You can't write anything without a story but yeah sometimes sitcoms are a series of jokes and no story. That's the problem with mainstream television and film.

We have more time to make something good and I'd like to think a lot of people take that time to make their work better.

Quoted Text Haha, whatever you do, don't come to me for comedy. According to my Scary Movie 5 script, I completely butchered the genre... Sean

If you're not good by yourself work with somebody else, two minds can always find a better solution to a problem. If you think a joke is funny but the other guy doesn't change it until you're both happy with the outcome.

Quoted from The boy who could fly Thanks Wes and Phil, your comments are helping me, I wanna try something that I'm not so great at to see if I can make myself a stronger writer.  I think comedy is important even if you're writting a drama or a horror, it doesn't always hurt to have a funny moment or a funny character in it.  thanks again.

All good comedies have dramatic moments in them and all dramas have comedic moments in them.  Just remember to use these moments sparingly.

Quoted from Old Time Wesley You can't write anything without a story but yeah sometimes sitcoms are a series of jokes and no story. That's the problem with mainstream television and film.

And those shows tend to suck.



Phil

In order to write comedy, you have to decide what type of comedy works best for you.  Intellectual comedy?  Slap stick?  Satire?  Gross-out humor?  The comedies I've posted here are satirical and sarcastic in nature.  It reflects my sense of humor and typical view on life.

You have to decide what kind of humor you want to write and, more importantly, who your audience will be.


Phil

Quoted from Old Time Wesley If you're not good by yourself work with somebody else, two minds can always find a better solution to a problem. If you think a joke is funny but the other guy doesn't change it until you're both happy with the outcome.

Thanks Wes.  I think that's what I'm going to have to do

Quoted from dogglebe You have to decide what kind of humor you want to write and, more importantly, who your audience will be. Phil

Ya I gotta find out what kind I'm best at, probably more of a darker sense of humour, I like black comedies a lot.  thanks again

Quoted from The boy who could fly I like black comedies a lot.

Yeah, Big Momma's House was great!


Ba-dum-dum

LOL

Quoted from dogglebe Oh, and what's the other way, Alan?

Thanks for asking.  The two ways to write comedy are ...

OLD SCHOOL (on paper)

and

NEW SCHOOL (on computer screen)

Good luck!

Hey Jordan,

I'm not sure what kind of comedy you want to write.  Could you give examples of movies that appeal to you.
Comedy is definitely broady and indeed subjective.  Quentin Tarantino said Reservoir Dogs should be in the comedy section.
He thinks Scorcese's Taxi Driver was drop-dead funny.

It might be easier for you to weave comedy into your story, rather than try to write a pure comedy.

I like the funny stories you told; the dog with the maxi pad is really a crackup.
And the old farts with the Eminem blasting out of their jalopy.
Maybe you can create a scene these jokes.

Tarantino took stories he had heard through his travels and put them into his movies.

One of my favorite comedies is Ghost World.
Another funny fish-out-of-water film is The Party with Peter Sellers.
These characters are not trying to be funny, but are comical because they don't quite fit.

Like when Peter Seller is cutting his meat (in the party) at the banquet table and the meat flies into some woman's hair.  Or when the Seller's character is trying to find the toilet (fast) and walks smack into Claudine Longet singing a song for guests.  Not to be rude, the Sellers character stands and listens to the performance while easing his way out of the room.  Sellers did great visual comedy.

Here's a kind of funny story that happened to me in high school way back when flower children walked the earth.  One day my English teacher made us draw straws.  Nobody knew why, we just did as we were told.  So this student named Thomas, who came to class stoned everyday, drew the short straw.  Mrs. Tatttoo (that was really her name) told Thomas he would receive an automatic "F" for the semester.
Courtesy of the lottery.
Thomas was very cool about this outcome.  But Mrs. Tattoo got PO'd because she wanted Thomas to protest (as any normal student would do), so she could make her point.  It turns out that  we were going to read Shirley Jackson's short story The Lottery.  Mrs. T was demonstrating the unfairness of getting stoned (with rocks) because one has bad luck in a lottery.
I thought it was funny that Thomas thought the whole idea of failing by lottery was Cool, since he said he fails every class anyway.
He said failing by lottery meant he could tell his parents that it really wasn't his fault.
And the irony of a stoned (on marijuana) guy drawing the short straw, just like the character in Jackson's story, who was stoned to death, was just too much.
Well, it was funny to me.

Maybe you better have Mike help you.

Quoted from Old Time Wesley If you're not good by yourself work with somebody else, two minds can always find a better solution to a problem. If you think a joke is funny but the other guy doesn't change it until you're both happy with the outcome.

I'm going to have to disagree here, Wes.  If two writers disagree on comedies, they'll never get a script written.

Your best bet would be to write the script and then show it to another writer.


Phil

Thanks Abe.  my favorite comedies are probably plains, trains, & automobiles, Kingpin, Bad santa, war of the roses, suicide kings and the ref.  That's kinda broad I guess cause they all be a different type of comedy.  Like I see and hear funny things all the time, but some of what I hear is so foul, but it cracks me up, I just don't know if I would go too far with it, I really never know where the line should be drawn, and a part of me doesn't care, I figure, hell, I jump miles over the line and see where it takes me(even if it's a 1 way ticket to hell).  I probably should experiment a bit and try to find out where I'm strongest.  thanks for the imput.

Quoted from dogglebe I'm going to have to disagree here, Wes.  If two writers disagree on comedies, they'll never get a script written. Your best bet would be to write the script and then show it to another writer. Phil

now I'm confused

Comedy can be universal or specific to a particular culture of language.

A good article can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comedy

There's a lot of links on this page which discuss various forms of comedy wich maybe of some help..

Kevan

Thanks Kevan

Quoted from Shelton Yeah, Big Momma's House was great! Ba-dum-dum

Sean