March 20, 2016

How to Write a Great Comedy by David Jameson

Comedy is the most difficult dramatic genre. And even if you are creating great jokes, it’s not a fact that you’ll be able to transfer them to the paper. Writing is hard. And the funny writing is even harder. To write funny dialogues and miniatures is the innate ability. But still, if you have some rudiments of the talent you can develop it.

Once, Tim Allen in the interview was asked about the sense of humor. He replied: “This is a magical gift to be funny. I don’t know where it came from, and I am terrified of losing it.” Why some people are born with the ability to track and field, and the others are not? The same happens in humor.

Creators of comedies don’t always know the foundations of real funny and fascinating story. But there are such bases. If you want to work in the comedy genre, you need to know them.

This post is the result of the observation and careful analysis of what elements are used in comedies, which have taken a worthy place in the minds of readers, and brought money and glory to their crafters.

Here you will find 9 ways of how to captivate and amuse the reader. You will know how to write a comedy that could become classic, raising moods of millions of readers from year to year. If you as a writer like this goal, then let us begin.

In the comedy, as in other genres, the primary task is to captivate the reader. To captivate, and then make laughing not letting him get bored. For this purpose, it is important to combine the elements that cause concern and laughter.

How to generate interest?


All the components of a fascinating story (secret threat, goal hero, anti-hero, adventure, legend) are doing their job. And the comedy is not the exception. It is built on the same rules which would have to keep reader’s attention from the first word and to the last one.

How to make laughing?


It should be noted that laughter arises from the fact that a person observes and recognizes some illogical situation or an action. Think of any funny incident, and you will find the illogic there. For example, a man was walking down the street, and then he stared at the girl, and “BOOM! ..”, he is at the post holding his head.

9 key elements of the comedy that can be attributed to the category of classic comedies


No information. The comical situation can arise due to the fact that hero or his opponent begins to act without knowing some important information. For example, some guy hasn’t shared a valuable data to the hero. Or the main character forgot a part of the received information. And troubles began…

Deception. This topic is for a long time open, but having an endless supply of the material. If you can think of any decent comedy you’ve read, you can find a deceit or a pretense there. For convenience, there are three kinds of fraud: 1. Hiding something. It is the first type of fraud, which is a “gold mine” for jokes. The character did something wrong and wanted to keep it in a secret. For example, he made a blunder in the responsible task and then tried to fix the mistake. The chain of funny situations happened to him during the period, and he efforted to turn around with new problems. 2. False target — is the second type of fraud. A hero begins to deal with the case which he should not have to do, or it goes to the wrong target. 3 False information source — when hero trusts to a person to whom he should not. The writer can successfully use this situation to create a sitcom.

Affectation. To pretend someone (especially, if it’s done clumsily) usually causes laughter. Being on the verge of pretense opening is a thrill and arouses the huge interest of the reader. For example, a man pretending clumsy woman, or a virgin pretending macho, and others. This kind of topic is the inexhaustible storehouse of jokes, curious situations and storylines.

Lack of the familiarity. If a person is sent to the unknown place, then funny situations may occur. It happens due to the fact that hero is briefed and incompetent in a new area. For example, the character may be in the dark of laws and customs of a savage tribe, etc.

Messed up. This is one of the main principles of a sitcom. Generally, this is a source of the laughter luck, coincidence, and similar circumstances. Taking this comedy’s circumstance, you can come up with a chain of funny situations. During the creation of comic stories, it’s necessary to take a specific situation. See, what could happen if the key character would confuse the correct sequence of actions or the place of meeting?

Guessed. Sometimes, there are situations when we do not quite understand what is going on. The mind sending us a different assumptions. If you start operating on the basis of assumptions, or on the basis of someone’s “authoritative” opinions, but not on the basis of accurate facts, the consequences can be both tragic and very comical.

Failure. Comedy’s course is great when the hero takes on a task that is contrary to his abilities. There are an infinite number of the comedies are based on this principle. It also should be noted that use of this comedy’s element is an excellent opportunity to build a hero’s storyline development.

Availability of what should not be here. If during the wedding night fiance’s mother will be advising him on how and what he should do (sorry) in bed, and at the same time she will be sitting next to the just married — it will be a good example of what “should not be here.” When someone or something is inappropriate for the particular situation, we have a comic element.

Sharpened irrationality. This paragraph means a significant exaggeration of the non-optimal behavior. All the writer need to do is to take some character’s strangeness of the mind or his external feature. Make it several times hyperbolized to make it looks absurd and ridiculous. Thus, you can obtain the following non-rationality. For example, the woman constantly cleaning her house, because she seems that deadly germs are everywhere.

Any writer should know how to create a particular hero of the story (as internal as external). So, it’s necessary to increase and aggravate some features of the character when creating comic personage.

“Illogic” is the main peculiarity in the listed above rules. This is the main secret of any successful comic story. Now, grab Write! or Word, and create your funny stories yourself. You have all tools for it. I wish you many fresh ideas and great comedies. Good luck in your practice!

David Jameson

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