What's the secret to writing good comedy?

>>9862425
trace its development.

meme with aristophenes, see how that develops with the romans, yadda yadda, modern comedy.

there are certain things that are timeless when it comes to comedy. the idea is realizing this and expressing it in a way that is relevant to modern times.

smoke a backwoods

>>9862431
>meme with aristophenes, see how that develops with the romans, yadda yadda, modern comedy.
what

>>9862432
I'm not a druggie.

Comedy is just about making people laugh. Developing material that can achieve that is highly dependent on performance. You need some kind of live crowd, even if it's just a group of friends you're bouncing ideas off of, in order to ensure you're on the right path. Improv sucks so much but the Second City method of group improvisation as a way to write sketches could be very helpful for you.

>>9862490
I take it you're not a frequent /lit/ user?

>>9862425
depends on the type of comedy.
i think timing is everything though.

>>9862431
I don't know how helpful that's going to be for OP. It might be interesting but the function and definition of comedy in Antiquity and contemporary culture are very different.

>>9862590
Yup. Posted here cause /tv/ is shit.

>>9862590

literally die immediately

Wit and timing.

>>9862596
What're you trying to do in comedy? Writer's room, actor, improviser? I'm about two years into stand-up, still a shit open micer but I might be able to give you some guidance. How to write "good" comedy is too broad a question.

>>9862608
What do you mean by writer's room? That's probably my answer.

>>9862425
look at life
look at jews
everyone has a laugh
At the expense of you

>>9862431
If the ideas are timeless why bother going through all of the historical iterations of said ideas?

>>9862425
If you're asking, you can't learn how to.

>>9862635
I mean I've only tried once.

File: 30-rock.jpg (111KB, 849x473px) Image search: [Google]

111KB, 849x473px

>>9862620
I'm referring to writers on a television show. Writing jobs on CBS, NBC, and cable networks are coveted positions. Most of them are filled with Ivy League kids who get the job because of Daddy's connections. Listen to Tom Segura's episode on Ari Shaffir's Skeptic Tank where he describes the process of getting writing gigs through stand-up, it's a grueling process that's going to take more than a decade of legwork. You get the job by shopping "spec scripts" (sample scripts of already established TV shows) to different agents. That's an LA ball game that I have little reference to as a Chicago comic.

There isn't a defined path in comedy like there is in law or any kind of real profession. Find out what kind of comedy is happening in your city, whether open mics, improv troupes, or sketch groups, and start participating. Talk to any comic who is step above you. Listen to as many podcasts as you can get your hands on as every pro will drop hints on how to get to the next level.

>>9862660
I just want to write and direct shorts for YouTube then move on to my own films.

File: FB_IMG_1502052589365.jpg (42KB, 960x937px) Image search: [Google]

42KB, 960x937px

>>9862660
>tfw writing a comedy show is my dream job
>have exactly 0 connections to anyone even remotely associated with television or movies
>I have no interest in stand up
>I'm not funny enough even if I tried

Christ I hate myself

>>9862716
Follow your dreams, assuming your dreams are based somewhat in reality.

If you a 5'1 asian, and your dream is to be in the nba, you need a new dream.

>>9862690
Then actually do the work. This is the very crucial part of the process that 90% of "comics" are failing at. Guys like Louie CK get amazing deals with complete creative freedom because they can act, write, deliver jokes, shoot the camera, work in the editing bay, and distribute with minimal assistance. He got that freedom by cutting costs and doing all the work himself. Daniel Tosh got a show on Comedy Central because it was almost impossible for them to lose money on it. Actually making money on your comedy takes a tremendous amount of work and almost everybody in the early levels is a lazy sack of shit that couldn't cut it anywhere else. Even just a minimal amount of sustained effort will put you leagues above them.

>>9862754
what work?

>>9862724
Wanting to break into an industry requiring either nepotism or insane levels of perseverance and talent when you have none of the above is about the thing as being 5'1 trying to break into the NBA

I am funny. I make my friends laugh a lot, and people often tell me I'm funny. But you need to be fucking hilarious to write for even the shittiest shows

Feels terrible

>>9862716
Don't take my words as gospel. I'm two years in and only do bar shows in the Midwest, the most amount of time I've done is 20 minutes. These are just the rumors I hear from bitter guys who tried to "make it" in LA and washed out after eight months because three years of doing the exact same five minutes in Columbus, Ohio will doesn't prepare you for the world-class competition in California.

Just go to a few open mics or improv jams in your area and start talking to the performers. They are all autists of the highest caliber. They can help point you in the direction you want to go.

>>9862762
Start the process of making a YouTube short. After your done, do another. Repeat. There's no clear guide anyone can give you because the style of humor, the goals of the piece, and the creative process vary from individual to individual. The only way you learn is to keep doing it, analyzing it, and repeating. Many people don't do that, they write one sketch or write fifteen minutes of jokes and bitch about not getting paid.

>>9862778
You get funnier by doing comedy. The main struggle of your first few years in comedy is growing a backbone and figuring out how to translate your personal sense of humor to a crowd. When improv is done right it's insular group humor that's effectively translated to a broader audience. Those are skills that can be learned. Stop being a reddit-spacing, self-hating, /r9k/ faggot. There are guys who host mics in Chicago with legit credits and they don't posses any kind of exceptional talent. It's just time spent on the activity,

>>9862811
Alright, thank you, anon. Can you read and give your opinion on a script I wrote for my high school English class a few months ago? I didn't revise it all (wrote it the night before I had to shoot it) and haven't read since then.

File: FB_IMG_1500948106525.jpg (24KB, 548x353px) Image search: [Google]

24KB, 548x353px

>>9862830
>stop hating yourself

Okay thanks boss

>>9862849
Sure
[email protected]

>>9862716
Literally me. I've written a season of a sitcom tho. Now I'm trying my hand at novel writing butim still acclimating myself to the medium switch.

>>9862425
buy Truth in Comedy, for starters

>>9862870
shared.

>>9862877
My friend and I wrote three episodes of a simple sitcom series we brainstormed in about two hours. I've been meaning to write a few more episodes but I haven't gotten around to it

>>9862883
and really just watch a ton of comedy, see what you like and agree with, and work with it. and try to adapt. the greatest thinkers are able to take away good ideas from shit and make do with them.

you arent helping yourself reading classics and then going to reviews just to see what others think, just to agree with the populous

>>9862425
smoke weed

preconcieved notion followed by misdirection
some vague social truth intertwined

smoke weed
combine 3 of these things cute, cruel, bizarre, clever, sexually explicit/double entendre, clever, easily recognizeable

smoke more weed

>>9863131
>smoke weed
no.

>>9862425
set ups and payoffs: see Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm

>>9862632
Because how can you know the ideas are timeless if you didn't witness them through history

>>9862425
brevity.

but I honestly think humor has a lot to do with surprise. setting up a situation or question in which the result is something unexpected. it's why jokes stop being funny the more you hear them.

File: RC20111127SlavoyZizek01-768x1024.jpg (153KB, 768x1024px) Image search: [Google]

153KB, 768x1024px

>>9862425
The secret of comedy is to reveal the next step ahead in the dialectic

>>9862425
being funny

It's a different skillset in writing in my opinion. I think some people just don't have a sense for it. You can go back hundreds of years to read 'Comedies' and some of them are fucking funny, some aren't.

>>9864166
that doesn't sound funny.

>>9865812
No it isn't, which is why the meme war is serious business

I do stand up and wrote some theater stuff. There's this Greg Deans book which I think is very good and there's other book "the hidden tools of comedy".
I listened to a fucking shitload of stand up comedy albums (and I still do), you'll get a sense of timing, which can make even your shitty jokes work.
Write a lot, recognize and embrace the fact that you are going to write a lot of shit. Try to do new stuff. Also, be yourself.

>>9862425
Absurdism is easy enough. Just hang out with other outsider friends and you can easily make absurdist humour like your OP pic.

>>9866518
You think I have friends?

>>9862425
be subtle
have good timing
have some wit
make it relatable
realize that less is more
don't make things too specific that no one knows what you're talking about but not too generic that it's boring
don't rely on other things to make jokes of and learn to form jokes from nothing
don't be an asshole unless the joke is the fact that you're an asshole

>>9867279
also don't rely solely on absurdity and shock value and use them sparingly
nothing wrong with it from time to time but if it's your only joke it's going to get known
this can really apply to any one style of joke, but I'd say it especially happens with this type of humor

>>9867279
>>9867284
another thing that should also be obvious is not relying too much on swearing and dirty jokes
not trying to be a prude but a lot of the time it will just seem like you can't think of a joke and will simply add swearing to exaggerate it and make it try and seem funnier than it is
nothing is wrong with swearing in itself though if you use it the right way

>>9866483
>There's this Greg Deans book which I think is very good and there's other book "the hidden tools of comedy".
Would you recommend those books for writing comedy for the screen?

>>9864151
>but I honestly think humor has a lot to do with surprise. setting up a situation or question in which the result is something unexpected. it's why jokes stop being funny the more you hear them.

There are a lot of movies and shows that are funny every time though. As for jokes being less funny the more you hear them, sometimes the opposite is true. Look at this scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrtgRUOcKtM

>>9862425
puns

Being funny is a knack.
You could probably break it down into a formula but you'd need the knack first to know what it was working.

>>9862425
Getting a job.

File: 1488142575701.jpg (9KB, 237x239px) Image search: [Google]

9KB, 237x239px

>ITT unfunny nerds trying to describe how comedy works

/tv/ here, just popping in to laugh at your life

>>9869312
stop pretending /tv/ is a good board.

>>9869284
what kind of Hunt for the Wilderpeople bullshit is this nigga

go watch some interviews with TV writers, you don't have to actually be funny as a person. many aren't.

it's about thinking systematically, understanding what constitutes 'humor,' sitting down and spitting out ideas on a page, studying what other people have done

it has nothing to do with acting ability, improv, or stand up. those are separate disciplines. you'll actually do better as a socially awkward ivy league grad who studies comedies of the past the way you study math textbooks

>>9862425
Include a punchline. Something that unfunny hack of a """comedian""" in your picture never does. For some reason all modern comedy is just pure shock value with no actual jokes

>>9870887
>he thinks you need punchlines to tell a joke
grow up you fucking loser

Timing, comparison, eye for detail, and a feel for mood. But mostly timing.
Read A Meaningful Life by L.J. Davis. The man has masterful control over how fast you read, which makes otherwise sharp or dry descriptions and actions into damn good humor.

>>9870883
>it's about thinking systematically, understanding what constitutes 'humor,'

Holyshit you are autistic and I guarantee you have never made anyone, particularly girls, laugh

>>9867670
Greg Dean's kinda, although it's very stand-up oriented. What I like most about the book is that it outlines a fool-proof way to write jokes from scratch.
The Hidden tools of comedy it's for the screen. Another two good books are: Alison Ross, The Language of Humour and Playing with Words: Humor in the English Language, Barry J. Blake.
I've read lots of books on the subject, there are many others books on writing; the books I'm naming are very short, but they still say what many other books say in more pages.

>>9862425
Writing good tragedy

>>9862425
Why are you trying to write comedy? Why don't you write something serious? Something worth taking seriously?

Read the The Art of Comedy and Bowties by Paul Feig

>>9862425
The opposite of whatever this guy is doing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hThzlzR738w

>>9872809
I bet you're great at making girls laugh. You and Eric Andre, cheers! I hope you neck yourself.

other than the basic tenants of being able to write well,
and being a good story teller.

to write good comedy
must examine
current anxieties within yourself, and in the social milieu.
comedy comes from building tension and cutting it.
A laugh is an expression of anxiety believe it or not. Kinda like a pressure gauge.

to write good satire all you have to do is look at and breakdown assumptions behind certain ideas, then take them to their "logical" or extreme conclusion.

warning appraoch taboo's with a great amount of tact.

to be funny and remember "brevity is the soul of wit"

File: 1502387943416.jpg (250KB, 1280x1280px) Image search: [Google]

250KB, 1280x1280px

>>9872967
Confirmed my suspicions

>>9862660
Thank you for the Segura pod, listening to it now...
Since it sounds like you are knowledgeable about the process- Were you ever a stand up or an aspiring writer?
Hope you're still in a thread from three days ago. I am trying to get into TV writing but am not an ivy-leaguer nor do I have a father who is a writer...
I can write good jokes but that is about it... Few networking opportunites and I do not think I can struggle for ten years. If I have to wait until i'm 33 to have any success I will jump off a bridge

>>9862425
>I want to die like like my father, peacefuly in his sleep, not screaming like everyone else in his car.

This is the essence of Comedy.

>>9874386
what?

Been at stand up for three years personally and know a few guys who have made it to the late night circuit. It's kinda half and half natural talent and hard work. Go to open mics, if youre not retarded you're probably better than half the people there already, and come to terms with the fact that less than 1% of the comedy you write will be funny enough to stand out.
Unless you're a hot woman then you can replace natural talent with the fact you've got a uterus.

File: DeadDog.jpg (74KB, 780x642px) Image search: [Google]

74KB, 780x642px

>>9862425
most comedy has some kind of split from expectation. Good comedy happens when theres a big contrast in two ideas. For instance look at pic related. The comedy hits hard because two major contrasts in ideas happen at once. The fact that the dude carrying the suitcase down the stairs and giving the kid a break was actually his ruse to steal the suitcase and the fact that the only reason why he was stealing it was because of the "speaker equiptment" on the inside when it wasn't really speaker equipment both are understood at the same time, giving it a good comedic punch.

>>9862425
>What's the secret to writing good comedy?

You need to lure the audience's expectation in one direction, and unexpectedly subvert it.
t. Jew

A (weak) example from a movie I'm writing.
>Pataki pipes in, genially congratulating Dean for the baby boy. Fleischer smiles at the lad and cheekily responds, “Thanks, he’s a mulatto.” James frowns. The traffic cop reassures him saying, “Chin up kid; it’s the mother who’s Black…” He then leans in, and loudly whispers in the boy’s ear, “…Don’t tell my wife!” Deans jerks back, laughing hysterically, and jostles the poor, confused lad, who stands there sullen. Arthur laughs as well, more out of social courtesy than enjoyment.

>>9876361
you weren't kidding that's weak as fuck

>>9876390
True. The traffic cop, Dean Fleischer, is meant to be a quasi-clever, goofy Jew.

>>9876361
Gas yourself kike

>>9876361
That's so awful I can only imagine what garbage the rest is if this is the jewel you chose to share.
Maybe try coming up with something original and not just cowardly falling back on thinking your mutilated dick entitles you to be funny

>>9862425
SUFFERING

>>9862425
Be smart and funny

File: 1474096515102s.jpg (3KB, 124x125px) Image search: [Google]

3KB, 124x125px

>>9862432

There is no true formula for good comedy, but there are a couple of concepts that are pretty timeless.

Unexpectedness is a huge deal. Make connections, comparisons, points that nobody else would make.
References to recent events, phenomenons and everyday life always work.
Playing with stereotypes works.
Figure out what sort of comedy you actually want to make, situational, character driven, puns? There is actual literature on comedy that you can pick up and learn alot from. Also consume comedy and review WHY things are actually funny, that will improve your own work.

POST MORE NOW

>>9878903
thanks for bumping this thread for me

>>9878953
no problem babe ;)

>>9862660
pretty much this. except I would say if you ARE 'that' funny, you WILL get noticed. if you've been at it for ten years and haven't been noticed, it's probably not for you

>>9862830
actually good advice

>>9869312
woah, this guy from /tv/ man, he knows comedy

>>9862425
talent

>>9862425
something I'd recommend is watching Mitch Hedberg, Norm MacDonald's 'jokes' section, and Jimmy Carr.

Regardless of if you think they're funny, they are masterful at writing setups and punchlines. Then play with their formulas and add tags and story elements where you have to. Any comedian who's worth his salt actually has punchlines and tags littered throughout his entire act.

Just learning to place punchlines and tags transformed my standup and writing from "this is something I think is funny" to "this is something people think is funny"

>>9879576
oh and also people are retarded and need jokes setup very well, never forget that

>>9877561
From what I've seen the best comedy is always character driven. But Frasier is character driven and that show is unfunny shit.

>>9879576
what the fuck is a tag

>>9879576
Ill check it out

>>9880816
Google it

>>9880816
additional punch immediately after the punchline??