Comedy Writing - craft or art?
Is a great
joke, sketch or sitcom created in the white heat of inspiration – or is it the
product of hours or even months of hard work, refining and honing? You’ve
probably guessed my answer from the way I’ve phrased the question.
Maybe the
idea for a great joke or a sketch will come to you while you’re washing the
dishes or taking the dog for a walk. Maybe it will arrive in your head fully
formed and all you have to do is jot it down as fast as you can before the
vision fades. I often think of the legend of “Kubla Khan”: that Coleridge
dreamt the whole poem while stoned out of his head on opium. He was feverishly
scribbling it down the next morning but was interrupted by a caller from
Porlock. After the visit, the dream had gone, he’d forgotten nearly all of it
and we’re left with a truncated few lines.
Imagine
Coleridge’s script editor the next morning. “Interrupted by a man from Porlock?
Why not just say your dog ate the script, I’d believe it more. Besides, you’ve
passed the deadline!”
Comedy
writing – like all writing except, obviously, romantic poetry – is all about
producing stuff. In this case, a certain number of sketches, jokes or episodes,
on time, which fit the bill and which make people laugh. You can’t do that if
you’re smashed out of your mind on opium. It’s a nuts and bolts thing: X number of laughs in Y number of minutes. It
takes time to learn how to do that, and a lot of trial, error and falling on
your face.
I remember
Bill Dare of the BBC saying at a script meeting years ago that they weren’t
interested in someone who produced one immortal sketch of genius, but people
who could write five or six reliably funny sketches, and come back next week
with five or six more. It takes craft to do that.
It’s not to
say that brilliance and inspiration don’t come into it. We’re all aiming for
that. But it’s more important we just keep writing. Once you’ve really mastered
the lower slopes, you can more confidently tackle the heights.
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