KLRiley
Wednesday 2nd March 2011 7:58pm
2,043 posts
Quote: Tim Azure @ March 2 2011, 7:40 PM GMT
It can't 'sound banal' and 'act out as funny' at the same time, at least not with the 'average actor'. The clue is in the words 'sound banal': if something sounds banal it is banal. It may look banal on the page and be funny acted out, but the BBC could still reject it on its banality. It may not even sound or look banal and the BBC reject it. They are hundreds of reasons for a script being rejected...
(I think I'm turning into John Prescott...)
I understand what you mean BushBaby. I used to write a lot at university and with one particularly dim producer we learnt never to let her read the script before it was agreed to go in to the show. She would read it aloud and flat, usually interspersed with comments along the lines of why is that funny? No, I don't get that. Ooh you'll have to rewrite that etc. So, once we'd heard that level of critique everything which we wrote thereafter we read to the cast so they'd get the timing and inflection. It worked.
Banal not being funny? No. Going to argue with you there. Migt not be one of the best examples but Enfield and Whitehouse doing the two Harley Street GPs schtick over Christmas and the 'forty/forty five' which went on for virtually the entire sketch but it worked. However, just think how that would have looked written down...
Sorry. Will try to spell the name right in future.