Quote: Marc P @ September 7 2008, 2:06 PM BSTWhat is your favourite UK sitcom BB?
Dad's Army
Steptoe
Last Of The Summer Wine
Royal Family
Gimme Gimme
Hello, Hello
Sitcom Trial Script Page 3
As an exercise, watch an episode of Dad's Army with the pause button and count the number of gags in it. See how many a minute. Triggers for the audience to laugh. I think you will be surprised. Like I say I think you are confusing witty one liners in the american style with funny lines or actions in the English.
Quote: Marc P @ September 7 2008, 2:12 PM BSTAs an exercise, watch an episode of Dad's Army with the pause button and count the number of gags in it. See how many a minute. Triggers for the audience to laugh. I think you will be surprised. Like I say I think you are confusing witty one liners in the american style with funny lines or actions in the English.
Yes I maybe, but gags to me are jokes, fitted into the dialogue just for the sake of it.
But it's not just gags, it's actors facial expressions and their reactions that also make us laugh.
When the line....'don't tell him your name Pike' was first said, it's hilarious but it isn't a gag....is it?
Quote: bushbaby @ September 7 2008, 2:14 PM BSTWhen the line....'don't tell him your name Pike' was first said, it's hilarious but it isn't a gag....is it?
LOL
Of course it is a gag. Probably the purest example of one. Don't tell him your name, Pike!!!!
It's character based and funny in and of itself.
The only one I like better is Hancocks.
Does Magna Carta mean nothing to you? Did she die in vain?
Quote: bushbaby @ September 7 2008, 2:14 PM BSTYes I maybe, but gags to me are jokes, fitted into the dialogue just for the sake of it.
But it's not just gags, it's actors facial expressions and their reactions that also make us laugh.
When the line....'don't tell him your name Pike' was first said, it's hilarious but it isn't a gag....is it?
Hmm how about this script.
JIM
Cup of tea Frank?
(DOES THIS PULLING A HILARIOS FRANK SPENCER IMPERSONATION)
FRANK
Ooh yes please
(TAP DANCES LIKE ERIC MORCAMBE0
JIM
Sugar?
(RUNS ROUND KITCHEN LIKE BENNY HILL)
GRAMS YACKETY SAX.
Sorry to be sarky.
You've got good structure, and you write gags.
In my view you write them badly and I'd advise you read the scripts of your favored shows.
Did you honestly not see the awsome number of gags in Dad's Army?
Quote: Griff @ September 7 2008, 2:12 PM BSTSee, this is why I didn't bother taking the time to critique your stuff BB, because no matter what feedback people give you, you insist on saying "I can't be wrong because I'm following the rules", ie "Blame the stupid people who make the stupid rules not me".
Let me put it as simply as I can.
All sitcoms need jokes, not only American ones.
Even The Royle Family has jokes, and lots of them - for example Jim Royle saying about Twiggy (I think it was?) "He changes his clothes less often than Noddy".
Jokes have to come from character. The above line is perfectly in character with Jim Royle, because we know he likes to make smart cracks about his friends and neighbours.
If Jim Royle suddenly said something from Groucho Marx like "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend, inside a dog it's too dark to read" that would be a crowbarred-in joke which doesn't fit with Jim Royle's character. A script editor would rightly complain about that and throw it out.
So if you think people have told you "sitcoms don't need jokes", you have misunderstood them.
I am confused Griff. Here is what Robin Kelly says....
.....
Character
Situation comedy should really be called 'character comedy': the laughs come from the reaction of your characters to that situation. It's not about one-liners and gags strung together. Neil Simon, one of the funniest writers ever, claims to have never written a joke.
.................................
Is it any wonder I am confused? I don't know how you have the opinion I think I am right, we are having a debate ...aren't we?
I am putting across what I think and you what you think. Should I tell you that you are a knowall then in response? That's what a person who thinks she's never wrong would say.
Quote: Marc P @ September 7 2008, 2:19 PM BSTLOL
Of course it is a gag. Probably the purest example of one. Don't tell him your name, Pike!!!!
It's character based and funny in and of itself.
The only one I like better is Hancocks.
Does Magna Carta mean nothing to you? Did she die in vain?
Well, this is where we differ, I don't think that is a gag/joke, I think it comes from character naturally, it's normal speech not said as a sarcasm/wit, it's 'unconscious' humour. The character isn't saying it as a gag, it is coming naturally amidst other dialogue and proper to the incident the characters are in.
Robin Kelly is not a sitcom writer, neither is Neil Simon come to that. But that quote just reinforces what we have all been saying.
He does have some great scripts on his site mind that Robin. 
Quote: bushbaby @ September 7 2008, 2:26 PM BSTWell, this is where we differ, I don't think that is a gag/joke, I think it comes from character naturally, it's normal speech not said as a sarcasm/wit, it's 'unconscious' humour. The character isn't saying it as a gag, it is coming naturally amidst other dialogue and proper to the incident the characters are in.
Maybe that is because you are an actress and I am a writer
Writers invent the characters to serve their comic purposes. It's in the design. It's a gag.
Ok ,well take "don't tell him Pike."
1 We know Mannering is a bumbling, good natured type. Bossy but not always competent, very much a high status father figure to Pike.
2 Pike is a boyish, low status figure. Likely to make foolish remarks, that emphasise his low status.
This inherently funny situation, which reflects comedic archetypes going back centuries is reflected in one line.
Don't tell him Pike.
In that instant we apreciate both their relationship as it has been in the whole series.
The high status figure setting himself up, to be brought down to the level of the low status one.
At the time reflecting a Jungian archetypal truth. This is Hal and Falstaff.
That's how a superlative gag works.
If you reduce it to, "ooh it was funny 'cos he did with a funny voice"
you massively miss the point. Sitcom generates jokes from situations and character, but they are jokes none the less.
I am sure that you are all right, it is my misunderstanding or my interpretation of what a gag is. For instance this some years ago was what my elderly mother said when we were in a conversation about racism...
Mother
I'm not racist, we've had ten niggers in here, haven't we Fred?
..
Me and my husband could not keep our faces straight although we had to do. When we left, we had to pull the car up we laughed so much. Not because we are racists but because she was unconsciously being a racist in 'pleading' she wasn't.
That to me is not a gag....it's character speaking.....help!!
Quote: bushbaby @ September 7 2008, 2:31 PM BSTThat to me is not a gag....it's character speaking.....help!!
Well it isn't a gag is it? It's real life. Give to Alf Garnet and stick it in a script and it becomes a gag.
I explained earlier that all a gag meant was a trigger for the audience to laugh. You insist on thining it means the ameican sense it doesn't. Your script could be 'teed up' a lot better was all I was saying so that the 'gags' that are in it work better for a live audience. It's craft is all.
Quote: Marc P @ September 7 2008, 2:34 PM BSTWell it isn't a gag is it? It's real life. Give to Alf Garnet and stick it in a script and it becomes a gag.
I explained earlier that all a gag meant was a trigger for the audience to laugh. You insist on thining it means the ameican sense it doesn't. Your script could be 'teed up' a lot better was all I was saying so that the 'gags' that are in it work better for a live audience. It's craft is all.
Wow, I think she's got it, she's finally got it....ta Marc
What were your mum and Fred doing with ten negroes in their house? The Chester Limbo Championships.
It's alright BB, I learned a lot explaining things to Micheal J.
Quote: Nigel Kelly @ September 7 2008, 2:36 PM BSTWhat were your mum and Fred doing with ten negroes in their house? The Chester Limbo Championships.
It's years ago now, I have a black brother-in-law who lives in the carib and I don't know how the conversation kicked up now but I do know he came over and a couple of friends visited my mother. The 'ten' of course was her exaggeration.