Creating a Joke Sketch

1st Draft

Latest Draft

Reflection

Out of all the sketches I’ve collaborated with my group and peer members, it was in the end my sketch that we all agreed on to start filming and finalizing. What started out as one’s personal idea evolved a combination of others and the original’s writer’s ideas. I wrote the first draft for my sketch, ‘Creating a Joke’. The premise and concept of the sketch is that we look into the mind of stand-up comedian and the process they go through to come up with a joke for their audience. Now imagine the the mind is a boardroom filled with many different personalities giving off ideas to form one joke. That is a premise of the sketch, where we have multiple characters who represent different types of comedy of the comedian and they try to come up with a joke for him, something similar to ‘Pixar’s 2015, Inside Out.’ Where different emotions inside a character’s head operate the outside character. So this particular sketch’s plot is about multiple characters discussing in a meeting of what joke to produce for the audience.

How does this sketch work for feminism? The whole original idea of this sketch was to make it flexible, because when I came up with the idea initially, I wasn’t thinking along the lines of feminism, I just wanted to produce a simple sketch where characters are just going through the process of making a joke. So when the theme became about feminism, I made the stand-up comedian character tell a joke about women, and we hop into his mind as his different personalities try to come up with jokes for and about women. We stereotyped the characters, as we believe the best representation of the different characters inside the minds are just different portions of stereotypes. The whole idea was to make the characters and sketch very straight forward and simple, because I believe the simple visual will be strong enough to bring out the comedy, hence why I created simple characters, “A lot of comedy uses very simple characters, often quite stereotypical, because they’re easily recognized.” (Bown, 2011). The idea of the sketch is bring about awareness to how women a portrayed in the public and how they are stereo typically seen by men. I try to write about how the characters wanted to come up with a joke about sexism and how women can get away with things, that men can’t and a lot more complicated problems that women have to face, but notice how it’s actually the female characters in the sketch that come up with it. I wanted to raise awareness that men see women differently, and so the main punchline, was the male character couldn’t speak for on the behalf of women, so he says a simple boob joke, because this will show how men can be simple minded. Because the characters in the sketch are actually more stereotypical towards races, I had to draw a fine line between some racist comedy that was written in the script, I had to write it in a way so it’s funny, but not too racist. But since stereotypes are such a key component to racial comedy, I had to make sure there was some truth in it, “Stereotypes are important in comedy because not only do they help to establish instantly recognizable character types but such character traits and stereotype-based jokes also constitute a source of humor” (Bowes, 1990; King, 2002). Because there has to be some sort of truth towards the stereotypes in the writing, it’ll make the characters more believable and recognizable for a wider audience. The sketch goal is raise awareness for stereotypes and feminism, while trying in a comedic way address how stereotypes and feminism are portrayed by the media.

The process of this sketch started out as my idea for sketch, until the group all agreed we will try to produce this sketch, as it’s probably the most feasible sketch we can produce as a group. So the script has gone through many iterations the group has collaborated and came up with ideas on how to put the concept onto screen. Initially on our first table reading, we couldn’t really get the reaction we wanted, as it was confusing and the premise was not written in a way that is easy to understand. So we had to rewrite it so that the detail and premise is simpler to understand. Which is understandable, because my original script was very simplistic and I admit wasn’t great writer on how I want the concept to be. But the whole idea and feedback we got was make the punchline and message easier and harder to hit. Going through the latest draft, the way we approach some of the jokes in the sketch we gave more directions and changed the ending so our punchline is delivered in a much more comedic way. We wanted to showcase chaos in an office setting, but I didn’t write that specifically in the original script, as it ended with the characters all agreeing on an idea and then the punchline is delivered. So in the new ending, we make the character’s can’t come up with an idea in the chaos and so punchline is delivered suddenly, which we believe has a stronger effect than the original.

Working in a group has made process of writing this sketch easier on myself, because if I was working by myself I wouldn’t be able to come up with ways on how to deliver certain situations in the text. With the help of my group members, I am getting more and more satisfied with the script and able to visualize more the vision I have, but’s its not only me who is visualizing, everyone is starting to visualize it to. Because I’m not good with writing actions in script, we have members who are good at that, so the more members we have, the more grounds and weakness we cover for each other. But the main thing is having more heads give out ideas and feedback is what really helps the script writing process. We are able to work off feedback and get a sense of where we want to head as a group. More heads are better than one. Kind of like the script, how we have multiple characters coming up with one idea. If you think about it, this sketch is just literally our group trying to come up with an idea of ‘Creating a Joke.’

References

Bown, L 2011, Secrets to Writing Great Comedy

Ji Hoon Park Nadine G. Gabbadon Ariel R. Chernin, 2006, Naturalizing Racial Differences Through Comedy: Asian, Black, and White Views on Racial Stereotypes in Rush Hour 2

THE MYSTERY OF THE BASKET is sketch by Australian comedian Troy Kinne. In this short, but effective sketch, Kinne is able to make the audience laugh while also conveying a quick message about social statuses between men and women in relationships. The sketch is short and starts off with a couple bickering about their contribution to their relationship. The woman asks her partner why he never takes any initiative to do anything to help around the house and himself, since she does everything for him and she has outside work as well, she complains about all the time she has come home to do more work around the house compared to him. The boyfriend reassures her that everything is going to be okay, because he starts pointing out supernatural phenomenons that happen in the house, such as put clothes in the laundry basket, the next day it becomes clean and neatly folded, the girlfriend is in disbelief, so the boyfriend points out another phenomenon with their coffee table how everything he puts on it, even going to the extent of trying to really mess the coffee table up everything on it just vanishes, quick cut to the next day and the boyfriend is trying to make a case that his girlfriend fell onto the coffee table and vanishes to the two police officers. The female police officer is baffled by how ridiculous his statement is, while the male police officer believes him, stating he has the same coffee table at home, and that is how the sketch ends. Obviously this is play on the fact that the girlfriend was the one who was doing all the cleaning, while the boyfriend thought if he threw things in a certain places, it will just magically disappear. And the policeman at the end shows another example of man being pampered.

Comedy is usually subjective, what humans usually find funny varies from person to person. Despite this sketch being made by Australian for Australian audience, the comedy is effective at appealing to the masses. The message the sketch conveys is very relatable and very truthful, which is reason why it makes it funny, “Principles are based upon primal understandings shared by every human being on the planet” (Ferguson, 2010). The sketch uses principles from Ferguson to create a scenario that is comedic, “It offers bare truths, not fanciful escapism” (Ferguson, 2010). Most relationships revolve around a guy lying around the house, while the woman in the relationship are normally the ones doing house work, this is a stereotype. Because this is such a truthful and relatable scenario many will laugh at this because it is likely a situation they are in or someone they know are in, and it gives people pleasure to know that there is someone out there who are aware of these problems and sending a message out, even though it maybe used for comedic purposes.

Troy Kinne’s character the boyfriend in this sketch, is one of the main driving forces in this sketch. The way he acts completely stupidfy by things that happen with logical explanations is what makes this comedy, “comedy flows from a character’s unique, quirky, offbeat way of looking at the world” (Vorhaus, 1994). Kinne’s character is overly the top idiotic and oblivious is the reason why this sketch works. He takes a situation that people have most likely been through or have someone they know been through and put a spin on a ridiculous perspective from the male point of view, “ability to take the ordinary of details of everyone’s life and see them in a new different light.” (Vorhaus, 1994). If one of the characters stand out in the sketch, it means they have a strong personality, to be able to bring the jokes and message of the sketch forward. Strong characters provide good support for a story, and the fact that Kinne’s character stands out so much compared to the straight man, girlfriend character, it creates a comedic situation people have been through in life, therefor they are able to relate to the characters.

The message the sketch is trying to relay to the audience is to create awareness of woman and men at home, especially towards couples. It shows how women at home are supposed to cook, clean and take care of the house, while the men just lay around lazily and expect everything to be done by women. The political message being conveyed plays among the themes of gender equality. The sketch does a really good job at showcasing this idea and portraying this message in a comedic light, where the audience will not only laugh, but also we start to become aware of the problems that could happen at home. Gender equality is real life issue that is happening in the world, and comedians can bring the raise awareness by sending a message through comedic sketches. Because some of the best comedy writing comes from real life, “If something is just a stupid idea…you’ve got to tie it to something real,” (Medd, 2012). This sketch is an example of making up an idiotic unrealistic character and tying him into a real life scenario.

Why I think this particular sketch is not only funny, but is very effective of sending out a political message is mostly because of Kinne’s character way of thinking and he’s idiotic non-nonchalant oblivious attitude. The fact that we the audience are fully aware and given the idea that the girlfriend was the one who was the reason for all his phenomenon makes us laugh, because if we were in that situation we probably wouldn’t be that stupid, but the fact we are seeing someone like that and knowing we could be that person is what makes us laugh. The scenario is relatable to many people and the political message has some truth to it. It conveys its message simple, quick and witty. It’s the kind of comedy I like, it’s ridiculous, but subtle at the same time.

References 

Tim Ferguson, The Cheeky Monkey Writing Narrative Comedy, 2010

John Vorhaus, The Comic Toolbox: How to be Funny Even If You’re Not, 1994

James Medd, The Rules: Jason Hazeley & Joel Morris on Comedy-Sketch Writing, The Word, 2012

In this reflection, I’ll be reflecting on my roles and time in the TV Production studio for Ready Camera One. For our final production, we decided as group was to produce a late night show with breakfast show elements, which ended up in being called “Midnight Snack”. We were asked to produce 2 episodes and we were given different roles for both episodes. In episode 1, I was one of the writers for the show and in episode 2 I was the Director Assistant for Studio C. Because I was a writer for the first episode of our production, specifically a writer for Studio C, I was really involved with the pre-production team. As we had to decide what kind of show we were doing and what kind of format and style of content do we want. Our biggest question to begin with was how were we going to incorporate both studio A and C into the mix. In the end we all decided studio A was going to be the main studio, as it was a bigger studio where we can fit our audience, was going to be use as the main studio for the main cast to be in. And in studio C, we were going to have skits being played and acted out for the audience to see via a monitor. As a writer for studio C, I collaborated with mainly the Producers and other writers to gain a sense of direction of where we were going with our show. Because I was in studio C, I was in charge of writing the skits we were going to do in studio C. At first initially we were asked to write an infomercial sketch, because we wanted to incorporate breakfast show infomercials into the late night show format. So I wrote a fake advert on a piece of paper, which was meant to be played out as a scam for the viewers, but at the same time, it is a sketch that is suppose to funny and have comedy entertaining enough for the audience. And so was the birth the first sketch in studio C, episode 1, Pete’s Paper, a sketch about a con-artist trying to sell paper that is too good to be true. At first we weren’t sure that we were going to use this as, at the time we might’ve been scrapping the infomercial idea. But we still wanted to keep a fake advertisement in there, so my sketch that I wrote, worked fine since it was meant to be a fake advertisement in the first place.

However since the sketch was really random, and didn’t really fit with any topics with our show, it was just suppose to stay as a random sketch in the middle of show. The sketch I had to write, had to relate to one of the stories the hosts were going to talk about. So given the content the hosts were writing about I had to wait and see what was going to be the main story of conversation. And in the ended, it ended up with one of our other writers/host was going to be talking about the Royal Wedding, which was set to take place on the weekend after our first episode airing. So because our main and big story for the show was going to be about the Royal Wedding, I had to write a sketch relating to the Royal Wedding. At first I had no idea what to write about, as I knew very little of the Royal Wedding and had very little interest in the topic at hand. But in the end I try to imagine what was it like for the two to be wed couple situation of inviting celebrity guests to the wedding. So with that in mind, I wrote about Harry and Megan talking about who they were inviting to their wedding, by using references to make jokes out of the people who they were inviting.

When it finally came to production, we needed some talent. I offered to be talent for the first sketch of Pete’s Paper, because for one I wrote the script and knew how Pete’s character was going to be, and it would’ve made things easier in the studio. Another reason why I volunteered, is because as a writer, I have very little to do during the actual production, as all my main jobs are during pre-production. I acted as as Pete for the sketch along with another production member. We rehearsed many times during the production to get it nailed down. It was also because of the many rehearsal runs, I was able to see the flaws in my sketch and be able to fix some of it. There were some parts they I should’ve proof read to see what makes sense and smooth out. In the Royal Wedding sketch, I was noted by the producers, that some of the jokes would be better, if I had someone else say the words. So by taking feedback from the producers and multiple people of the team, I went back to drawing board and re-wrote some parts of the sketches to make flow smoother and make more sense. In the end I was also able to extend the duration of the sketches, because some of them went by too quick. Because I was in charge of the writing during the sketches, I also worked in collaboration with the graphics to give an idea of what graphics were needed for the sketches. They went to me and asked what I had in mind for graphics, and I simply told them what I want, and when I want to, so they were able to display on screen. Same with working with the props, as they needed to know what was needed for the filming of the sketches.

In episode 2, I was in the Director Assistant seat. I didn’t have much pre-production to do as I was relying on what producer wanted. After getting the run sheet from the producer on the day of production, I immediately looked at the schedule and looked at the entire script of the show, to get an idea of when our time in studio C was going to be live and when EVS should be taking place. At first it was kind of messy, as I didn’t have access to communicate with the other studio, so that made my job much harder, as I couldn’t really do my job, when I don’t know when we were going to go live in the studio. I asked one of the technicians to fix me up a comm for the Director Assistant of Studio A. And once I was able to communicate with the Director Assistant of Studio A, the production went a lot smoother, than episode 1 in my opinion. My main aim was to make sure production runs smooth and on time. I worked with the Director of studio C to make sure out show runs smoothly. Because at first she had to do my job as we couldn’t communicate with the other studio properly, so she had to time when were going live, which was putting too much pressure on her and loosing focus on the directing. Because I was able to time and communicate with the other studio, I could let her focus on directing, which made the production flow much smoother. I worked with the EVS to get the timing down with each segment and EVS being used, which led to a smooth transition between EVS and the studio. As Director Assistant it was my job to make sure everything went smoothly and on time, I timed ever rehearsal we did to get around an average of how long the sketches were going for, allowing me to tell the other Director Assistant when our segment was ending.

By the end of the production I was really satisfied of what we were able to to pull off. Most of my job involved pre-production and it was great working with the producers and other writers on what our show was going to be. When you’re given that much power of what a show can be, it can be a fun experience. Luckily for me, I have written before, when I did a production at Deakin at few years back, so I had an idea of what to do. It was also a great sign, when my production members, like my work and give me feedback on how to improve. And when I was working as a Director Assistant, I felt much more involved during the production, by getting on the same level as everyone else in the studio, going through rehearsals and going through the members, working and collaborating together to make a production we can be proud of.  Being able to work in a team in environment, really sets and help us grow in a workplace environment, and this production felt like that, we were thrown into a live environment, and we made mistakes and we learnt from it.

There was more for me to do during production than there was pre-production, due to the fact the camera will naturally get more involved while shooting the live they not being live. I worked with the audience member into telling them that we were going to film him, and where we needed him. Because everyone else on camera wasn’t present or had little experience on being behind the camera, I helped them in framing and adjusting their shots a bit. During our rehearsal run, a couple of things went wrong, such as myself not getting a specific shot in time, because I wasn’t 100% sure with the script, which is a bad or my part not learning the script enough, but it was also a position thing. After our rehearsal run, I switched my camera position with another camera position, because we needed more light on the audience member. I worked with the audience member practising my shot position, with him standing and him sitting and determined him sitting had better lighting than him standing. During the final production, I shot a Medium Close-Up of one of the host, A Close-Up of the Audience member, and surprisingly a Long Shot of the panel. Because I was never told anything about shooting a Long Shot, I was not prepared, but I still managed to get a the shot off. During the production, I also had to adjust my shot of the host while being live, so I had to adjust it slowly and lightly enough to follow the host, as he moved a bit during a segment, so that was a challenge.

(My Camera Shots)

Compared to the last production, we were much more prepared this time around, as we thoroughly discussed the premise the shots the show. I already knew what kind of shot the director wanted and was in position for each one. The director didn’t give me much direction on what shot she wanted, because she was already happy with the type of shot I was giving her. I felt a sense of self accomplishment after doing the long shot, because I could hear the Director say liking the shot.

After reviewing the whole segment over again, the final turned out well in terms of shot selection and position. But when comparing to other talk shows I’ve done before like Syn Media 1700, I can clearly tell this is a student production, compared to a more professional broadcast. The use of graphics were really in our faces and big, compared to proper productions. It felt like it was just floating in mid air. The lighting was dark, I wish we had more options to play with the lighting. Overall I think this production went better than our last production. We prepared a lot more and discussed a lot more of what we were going to do. And being on Camera, I got to do a lot more physically, and adjust shots, which I liked doing.

For our group, we all discussed we were going to do a “Q and A” type of show. And the theme we wanted to put out was the topic of memes, as it is a popular and modern thing to talk about. We divided our roles according to what we haven’t done before, so we all did something else. I went from being Director in the last production to the Camera in this production. As we decided our goal and ideas, we went on with preparations. Being the only person who was assigned to camera at the time, I worked with the producer and writer to get an idea of what vision they wanted at the time. Because we wanted to have an audience member participate, we needed one camera to move from the normal static shot of one of the hosts to audience back to the host. I volunteered to take the role, being the only one there with an idea what what the producer wanted and also having experience on camera before. During pre-production, I also helped with the producer in deciding the layout of the set and suggesting where the audience member is going to be, to get the best kind of shot from. I also had my say it what memes we should be using and in the end the team went with my idea for the final name of the Q and A show we were doing, which was “Dank Q & A”.

There’s a lot that goes on to “scripted” live productions. In the reading “Doing it Live” by Joanna Mitchell, Joanna tell us how much effort is put into the pre-produciton and preparation for filming a scripted live drama. The Bill, is usually filmed on single camera, but for special occasions, such as anniversaries, they decided to film it live and broadcast it live. Now just because it was broadcast live, it does not mean everything was improv. In fact, she states it takes a much more preparation than the usual. Instead of 2-3 weeks to prepare an episode, they would have to use 6 weeks to prepare the episodes ready to go live. Even though it is live, it is scripted and ready to go when it goes to air. They did many rehearsal runs in preparation, including one just in the morning, before the actual episode was going to be aired live. Even though Joanna, state that the production was not perfect, it was the fact that the imperfections that added to the liveliness and that the team felt a huge sense of accomplishment by the end of it. Because they pushed a live drama to success.

I definitely felt very rusty being on the Director’s seat again. It’s been awhile since I last directed a live studio broadcast. Because I was still getting back into things, I think we really tried to rush with the camera setups and getting to know how each equipment works. I started the day with telling the camera operators what kind of shot I was looking before we started shooting. I think because we spent so much time setting up we didn’t really have much time to rehearse and practice, which is something I’ll take note of for next time. When I re watch the take, there are definitely things I would improve, knowing the script much more and not underestimating the speed. I knew the script, but I couldn’t keep up with the speed, as I was use to doing talk and news shows. I needed to be faster with my decision making. Shooting multi-cam is very different from single cam. We have to work fast and utilise all our crew members and cameras at the same time. When I was part of the audience, while watching the other groups do their sketches, it was slightly different as they had more preparation time and didn’t have to factor the time to take the equipment out of the closet, so it was all about them readjusting their positions. But I notice while being part of the audience, even though the sketches were funny, we didn’t laugh, we laughed after the sketch was finish. So that was something I noticed different to using a laugh track and learning how to appreciate it just more, by thinking to myself, the laugh track is there so we don’t shy away from laughing when it wants us to. However most of these sketches were quick and to the point without breaks, leaving no room for laugh tracks. But watching from a live audience feels really different, as we don’t see the angles and edits used to make a sitcom, so everything kind of just looked static on stage.

The reading in week 3 discusses the use of laugh tracks and seeing if they are good or unneeded for modern sitcoms nowadays. The laugh track use to have its place on television, it was used to add more to the show. Until it got to the point where is was used to filter out bad jokes, by adding a laugh track in, the normal human response would be to laugh with it. However television these days have proven, you don’t need a laugh track to be a successful sitcom, such as Modern Family and the Office. Shows that use other methods to substitute from the laugh track. We characters breaking the 4th wall and informing the audience, making them feel more immerse within the experience. There were plenty of modern sitcoms that use a voice over to address the audience. The laugh track was originally used to help the audience feel more liveliness within the world of the sitcom, but some others have found a new way to immerse the audience without using the laugh track.

Going into this assignment where we had to plan and setup a multi-camera live studio setup pairing it with comedy sketch was relatively easy to think about on my part. For one, before this assignment even began, I already have experienced and knew the basics onto what goes on during a live television broadcast. Some of my other members were new to the idea, so I would help them out in some aspects based on my experiences. For our group, we were tasked at recreating a scene from Parks and Recreation. The scene was simple enough, it just had 2 actors and quick conversation. As the Director, I watched the scene multiple times to get an idea of how the scene will play out it my head, until I came with the conclusion of where to place my cameras. I planned on having a simple 3 camera setup with one camera each on a character and one shot of the entire stage. Because of my experience, I was confident in the setup I wanted to use, it was all up to Production to see if I can get the same result, I saw in my head.

With the rise of live television and social media, live television shows have found ways to keep up with technology and get the audience more involved with their programs. For example one show I watch on NBA TV, is called “The Starters” during that show, they ask the audience a question on tweeter, whether its poll or even make joke for them. But regardless at the end of each show, they will read out the tweets. So the audience who are watching the show and are participating in their live tweets can basically feel like they’re part of the show as well. So with live tweeting and social media, tv shows can find a way for its audience to participate in the show as well, as having a small voice within the show. Another way for tv shows to get the audience into the show they’re into is by sometimes streaming a pre-show before the actual broadcast of the show. This can be a way to promote the show before it goes to air and at the same time the audience is still participating in the show, even though it may not be the actual broadcast. Basically social media used in live broadcast these days is to get a general and an outsider’s perspectives on what is being discussed in the show, so it doesn’t seem you’re hearing and seeing one voice the whole time. Participation from the audience is now big these days, because it used to be about entertaining the audience, the audience can be part of the entertainment now.