Beyond a Joke, Beyond a Genre – Week 3
Slang Barrier
- What is your understanding of the comic form and theories of humour explored this week, with reference to the reading(s), in-class discussion, and/or your own research?
The focus this week was ‘The Comic Frame / Comedy Mechanics / Situation and Story’. To help understand these theories, we watched a lot of sitcoms and late night sketches from SNL. It was interesting to learn some of the mechanics behind these late night sketches. They are usually created on the same day they are performed, it is usually the same cast with a possible special guest, and the same storyline can be used to generate a ‘new’ sketch. Joe Toplyn wrote, ‘the host plays straight man in a scene where a comic character disrupts the show for some reason’ (2014) , highlighting one of the common storylines they use for the sketches. The ‘comic character’ could be anyone and anything. That was something else we explored in class, the checklist of a story sketch. This checklist is a great guideline to creating a successful sketch, especially because it solely focuses on the description of the ‘comic character’.
- How does your media artefact (sketch) respond to these constraints and concepts?
Below is the ‘Nine Steps to Creating a Story Sketch’ which was written by Joe Toplyn in the book ‘Comedy Writing for Late-Night TV’ (2014). I must admit, I did not complete the entire list before filming my skit… I should have filled it out. I could have added a lot more depth to my story rather than it just sitting on the surface. There was not really a twist at the end and my character didn’t do anything extreme.
However, my comic character did have a clear trait that I feel I executed well. She has a thick Australian accent in which her partner can not understand. Not only is she saying phrases that he can’t understand, but she is also requested a very basic dish for dinner which people could laugh at. The entire sketch is pretty corny and could have be developed further, however hopefully it still generates a few laughs.
(I have added to this list since filming – point 6 & 7)
Story Sketch:
1.Think of a comic character with two or three exaggerated traits
Strong slangy accent, clueless and carless
2. Make your comic character want something
She wants a simple dinner, a snag sambo! … sausage sandwich
3. Have someone oppose your comic character
Her partner is posh english and doesn’t understand what she wants.
4. Have your comic character take several different steps to get what they want, each step more radical that the last
She suggests what to put with the dinner, then another dinner option, she will then laugh it off and go make the dinner herself
5. Raise the stakes
6. Have your comic character do something really extreme
She breaks up with her partner because he doesn’t understand. or they both start crying cause they don’t understand each other
7. Have your comic character not get or get what they want
He makes dinner and comes back with what he thought a snag sambo was, but it is something totally wrong
8.Throw in a final twist
9. Add the dialogue
- How have you incorporated peer feedback into your approach to further develop or improve your practice?
My feedback from last week:
- Needed the melody to be more obvious
- Could have just kept wearing the squeaky shoes
- Could have exchanged for new shoes and they be worse
- Sandals could have squeaked as well, all he shoes are squeaky!
My sketch this week is quite different to last week however the feedback was still useful for future work. We discussed how to add more humour, it would have been more effective to do something more unpredictable. For example, instead of taking the shoes back to the shop, the girl could have just continued wearing them even though they had a loud squeak, wearing them in a public place like the supermarket where other peoples reactions may have heightened the situation.
Reference:
Story Sketches. (n.d.). In Joe Toplyn, Comedy Writing for Late-Night TV (pp. 221–238). https://rmit.alma.exlibrisgroup.com/view/delivery/61RMIT_INST/12324770510001341