This thread might be a dud, but I figured I'd try and start a thread for comedy writers and other genre writers that like to slip in a joke every now and then where we can discuss our views on humor in screenwriting.
So, how do you do funny?
I'll make an initial contribution. For me it's chaos chaos chaos. I like to have as much crazy stuff happen on screen as possible, so I create worlds that aren't beholden to any sense of conventional realism and characters that possess some combination of being selfish, stupid, crazy, ethically challenged, and generally pathetic to facilitate that chaos with bad choices and attitudes that either befuddle the more reasonable characters, or have disastrous consequences. It's not unusual for many felonies to be committed by my characters over the course of a script.
I also like to play with the conventions of other genres, satirize cultural and political issues in an irreverent manner, and since I traffic well in dark humor, it's par for the course for me to kill off at least one character in comical fashion per script.
What about you? What are some of the core elements to your approach in getting a laugh?
So, how do you do funny?
I'll make an initial contribution. For me it's chaos chaos chaos. I like to have as much crazy stuff happen on screen as possible, so I create worlds that aren't beholden to any sense of conventional realism and characters that possess some combination of being selfish, stupid, crazy, ethically challenged, and generally pathetic to facilitate that chaos with bad choices and attitudes that either befuddle the more reasonable characters, or have disastrous consequences. It's not unusual for many felonies to be committed by my characters over the course of a script.
I also like to play with the conventions of other genres, satirize cultural and political issues in an irreverent manner, and since I traffic well in dark humor, it's par for the course for me to kill off at least one character in comical fashion per script.
What about you? What are some of the core elements to your approach in getting a laugh?
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