Comments on: Dying is Easy, Comedy is Hard

by: BookInTheOven

Thu, 01 May 2008 13:36:02 +0000

I agree with Devon. You were trying to fit your tastes into someone else’s, which I think would make it harder to do. If it’s not your style, I imagine it would be near impossible to get something inspired.

by: Devon Ellington

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 18:26:01 +0000

Also, remember that when you’re writing a spec script for a show –which is basically what you were doing — you’re inhabiting someone else’s world.

Had it been a world of YOUR creation, with YOUR humor, it would have been very different, and your natural rhythms and humor would have come through.

But you had to write in cadences that were created by someone else.

by: Gail Clark

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 19:30:27 +0000

I totally agree, humor is SO subjective. My very closest friend and I have SUCH different tastes in comedy. She watched Seinfeld a couple of times . . . didn’t really get it. She’s rarely watched Friends. Doesn’t think The Office is funny. Not a fan of Monty Python either. She does, bless her soul, find Princess Bride amusing, but probably not to the level that I do. I don’t think she’s ever watched Arrested Development, but I doubt she’d find that funny either. I own all three seasons, and find something new to laugh at every time I watch.

Then again, she’s not a belly laugh till you cry or pee (or both) kind of girl, and I so am. I read a couple of blogs that make me laugh out loud, so I must be careful where I am when I read them.

But could I write it? I so wish, but I doubt it. I’m like you, I feel like some of my blog entries might make a reader smile, or maybe even chuckle a bit, but laugh out loud? Doubtful. But it would be cool . . .

by: theamcginnis

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:46:30 +0000

the theme song from MASH is “Suicide is Painless” - so it’s the living that hurts. I think Hawkeye used humor (a harsh brand of gallows humor) to make sure he could still feel things. and he busted on people who he believed weren’t feeling enough about what was going on. didn’t they ‘get’ how horrible war is? you really have to understand what is motivating your character in order to write his brand of humor.

by: Kathleen Bolton

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:08:17 +0000

Funny IS subjective. I love Seinfeld. A dear friend hates it. We’re both puzzled by the other person’s taste.

I tend to like the ’sneak up on you’ humor. I hate Jackass-type, clobber someone over the head humor.

Funny is hard hard hard to write. Can you train yourself to write funny? Possibly, but I think I’m on the side of you’re born with it.

by: Therese Walsh

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:19:14 +0000

I think the humor in M*A*S*H worked so well because it was a vital ingredient to life in such dire circumstances. Humor was the defense mechanism, the only way some of those characters had to combat reality and find something light to cling to. Hot Lips used sex. Hawkeye, humor…and it made him crazy in the end, didn’t it? The writers were brilliant in how they handled all of this. They didn’t have to have anyone come out and say, “Wow, isn’t it weird how we’re laughing but that guy just blew up in front of us ten minutes ago?” Because they tapped into something so utterly human, everyone got it. No one questioned that the humor was inappropriate…which is saying something, really. Brilliant, yes.

Thanks for the post, Dave!