that pretty much every guest star was portrayed as a self obsessed egomaniac - it got a bit formulaic.

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That's true, actually. But maybe that's just very true to life.

Either way, I found it very funny. But as ever, they know when to stop and do something new.

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

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

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But doesn't it get on your nerves? It does mine!