Looking at the hybridisation of documentary and comedy in this week’s content allowed me to consider how a non-comedy genre or format can generate comedy. The example of Chris Smith’s 1999 American Movie as a documentary-comedy was great in distinguishing the form from mockumentary, such as Rob Reiner’s This is Spinal Tap (1984). While Spinal Tap actively parodies the documentary genre by following a fictional band and exaggerating its codes and conventions, American Movie follows a non-fiction template with both intentional and possibly unintentional comedic elements – a key one being the spacey Mike Schank. While the two films are different forms of comedy, they both use an effective tool – “cutting on the absurd” (Middleton 2002:55).
While K, Jaz and I didn’t choose documentary as our non-comedy format, this tool Middleton makes note of was still applicable to our hybridisation of romantic drama with comedy. We tried putting together an incongruous situation, with K being the source of incongruity, as he’s placed in a room with a couple breaking up, and his presence briefly diverts the piece to a comic mode. We were very conscious of not parodying romantic drama, as breakup scenes are usually quite heightened and ridiculous on their own, and we hope that the abruptness of the apple biting and shift between dramatic and comedic modes is the main source of comedy.
I’ve found that non-comedy formats where comedy is momentarily added are often the funniest, and it’s a mode I’d like to work closely with for the major project. I also really enjoyed the process of making sketches, particularly the ‘story sketch,’ and could see myself compiling a series of sketches with an overarching theme. Through collaborative comedy-making, I’ve discovered that the more absurd the idea, the better, and I’ve enjoyed being able to bounce ideas back and forth with other students, which has helped me in identifying where my strengths lie in comedy practice. I don’t think I’m that strong of a performer, but I’d like to write and film a collaborative work, whether that be parody, story sketches, or hybridising a non-comedy format with comedy.
Experiment #3: The Apple of My Eye
References
Middleton J (2002) ‘Documentary Comedy’, Media International Australia, 104(1), pp. 55–66.