In an earlier thread, a poster asked about trends in comedy, and how a comedy can be classified as narrow or broad.
One humor category that is making its way into almost every comedy in the past few years is Animal Slapstick. It's something you should consider including in your scripts, as it's clearly an accepted and almost expected part of the current mainstream comedy format.
The first instance of Animal Slapstick that I really remember being side splittingly funny was in A Fish Called Wanda, wherein a subplot included Ken (Michael Palin) attempting to assassinate the only witness to a crime, but at each attempt having the hapless animal lover instead kill one of the witnesses beloved pets.
In recent times, Animal Slapstick made its mainstream debut with Something About Mary, whose poster even included a little dog in a full-body cast.
That's the trick to animal slapstick... Hurt an animal, in an absurd way, but make sure it's not permanently harmed (obvious exceptions include the parrot whose "head fell off" in Dumb and Dumber).
50 First Dates had walruses vomiting, and a penguin getting run over by a car. Along came Polly had a blind ferret. Anchorman has funnyman Jack Black punt a puppy off a bridge. (This is somewhat reminiscent of Steve Martin's The Lonely Guy, wherein his dog fetches a stick off the side of a boat...)
I won't say it's necessary, or even apropos for your script. But one of the great tricks of comedy is getting as many laughs for the buck as you can get, and if you can find a way to use this method, then that's one more stone for the sling.
One humor category that is making its way into almost every comedy in the past few years is Animal Slapstick. It's something you should consider including in your scripts, as it's clearly an accepted and almost expected part of the current mainstream comedy format.
The first instance of Animal Slapstick that I really remember being side splittingly funny was in A Fish Called Wanda, wherein a subplot included Ken (Michael Palin) attempting to assassinate the only witness to a crime, but at each attempt having the hapless animal lover instead kill one of the witnesses beloved pets.
In recent times, Animal Slapstick made its mainstream debut with Something About Mary, whose poster even included a little dog in a full-body cast.
That's the trick to animal slapstick... Hurt an animal, in an absurd way, but make sure it's not permanently harmed (obvious exceptions include the parrot whose "head fell off" in Dumb and Dumber).
50 First Dates had walruses vomiting, and a penguin getting run over by a car. Along came Polly had a blind ferret. Anchorman has funnyman Jack Black punt a puppy off a bridge. (This is somewhat reminiscent of Steve Martin's The Lonely Guy, wherein his dog fetches a stick off the side of a boat...)
I won't say it's necessary, or even apropos for your script. But one of the great tricks of comedy is getting as many laughs for the buck as you can get, and if you can find a way to use this method, then that's one more stone for the sling.
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