What makes a good comedy?
Aug. 31st, 2006 12:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fiat_knoxAgain, in answer to someone's question on what ingredients make a good sketch show comedy, here is my answer.
Hard to define humour, because not everybody laughs at the same thing.
One thing universally recognised, though, is that the lead character must be likeable, but somehow flawed. He can be an objectionable little twerp like Alan B'Stard or Swiss Toni - but he must be sympathetic somehow.
Examples of funny, yet flawed characters (mostly from sitcoms): Top Cat, Sergeant Bilko, Edmund Blackadder, The Suits You Tailors, Baldrick, Basil Fawlty, Captain Mainwaring, Captain Peacock, Victor Meldrew.
In almost every case, the lead character must be able to bristle when the egg lands on their faces (sometimes literally, like slapstick - otherwise, metaphorically, such as "caught with one's pants down", a uniquely British form of humour called farce).
For some reason, the British sense of humour is at its highest when the pompous are seen to be bristling. Examples (again, mostly from sitcoms): Windsor Davies' sergeant in "It Ain't 'Alf Hot, Mum", Officer Dibble, Victor Meldrew's next door neighbour (played by Angus Deayton), Boris Johnson, Roobarb, Custard on those few occasions when it's Roobarb's turn to win, and just about everyone who comes across Frank Spencer in "Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em."
The key to this is what's called "irony". There might be a running gag where this guy's trying to get across town to a meeting, fight through all sorts of hilarious stuff, only to turn up as the end credits rolled to find that the meeting had been postponed for two weeks, or even cancelled. Irony is a great laugh raising tool, used in the right hands.
I suspect that even Tiny Blur might have once been able to save his career if he'd appeared on TV, bristling at camera with spaghetti sauce and meatballs dripping down his face.
But nowadays, I think the only laughter he'll hear will be jeering laughter from the people wishing hima speedy departure as he exits politics, and the UK, for the last time with his tail between his legs ...
*cough* Sorry. Yes, satire. We also love a good satire. Some sketch shows have successfully combined satire and sketches, mostly because the real life figures they lampoon have been all too flawed, and those flaws are easily recognisable and mimicable. Examples: Spitting Image; Bremner, Bird and Fortune; 2DTV.
Hard to define humour, because not everybody laughs at the same thing.
One thing universally recognised, though, is that the lead character must be likeable, but somehow flawed. He can be an objectionable little twerp like Alan B'Stard or Swiss Toni - but he must be sympathetic somehow.
Examples of funny, yet flawed characters (mostly from sitcoms): Top Cat, Sergeant Bilko, Edmund Blackadder, The Suits You Tailors, Baldrick, Basil Fawlty, Captain Mainwaring, Captain Peacock, Victor Meldrew.
In almost every case, the lead character must be able to bristle when the egg lands on their faces (sometimes literally, like slapstick - otherwise, metaphorically, such as "caught with one's pants down", a uniquely British form of humour called farce).
For some reason, the British sense of humour is at its highest when the pompous are seen to be bristling. Examples (again, mostly from sitcoms): Windsor Davies' sergeant in "It Ain't 'Alf Hot, Mum", Officer Dibble, Victor Meldrew's next door neighbour (played by Angus Deayton), Boris Johnson, Roobarb, Custard on those few occasions when it's Roobarb's turn to win, and just about everyone who comes across Frank Spencer in "Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em."
The key to this is what's called "irony". There might be a running gag where this guy's trying to get across town to a meeting, fight through all sorts of hilarious stuff, only to turn up as the end credits rolled to find that the meeting had been postponed for two weeks, or even cancelled. Irony is a great laugh raising tool, used in the right hands.
I suspect that even Tiny Blur might have once been able to save his career if he'd appeared on TV, bristling at camera with spaghetti sauce and meatballs dripping down his face.
But nowadays, I think the only laughter he'll hear will be jeering laughter from the people wishing hima speedy departure as he exits politics, and the UK, for the last time with his tail between his legs ...
*cough* Sorry. Yes, satire. We also love a good satire. Some sketch shows have successfully combined satire and sketches, mostly because the real life figures they lampoon have been all too flawed, and those flaws are easily recognisable and mimicable. Examples: Spitting Image; Bremner, Bird and Fortune; 2DTV.
