November 1, 2004

• “Sitcom Skool – Part II”

  
  

  Okay, to recap on the Rules of Sitcom, just scroll down.  Now, let’s finish up this lesson:

  
  

  7) Gotta be clean for comedy.  (I think this rule came before the days of “There’s Something About Mary” and “American Pie“.  Potty humor is hilarious at times but also way too easy to get a laugh.  It’s so much more of a challenge to get a laugh without the fart-jokes.)

  
  

  8) “K”‘s and “P”‘s are funny.  (Words that have a “K” or a “P” in them I guess are “funnier” if you emphasize them.  It worked for me when I instinctively stressed the word “Spackle” in a scene and wound up finding an extra joke in the scene that wasn’t obvious the first time reading it.)

  
  

  9) Watch for Turns or Telegraphs.  (A “Turn” is where you mislead the audience.  In “The New Guy” my homophobic character keeps asking throughout the film, “Did that sound Gay?”  And another time “Does that sound gay?”  And finally when he does say something off-kilter, “Okay, that sounded gay”.  It misleads the audience thinking my character is so homophobic that the joke comes when he actually admits to sounding “gay”.  Now that’s also an example of a “run” since the lines came in 3′s throughout the film.  (P.S. In no way am I condoning what my character says in the film but it’s an example of the lessons put into practical useage.) 

  
  

  A ”Telegraph” is when you are “giving away” or “tipping” the joke.  In “The King of Queens”, I played a grocer who argues with Jerry Stiller because he thinks I’m hiding the “good yams” in the back of the store.  At the end of the show, Donny Osmond comes up and asks for the “good yams”.  To which I “telegraph” with a slight knowing nod and say, “Wait, here”, then disappear to the back of the store.

  
  

  Now, since I “tipped” the joke, the audience KNOWS what’s probably going to happen  next.  That I’m probably going to come out with a big, honkin’ yam.  There’s added laughter waiting in anticipation and then when the joke is finally paid off, and I actually do come out with a huge yam… even bigger laughter.  You’ve just milked 2 laughs from the one joke written.  It’s a technique that comes instinctually with comic timing but as you can see, can actually be learned.

  
  

  10) Above all, comedy comes from the TRUTH of the scene.   

  
  

  Now, try to observe some of these in the shows you watch.  When Joey from “Friends” says, “How you doin’?”  Laughter, laughter.  And only when it stops, will the other characters begin talking again.  Obviously, some of the format has changed a bit with single camera shows like, “Arrested Development” and “Scrubs” that don’t have the laugh track and are shot more like films.   

  
  

  Regardless, it is indeed its own artform not any less worthy than dramatic acting on say, “CSI”.  It’s simply a different medium in broadstokes trying to encapsulate the conumdrum of comedy.

  
  

  *And I’ll keep a nonpartisan stance on this journal and just urge you to do your civic duty tomorrow and vote… just not for Bush/Cheney.  Alright, I lied about the nonpartisan part.

  • 12:54 pm
  • 18 Comments