Editing comedy “rules”

[Mark Suszko]

For me one of the set in stone principles of comedy is a sense of narrative circularity. The “Who’s on first” bit is only funny because it continually loops, and more and more improbably, no matter what Costello tries to do to Abbott’s setup. We always wind up “at I dunno – third base!”

Stand-up comics always seem to try to bring the routine back to where it started in this same way, and the more unlikely that is to be accomplished, the more we love it when they DO connect it back, and feel somehow incomplete if it doesn’t happen. I think it must satisfy some inherent need in our minds for closure. I know for certain it makes things funnier. Seinfeld’s show/jokes and even more so, Larry David’s absurdist “Curb Your Enthusiasm”, work almost exclusively in this manner. The big revelation/punchline is when this improbable series of unrelated single, non-funny events loops back onto itself and closes the circle. This is a solid narrative trope, long proven successful in sitcoms since before Uncle Miltie.

This is not the only thing that makes something funny, it’s just one thing.

The purely absurd/incongruous is funny, standing on it’s own, but I feel that’s rather more hit-and-miss. Like slapstick. I think Slapstick doesn’t work until the audience identifies with someone in the situation. Otherwise, it’s just witnessing an accident. I will say, I have seen people whoop and guffaw at accidents too, like when a real waiter drops and breaks some glasses in a restaurant, but usually only the really coarse or stupid ones laugh at that. maybe that’s because they are releasing the tension of fear , being glad it wasn’t them, and so identifying with themselves, not the pratfaller. I dunno, perhaps it’s all a lot of overanalyzing at this point.

Timing is really important, and can make all the difference between two identical situations, one funny and one not. I think timing is a skill that can be learned by anyone, can be trained by imitating to find and repeat rhythms, but that comes naturally only to the gifted.

Timing can help bring about the “narrative circularity” I talked about earlier: say, a scene where some stuff falls on the head of a guy, and he’s reacted to it, along the line of “at least That’s over with”. You get the extra laugh out of the scene when he and the audience, thru the passage of enough rhythmic beats, anticipate the stuff is done falling, but the setup line suggests a new thing to anticipate, and when one more piece then DOES fall, that suspended time is closed.

Oh well, they say you can kill any joke by trying too hard to explain it, so I’ll stop here.

[Chip Johns]

Just something else to add. I have found that it is easy to get caught up in a self perception. What I start out with in my mind is funny, but what I end up with isn’t and I don’t see the difference. Always, have someone who isn’t working on the project determine whether what you are doing is working or not. Someone you can trust; and believe them no matter whay YOU think.