To wrap up our exploration of comedy as a genre, we focused on ‘the comic frame’ and situational comedy through ‘story sketches.’ As Ben Voth explains, the comic frame is a tool that allows “human differences… to be portrayed as amusing” (2014:3). Sitcoms often use this tool, by framing a situation between two opposing characters as humorous with the use of a laughing track – suggesting that the situation at hand isn’t anything serious. The comic frame goes beyond laughing tracks though, as how a character is framed often determines how audiences react to their differences. Characters with “exaggerated traits” are key for story sketches, and unpacking one of Bob Odenkirk’s characters in an episode of I Think You Should Leave in class helped me in learning what to look out for in situational comedy, and how to create a similar character in my own work.
For my third experiment, I loosely followed Joe Toplyn’s guide to creating a story sketch (2014). The comic event takes place in a home, where the comic character is visited by a friend. It was tricky to display more than one “exaggerated trait” in the comic character (Toplyn 2014:229), so I tried framing it around their obsession with The Breakfast Club (1985), exaggerating the lengths they would go to keep their DVD in pristine condition. With this obsession comes a clear sense of insecurity, with the character suggesting that their friend stay with them and watch the film rather than dangerously lending it to them, being the character’s “want” (Toplyn 2014:230). By rambling on about their murderous ideation to the friend, the friend begins to vaguely “oppose” them (Toplyn 2014:231), growing tired of their indecisiveness by placing the DVD back in the bookshelf, and making their way towards the nearest exit as they are quite literally frightened by the end. The following steps in Topyln’s guide were also incredibly useful (2014:229-238), and I tried translating the gradual escalation of the comic character’s efforts to reach an end goal in my own story sketch.
References
Toplyn J (2014) ‘Story Sketches’ in Comedy Writing for Late-Night TV, New York: Twenty Lane Media, pp. 221–238.
Voth B (2014) ‘Comic Frame’ in The Encyclopedia of Humor Studies, Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, pp. 148–150.