Hello fellow optimists & dreamers...

My urge to write has finally found it's way from my optimistic mind to genuine A4 paper. Only time will tell whether it was worth the wait and journey.

I am writing a 6 part comedy series. Not a bonafide sitcom but leaning on some of the elements. I won't bore you with the specifics at this stage but I would like some advice on one particular question I'm asking myself.

I have written (to my mind at least) some funny lines and a couple of funny speeches, it centres around a wedding. But other than some of the minor players the two main characters are the best man and the groom, neither of which (at this stage) are remotely odd or carry any strange behavourial characteristics normally found in sitcoms.

So my questions is this.

Do I need to add some strange traits/flaws to them ? Or if the script is funny (yet to be proven), is that enough for the audience ?

Any advice appreciated

R

Well, they will certainly need some 'characteristics'. If it's a sitcom, then look at your main character - he/she does need some sort of 'trap'.

If they are just 'normal' characters, just saying funny things, your script better be f**king amazing. If, as I suspect, it isn't (no offence), you definitely need to flesh the characters out. Is anyone jealous of anyone else? Is anyone successful and arrogant? Has anyone had their heart broken?

Hope that helps. I'm just speaking from a comedy fan's point of view, not as a writer. Others on the forum who write regularly may well have different views to mine.

Good luck though, Ryan.

Quote: Ryan with an R @ September 29 2011, 5:29 PM BST

My urge to write has finally found it's way from my optimistic mind to genuine A4 paper. Only time will tell whether it was worth the wait and journey.

I am writing a 6 part comedy series. Not a bonafide sitcom but leaning on some of the elements. I won't bore you with the specifics at this stage but I would like some advice on one particular question I'm asking myself.

I have written (to my mind at least) some funny lines and a couple of funny speeches, it centres around a wedding. But other than some of the minor players the two main characters are the best man and the groom, neither of which (at this stage) are remotely odd or carry any strange behavourial characteristics normally found in sitcoms.

So my questions is this.

Do I need to add some strange traits/flaws to them ? Or if the script is funny (yet to be proven), is that enough for the audience ?

Any advice appreciated

R

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Well some people here are pessimists, for good reason, and some don't like to be called dreamers. When you say six part series you obviously mean, by what else you say, you are talking comedy drama rather than a sitcom, so the best advice is to stop now. Write a sitcom. Write a drama. Write a drama that is funny. But if you are falling between two stools and want to sell it as a 'newbie' as it were... it's a really really long shot.

Thoroughly appreciate the advice on both counts. The drawing board needs re-arranging clearly. I'll give some more thought to which direction suits and play around with a few things.

Marc, I hope you didn't take offence by the dreamers reference, it was only meant from the point of view that writers dream up scenarios and the like.

I know I can write some funny stuff at times but finding the right vehicle for it is not as easy as I thought. When I started writing I wanted it to read funny but I admit I didn't have a character in mind just that what they said would be funny.

Plenty of work to do but it's enjoyable so far.

Good Luck all

R

Marc P, you appear to have ignored the comedy serial; neither sitcom nor comedy drama.

Quote: Aaron @ September 29 2011, 9:53 PM BST

Marc P, you appear to have ignored the comedy serial; neither sitcom nor comedy drama.

View original

By comedy serial do you mean something like Doc Martin? Not many of them. But it seems to me that they are pretty much comedy drama. Either a one off, or a few off, or a series.

I do not. Although there is a thin line between serial and comedy drama these days, admittedly. But there are still the odd ones about; Psychoville should probably be one really.

But in general, more like https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/emery_presents/

I agree. And in a way it is all down to commissioning 'departments' rather than audience perception - which is more sophisticated and tolerant, if they were allowed to be, within the main channels. But I get what you mean about Psychoville which, to complicate matters further, has grown out of a a thematic based sketch show hybriding, I know there is no such word, into a new sub genre. Which is good. Labels should be both broad and loose really. The suits talk about demographics and slots, the audience/fans care whether it is funny or dramatic or both.