If a drama with no comedy relief is painful, then a comedy without it is a session in an iron maiden. Whatever the genre, comedy is almost always a necessary ingredient. Even horror movies like Saw or depressing movies like Requiem for a Dream have some funnies mixed in.
But it’s not always easy to create it, is it? Ask any writer who has had to “punch-up a script” how simple it is to do, and you’ll hear stories of them sitting in front of a computer, thinking helplessly to themselves “uhhh...maybe this will be funny.”
And punching-up a script will be a subject for another post at some point in time. But for now, I want to touch upon how you can do yourself a major favor: set your movie or show up in a way where comedy will flow effortlessly.
In fact, let’s look at five ways to do exactly that.
1. Establish a rhythm
All shows have a rhythm of how much comedy is to be expected. The audience will become accustomed to this rhythm fairly quickly, and they will, therefore, be more receptive to the funny bits whenever they’ve already been conditioned to laugh.
My frequent example, The Simpsons, has a very high frequency of jokes. In fact, in the first 12 seasons, you can expect around nine every minute. Not only that, but in early seasons, almost every joke has other jokes embedded within them. Take this ultra-short scene of Marge expressing her worry about Bart:
In most shows there would be no jokes in this eight-line exchange. In this one, we have Homer delivering laughs with every line, first not noticing that Bart never wears glasses, then by misinterpretation Marge’s worry as homicidal thoughts, and then siding with the thoughts.
Something like Breaking Bad, on the other hand, is more of a drama. We can expect a majority of dramatic scenes, but we can generally expect a few scenes per episode with a more comedic tone. If there was an episode with no comedic relief, we would feel it missing, at least subconsciously.
This is the power of the rhythm.
2. People first, funny second
When comparing the beauty pageant movie, Drop Dead Gorgeous, to the movie Fargo from a few years earlier, Roger Ebert noted that the reason the jokes in Fargo work better is because the characters in Fargo are people first and funny second; in Drop Dead Gorgeous, it’s exactly the opposite.
You’ve probably seen this in sitcoms many times. There will be a one-note character. While this character might deliver laughs the first couple of times, they get old quick and they soon stop being funny. Writers will often struggle with what to do with that character after the joke goes away since there’s nothing to the character besides that.
A character like Steve Urkel worked so much better because despite “nerdy” being his main attribute, he was still treated like a real person: he was given a love triangle, a desire to be loved and accepted by the rest of the Winslow’s, and many other attributes, including an alter ego. They were able to move away from his “did I do that” line, and he eventually became the star of the series.
When you write, do your characters and yourself the same courtesy. Treat each one like a real person instead of a one-note joke.
Your character is your goose that lays golden eggs, and instead of trying to cut it open to get all the eggs, you should give that goose a back story, complex feelings, and a strong need. That analogy works, right?
3. Comedy dynamics
I’ve mentioned before, like in my character duos post, it’s crucial to have the right dynamic between your characters. This goes for creating most emotions between two people, like tension and love, but it is also true for comedy.
There are two ways you can create great comedy within characters: you can have them be very similar to each other or you can have them be opposites.
Broad City works well because Abby and Alana are two peas in a pod, and they are able to bounce off of each other well. This gets them into funny situations, like desperately trying to find a bathroom for their wardrobe malfunctions, while also making it believable because they are enablers for each other
When characters are opposites, one usually becomes the weird character, while the other one becomes the normal one, the voice of reason.
Take most scenes from Arrested Development. Michael Bluth is often the grounded, serious one who wants to make things right, while pretty much everyone in his family is wacky and is aiming to do something selfish.
This creates a natural balance between normal and weird (which I talk about in so many of my posts), which is fertile ground for comedy
4. Audience on the inside
Look at any episode of I Love Lucy. Really, any. All all the episodes feature one or more of these elements: a misunderstanding between the characters, one trying to pull something over on one of another, and/or one of them trying to prove or hide something from another.
Lucy, Ricky, Fred, and Ethel have gotten into these situations many times, from Lucy having to convince Ricky a vagabond is her former husband for a radio contest to her trying to hide from William Holden with a big plastic nose.
This never gets old (well at least not for me) because the fun is always created by the audience knowing more than the characters. Lucy and Ethel think Ricky and Fred are being drafted, while Ricky and Fred think Lucy and Ethel are pregnant. We, as the audience, are the only ones in full understanding that neither of these things are really true, which allows us to enjoy the fun.
The same with the movie The Birdcage. The entire dinner climax of the film rests on the fact that there are several misunderstandings at once, and we, the audience, are the only ones aware of what’s really happening. And when something else goes wrong, it’s stressful for the characters but a delight for us.
5. Make it OK
The last element is very important, but I think it’s overlooked: make the audience feel ok about laughing at whatever they’re laughing at.
This doesn’t mean that it necessarily has to be inoffensive. Be as edgy as you want as long as the audience doesn’t feel bad for laughing at it (like they’re a bad person for doing so).
You want them to feel like the characters are going to be ok. If we thought that Lucy might actually get hurt or that things won’t turn out well in The Birdcage, those moments of anxiety wouldn’t be as funny.
Your audience should also not feel too sorry for the characters.
A reason most of the seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm have worked well is because Larry is such a jerk sometimes, there’s a feeling of justice in when things go wrong for him. Plus, in the strongest seasons, things usually work out for him at the very end. Having this security allows us to laugh at his misfortunes along the way
If we don’t have these safety nets, if we don’t feel like things will ultimately be ok or that the character is getting way worse than he/she deserves, then the comedy bits might not work. Make them work by making it ok
All of these elements do not guarantee a funny script. They just create an atmosphere much better for comedy to come to life. They keep you out of your own way and let the funnies flow.
Remember to establish a rhythm because an audience who’s not ready to laugh, probably won’t.
Remember your characters are people first and funny second. One-note characters cannot create a song.
Remember to create strong character duos. This will make their jokes way less forced.
Remember to let your audience in on what’s going on. We laugh when we feel superior, so let your audience be omniscient, at least more so than the characters.
Remember everything should be ok. Even if you’re writing a drama, the comic relief moments are only going to hit when the characters don’t suffer for them (or it’s the right characters who are suffering).
Most of the time you won’t even have to punch-up a script anymore since the jokes will have seemed to write themselves.
Thanks for reading!
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