I watch a lot of TV. From the most terrible scripted reality programs to the best-written and acted dramas, TV is my number one interest. But the genre I really love is comedy. Whether it be a classic sitcom filmed in front of a live studio audience or a mostly improvised sketch show, I just really love comedy television.

30 Rock is one of my favourite shows. I think it is fantastically written; the jokes are nuanced and both over-the-top or subtle at the right moments. I have read a few scripts from my favourite comedies, including the following 30 Rock script.I know that I have written things that haven’t initiated a laugh when read, yet I have still insisted they will be funny once they are acted. But one of the things I have found through reading scripts is that if a joke doesn’t work on paper, it generally doesn’t work on screen either.  I have looked at this script and thought about why a joke does or doesn’t work.

The excerpt above shows the original opening for 30 Rock. Liz is Lisa, and she is competing with two mums for space. This is cut from the episode. The way that Lisa takes a ‘running jump’ doesn’t fit with the tone that 30 Rock set in its early episodes. The show begins as a more grounded comedy, with slightly exaggerated, but believable characters. Later in the series this physical gag would work well, as the humour develops into more fantastical and inflated comedy.

When I first read this script a few years ago, many scenes made me laugh. This was not one of them. Maybe this is because physical comedy is so hard to describe in writing, but in this case I can easily imagine what that jump would look like. I think that the reason this scene doesn’t work is because it is simple and dumb humour. Nipples? A running jump over children? 30 Rock is a clever show, but this scene could work on The Big Bang Theory. I can hear the laugh track now.

When I think about this in relation to my own writing, there are a few take away points. It is important to know what tone your script is going to be, and to base the opening scene around that tone. If I were writing a stupid, easy, very accessible comedy, I would include a scene like this. If I were writing a nuanced, clever and cynical comedy, I would leave it out, much like the producers of 30 Rock did with this one.

Immediately following this first scene is one of my favourite 30 Rock jokes. Here we have Lisa, or Liz, lining up for food, when a man cuts in front of the existing queue. Liz states that ‘there’a a line’, to which the man replies (in the final cut version), ‘now there’s too lines’. These lines are the very first lines of the entire series. Every time I watch the 30 Rock pilot and I am so amused by how clever this is. It surprises me that this was not originally going to be the opening joke, and that the line obviously weren’t first formed to have this double meaning.

This scene works well to set that tone I mentioned earlier. These two lines, despite being very general, unimportant pieces of dialogue, initiate a laugh from their placement in the show. The decision to open a series with such clever writing sets the bar for the comedy that is to follow.

I wish I could analyse this entire script, but I could go on for days about 30 Rock. I think it is important to look to our favourite shows for inspiration, and to critique them as well. Looking at this 30 Rock script has got me to think about my attempts at comedy writing, and to see what works and what doesn’t.