I was inspired by this thread, which I killed by being in it: http://forums.theory11.com/showthread.php?t=16695
Comedy is ridiculously difficult to do correctly. Along with horror, it is exceptionally difficult to invoke the correct emotions, mostly because people have no idea how to construct a joke or dread. But we're talking about being funny here, so the horror references end there.
Let's start with the bare-bones basics. Jokes. This is the biggest over-simplification of humor anyone has ever devised. But there are a few things that it seems have escaped most people because no one bothered to tell us. A good joke has three parts. Set up, build up, and punchline. The set up is the characters and the situation. The build up is the events that occur between the characters. And the punchline is the conclusion where the humor actually sets in. The build up can last however long it's needed, but it needs to do just that: build up!
Think you can construct a joke now? Good. It's more complicated than that, but I'm too impatient to get into it right now.
Character is also important. You have to behave in a manner consistent with the persona that you project. Andrew "Dice" Clay wouldn't sound right using Bob Hope's material for example. This takes time to develop, but it makes the creation of new material much easier because you know exactly what is consistent with your style. The words come easily.
On top of that, consider your timing. Between jokes, gags, and one-liners you need to pause to give your audience time to react. You need to let tension build up in order to give the punchline the maximum impact. French magician Arsene Dupin is a master of comedic timing. When I saw him perform, he played the act mute, but his pacing and pauses were obviously perfectly scripted and timed months or even years in advance so that they appeared natural while getting the most out of every action. For more examples of great comedic timing, watch some Mae West films.
Now of course there's the age-old debate between improv comedy and scripted comedy. And most people are talking directly out of their asses on this subject. What kills me is the number of people who extol the virtues of improv despite the fact that they completely suck at it. They simply cannot construct a joke. And since they haven't done the work necessary to perfect character and timing, the whole thing comes out as a jumbled mess. It is a very rare person who has the ability to be naturally funny off the cuff and I only know one such person.
And the people who advocate scripting aren't much better. They always use those awful, cornball canned lines. Nails on a chalkboard. Interestingly, if a spectator beats you to that joke, it's funny. But when the performer says it, it causes my ears to start hemorrhaging. Again, they take an approach without actually doing any of the work involved.
The fact of the matter is that if you want to script, you have to work at it and rehearse and write some original material for the love of Christ! And if you want to improv, you're going to have to script first.
So unless you have gone through the trouble of actively writing down original material, developing a consistent character, and rehearsed to ensure consistent timing, vocal tone, and body language, you suck at comedy.
And let's face it, this is only a skimming of the surface. There's the sub-genres of comedy such as physical, black humor, the absurd... There's the variety of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, metaphor, hyperbole, comedic triads, and so on. And each one of them has times when they're appropriate and the rest of the time when they aren't. It takes years of practice to actually get good at this stuff. Comedy is just like magic: it is a skill set that requires dedication, focus, study, and training.
Not terribly funny maybe, but the truth isn't always so.
Comedy is ridiculously difficult to do correctly. Along with horror, it is exceptionally difficult to invoke the correct emotions, mostly because people have no idea how to construct a joke or dread. But we're talking about being funny here, so the horror references end there.
Let's start with the bare-bones basics. Jokes. This is the biggest over-simplification of humor anyone has ever devised. But there are a few things that it seems have escaped most people because no one bothered to tell us. A good joke has three parts. Set up, build up, and punchline. The set up is the characters and the situation. The build up is the events that occur between the characters. And the punchline is the conclusion where the humor actually sets in. The build up can last however long it's needed, but it needs to do just that: build up!
Think you can construct a joke now? Good. It's more complicated than that, but I'm too impatient to get into it right now.
Character is also important. You have to behave in a manner consistent with the persona that you project. Andrew "Dice" Clay wouldn't sound right using Bob Hope's material for example. This takes time to develop, but it makes the creation of new material much easier because you know exactly what is consistent with your style. The words come easily.
On top of that, consider your timing. Between jokes, gags, and one-liners you need to pause to give your audience time to react. You need to let tension build up in order to give the punchline the maximum impact. French magician Arsene Dupin is a master of comedic timing. When I saw him perform, he played the act mute, but his pacing and pauses were obviously perfectly scripted and timed months or even years in advance so that they appeared natural while getting the most out of every action. For more examples of great comedic timing, watch some Mae West films.
Now of course there's the age-old debate between improv comedy and scripted comedy. And most people are talking directly out of their asses on this subject. What kills me is the number of people who extol the virtues of improv despite the fact that they completely suck at it. They simply cannot construct a joke. And since they haven't done the work necessary to perfect character and timing, the whole thing comes out as a jumbled mess. It is a very rare person who has the ability to be naturally funny off the cuff and I only know one such person.
And the people who advocate scripting aren't much better. They always use those awful, cornball canned lines. Nails on a chalkboard. Interestingly, if a spectator beats you to that joke, it's funny. But when the performer says it, it causes my ears to start hemorrhaging. Again, they take an approach without actually doing any of the work involved.
The fact of the matter is that if you want to script, you have to work at it and rehearse and write some original material for the love of Christ! And if you want to improv, you're going to have to script first.
So unless you have gone through the trouble of actively writing down original material, developing a consistent character, and rehearsed to ensure consistent timing, vocal tone, and body language, you suck at comedy.
And let's face it, this is only a skimming of the surface. There's the sub-genres of comedy such as physical, black humor, the absurd... There's the variety of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, metaphor, hyperbole, comedic triads, and so on. And each one of them has times when they're appropriate and the rest of the time when they aren't. It takes years of practice to actually get good at this stuff. Comedy is just like magic: it is a skill set that requires dedication, focus, study, and training.
Not terribly funny maybe, but the truth isn't always so.
