Link to Sketch 3 – Situational Comedy

To get it out of the way: my delivery of the joke/premise, in my view, is not funny. I think the concept is funny/absurd, but probably required a little too much set-up to establish actually funny jokes.

Which in some ways is my takeaway. We are encouraged to experiment in these classes, so I try hard to push myself to try things irrelevant of how likely I think they will work. This in my view is one of those times (this assignment even says only it might only have one or two comedic moments, which I think was accurate in my case). I had two ideas for this sketch, one being someone who was asked to fill in for a job for a moment in which they clearly aren’t qualified for, and another being scam calls to an emergency dispatch centre. In the end I combined the ideas, and perhaps that was part of the issue (too much to establish with too little time), but I think ultimately with an extra minute it would flow significantly smoother. I don’t dislike the concept or the way I did it, but the acting probably needed to be sharper and simpler for the time constraints. My group also said the idea was promising and something could be made from it, but time constraints may cause difficulties, which was obviously true.

But putting the situation through the “Comic Frame” as we learnt about in our week three classes helped me to identify the concept in and of itself was funny. Setting it up to be a “benign violation” (particularly as no parties are in imminent danger) and showing the premise to be intended as humorous in the form of the character’s naivety and nice-but-oblivious nature, helped me to establish some of the other details of the skit (like how will he escalate the scene with his attempts of solving his obstacle/situation). I sort of improvised the dialogue which I think retrospectively was a mistake, but the pre-production planning of the rest of it I think definitely helped me fit the form of situational comedy better, and definitely could be improved (and be funnier) with a less strict time restraint, prepared dialogue and some acting touch-ups.

It’s also just stupidly hard to be funny for the sake of it, and that’s something I’m still pushing myself on.

References:
AI scammer voice generated by crikk.com
Phone Sound Effect by Shiden Beats Music from Pixabay
Voth, Ben. “Comic Frame.” Encyclopedia of Humor Studies, vol. 1, 2014, pp. 148–50.
Warren, Caleb and McGraw, A. Peter. “Benign Violation Theory.” Mays Business School Research Paper, No. 2015-11, February 2, 2015.

The link to my Silent Comedy Sketch (week 2)

The first thing to get out of the way: yes, I know it is more than a minute long. My Dad is visiting and not born an actor, but I wanted to use him, so his sequences just took a little longer. I think though that it adds charm and I think the format for the joke works well, and considering we were told to use the time best appropriate for whatever format of joke we chose, I decided to trim it to about 1:10 and leave it there.

I have a little bit of history with silent films before, I acted in one in Year 11 with a live orchestra (which preceded a Buster Keaton film) which was pretty fun, and Modern Times is a favourite film of mine, so I was fairly across the conventions of silent film.

But it was my first time making one, and I found honestly the hardest part was just getting an idea. I ended up going with the first one I had.

I really wanted to avoid making a silent film for something that needs context as I didn’t have the time limit able to commit to that, so I am hoping the TARDIS is common enough knowledge in pop culture it needs little explaining, because ideas in the short form were next to none, despite my several hours of “research” watching Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Rowan Atkinson.

My main sort of goal was to subvert subversions, which I termed in class as something of a “double-pump”, to use a basketball term. The idea that I need to lead them one way and then, totally take them away from the area that it was heading, while also avoiding the obvious alternative. I think I somewhat achieved it, probably as best as I could for the time limit and the budget ($0). My secondary goal was not to make it overtly rely on performance, because silent comedy thrives with great, theatrical actors, of which my Dad and I are not. I was also trying to harness something we spoke about in Tuesday’s class, which were “Benign Violations” (Warren & McGraw, 2015), and I think this may be the definition of a Benign Violation.

I was inspired by the old silent films to use music however, as adding it I think created a far better tempo than the atmospheric sound. It also meant I was able to far more easily progress time in the short, as I didn’t have the ability to cut to new settings/scenarios efficiently due to the time limit.

I just wish I had managed to think of a more succinct idea.

References:

Music by Oleg Kyrylkovv from Pixabay
Warren, C. & McGraw, A.P. (2015), “Benign Violation.” in Attardo, S. (ed), Encyclopedia of Humor Studies, Los Angeles: SAGE Reference.

Link to my first sketch: https://youtu.be/RmC_Q8LFsm8

I have had difficulties with getting my timetable sorted this semester, as a result, I was only allocated the class on Tuesday, which meant I missed Monday’s class.

But Wednesday’s class was enough for me to get the ball rolling with possibilities as to what I could do this semester.

This obviously being my first sketch, I tried to focus primarily on just making something I found funny that fit the assignment parameters. I wasn’t too focused on the technical aspects, and I wasn’t too focused on the quality, what I wanted to primarily focus on was being funny and not try to stifle my own ideas with perfectionism.

I was a bit inspired by old Vine humour. People were fitting jokes in a six second period that have now become pop culture phenomena’s and part of the social media zeitgeist, and platforms like TikTok have only expanded upon that, and the criteria for this sketch was under a minute. As a result, I was curious to try following a similar format: early premise of the joke (sad film like Titanic (Cameron 1997)), set-up (“who is cutting onions in here” line, trying to deflect attention from crying), and punchline (the fact someone is actually cutting onions). I think the concept of the joke works well (before I wrote 400 words explaining it with references). it surprises and subverts expectations.

The other thing that inspired me for my sketch was Six Small Essays about Comedy (Simons 2023), particularly his third essay: Why People Laugh, which reads as follows:

“Because they hear something surprising. Because they hear something familiar. Because they hear a funny sound. Because they want to. Because they think they’re supposed to. Because everyone else is. Because they recognize a certain rhythm or cadence as humorous. Because they’re uncomfortable. Because they’re frightened. Because they’re horny. Because they’re relieved to have been spared misfortune. Because someone is suffering who deserves it. Because someone is suffering who they believe deserves it. Because they realized something true about themselves. Because they realized something true about the world. Because they felt very alone for a long time and now they don’t.”

I think this lifted a lot of weight off my shoulders, things are funny because they are funny, and that trait is very human. If I find it funny, it is probably, in some way, funny. What my attention needs to focus on this semester, is finding the best methods and finding a rhythm that works for me, and my sense of humour.

References:

Cameron J (director) (1997) Titanic [motion picture], 20th Century Fox, United States.