Laughing Out Loud: Writing the Comedy-Centered Screenplay

✍ Scribed by Andrew Horton

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 224
• Edition: 0
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Whoever wrote "Make 'em laugh!" knew that it's easier said than done. But people love to laugh, and good comedy will always sell. With the help of this complete and entertaining guide, writers and would-be writers for film and television can look forward to writing comedy that goes far beyond stereotypic jokes and characters. In Laughing Out Loud, award-winning screenwriter and author Andrew Horton blends history, theory, and analysis of comedy with invaluable advice.

Using examples from Chaplin to Seinfeld, Aristophanes to Woody Allen, Horton describes comedy as a perspective rather than merely as a genre and then goes on to identify the essential elements of comedy. His lively overview of comedy's history traces its two main branches—anarchistic comedy and romantic comedy—from ancient Greece through contemporary Hollywood, by way of commedia dell'arte, vaudeville, and silent movies. Television and international cinema are included in Horton's analysis, which leads into an up-close review of the comedy chemistry in a number of specific films and television shows.

The rest of the book is a practical guide to writing feature comedy and episodic TV comedy, complete with schedules and exercises designed to unblock any writer's comic potential. The appendices offer tips on networking, marketing, and even producing comedies, and are followed by a list of recommended comedies and a bibliography.

✦ Table of Contents

Laughing Out Loud
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION
Unexploded Mimes
The Comic Perspective
1— Comedy Is a Way of Looking at the Universe, More Than Merely a Genre of Literature, Drama, Film o...
2— Comedy Is a Form of "Play" That Embraces Fantasy and Festivity
3— Comedy and Tragedy Are near Cousins Whose Paths Often Cross
4— Comedy Is Seldom "Pure"
5— Comedy Involves a Playful and Imaginative Tension between the Constructed and the Discovered, bet...
6— Comedy Implies a Special Relationship with and to Its Audience
7— Comedy Thrives on Details, for Details Reveal the Contradictions and Celebrate the Incongruities ...
8— In the World of the Truly Comic, Nothing Is Sacred and Nothing Human Is Rejected
9— It Is Not That Comedy Has a "Happy Ending" So Much As a festive Climax That Celebrates a Communit...
10— Comedy Is One of the Most Important Ways a Culture Talks to Itself about Itself
Introduction Summary
I— COMIC ELEMENTS AND EXERCISES
Chapter 1— Elements of Comedy That Writers Should Know
Comic Climate
Areas of Comedy
Comedian-Driven Comedy
Story- or Situation-Oriented Comedy
Character-Centered Comedy
Comic Characters
Comic Plots
Comic Plot Devices
Repetition
Inversion
Reciprocal Interference
Disguise and Exaggeration
Interruption
The Reaction Shot
Chapter Summary
Chapter 2— Exercises to Nurture the Comic Muse
Your Comic Profile
A Comic Writing Environment
Partners and Comic Sounding Boards
Comic Story Circles
A Dozen Comedy-Centered Exercises
1— Practice Random Acts of Kindness
2— Surprise Yourself from Time to Time
3— Comic Observation: Spend an Hour from Time to Time in the Neighborhood Park or the Mall or Playgr...
4— The Humor of Real Life: Keep a File of Pieces from Your Daily Paper That Might Work Their Way int...
5— Comic Character Study: Make at Least a Half-Hour Interview on Video with Someone You Consider to ...
6— Comic Foreground/Background: Write a Scene in Which Two People Talk Seriously While Six Motor Sco...
7— Comedy-documentary: What Famous "Departed" Person Could You Have an Actor or Actress Friend Prete...
8— Ensemble Comedy: Imagine Four to Eight Guys or Gals Who Gather at One Café Every Morning for a Go...
9— Visual Comedy: In One Page, Write a Complete Comic Scene with No Dialogue
10— Comedy from the Bringing Together of Three Disparate Directions: Create a Story from Three Photo...
11— Adapt the Following Television Miniseries for Your Own Times in Your Own Area or Country
12— The Grown-up Children's Film: Come up with Characters and a Plot for a Children's Film in the Ve...
II— A WRITER'S OVERVIEW OF THE TRADITIONS AND GENRES OF COMEDY
Chapter 3— From Stage and Page to Screen: Anarchistic and Romantic Comedy
Anarchistic Comedy: Aristophanes
Romantic Comedy
Menander, Greece, and Rome
Shakespeare and Comedy of the Green World
Comedy and the Tradition of the Novel and Print Fiction
Chapter 4— Physical Humor: From Commedia Dell'Arte and Molière to Vaudeville and Silent Screen Comed...
Commedia Dell'Arte and Molière
Vaudeville and the Marx Brothers
Chapter 5— Sound Comedy: American Screwball Romantic Comedy, Then and Now
Screwballs in the 1930s
Screwball Variation: Comedy of Remarriage
Stretching the Boundaries of Screwball
Close-up on Screwball: As Good As It Gets
Chapter 6— Comedy and Television: Stand-up, Sitcom and Everything in Between
Stand-up: Anarchistic Comedians
Skit Comedy
Sitcom Then and Now
American Family Values
Variation #1— Ensemble and/or Just Single
Variation #2— Animation
Chapter 7— Comedies from around the World
Britain: Eccentric Anarchists: Peter Sellers, Monty Python, the Full Monty, and Beyond
Spain and Mexico: The Surrealist Humor of Luis Buñuel
Five Easy Lessons to Learn from Buñuel about Writing Comedy
Italy: Love and Anarchy Italian Style in Boccaccio, Dante, Fellini, and Cinema Paradiso
The Czech Republic: Wry Humor and Pathos, from Closely Watched Trains to Kolya
France: Warm Romantic Farce, from Renoir to Tati and Truffaut
The Former Yugoslavia: Balkan Black Humor and Magic Realism
Japan: Ceremony and Carnival in Akira Kurosawa's Dreams
Chapter 8— Comedy and the Documentary Impulse
Documentaries with Humor
Performance Documentary
The Comedy of Improv within Narrative
The Humor of Fake Documentaries
III— CLOSE-UPS ON COMEDIES
Chapter 9— Feature Film Comedies
Romantic Anarchistic Comedy: Preston Sturges's Sullivan's Travels
Fresh Variations on the Buddy Comedy: Big Night, a Culinary Comedy
Women and American Comedy: Penny Marshall's a League of Their Own
Race, Politics and Humor: Spike Lee's Get on the Bus
Children and Comedy: The White Balloon, a Young Girl's Comic Odyssey
Teens and Comedy: Amy Heckerling's Clueless, a Valley-Talking Anarchistic Romance
Blurring the Boundaries: Crime and Comedy in the Coen Brothers' Fargo
Chapter 10— Television Comedy: Seinfeld and the Simpsons
Seinfeld: Much Ado about Something
"The Kiss Hello" up Close
Scene Breakdown for "The Kiss Hello"
Comic Narrative Structures
The Simpsons: "We're a Nice Normal Family!"
"There's No Disgrace Like Home" up Close
Four Elements of Vintage Simpsons Writing to Admire
IV— WRITING COMEDY
Chapter 11— The Fifteen-Week Feature Comedy Screenplay
Getting Started
Week 1— Comic Explorations
Week 2— Humorous Brainstorming, or Three Ideas Are Better Than One
On Creating Truly Zany Script Ideas
Week 3— Constructing a Comedy-Centered Treatment
A Romantic Comedy Treatment
Sub Sub-Let
Week 4— Fade in Laughing
Week 5— Focus on Scene and Sequence Construction
Sequence Construction and Comic Rhythm
Week 6— Focus on Comic Dialogue
Week 7— Focus on Comic Subplots and Minor Characters
Week 8— Are You Surprising and Entertaining Yourself As You Write?
Week 9— Reviewing the Treatment
A Sample Anarchistic Romantic Treatment
Tractor Blues, an Original Screen Treatment by Andrew Horton, Marina Drozdova, and Sasha Kiselev
Week 10— Focus on Comic Texture and Tone
Week 11— Balancing Fantasy and Festivity
Week 12— A Few Words on Tears and Laughter
Week 13— Comic Endings Versus Endings of Comedies
Week 14— Share the Laughter
Toward a Comic Out-Loud Reading of Your Script
Week 15— Retaining Your Humor from Page to Screen
Chapter 12— The Seven-Week Half-Hour Television Comedy Pilot Script
Week 1— Conceiving Episodic Comedy
Week 2— Structuring Your Pilot
Week 3— Outlining Five to Ten Episodes for Your Series
Week 4— Writing Act 1
Week 5— Writing Act 2
Week 6— Writing Act 3 or Polishing the Two-Act Pilot
Week 7— A Performance and Celebration Evening
BEYOND HAPPY ENDINGS: TOWARD A COMIC CONCLUSION
APPENDIX 1— A RECOMMENDED VIEWING LIST OF AMERICAN AND FOREIGN FEATURE COMEDIES
Silent Comedy
Anarchistic and Black Satirical Comedy
Romantic Comedy
Magical Realism in Romantic Comedy
Half 'N' Half (Anarchistic and Romantic)
Buddy Comedy
Teen and Youth Comedy
Children's Comedy
Comedy in Drama
Comedy from around the World
Australia and New Zealand
Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic
Denmark
Finland
France
Great Britain
Greece
Hungary
Iran
Italy
Russia/USSR
South Africa
Spain and Mexico
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Yugoslavia
APPENDIX 2— NETWORKING, MARKETING AND MAKING YOUR OWN COMEDY
Networking and Sharpening Skills
Newsletters
The Internet
Sites for Writers
Screenplays on Line
Comedy on Line
Workshops and Conferences
Film, TV and Comedy Festivals
Marketing Your Comedies Abroad
Writing for Foreign Television
Co-Writing or Writing for Foreign Film Productions
Studying Screenwriting Abroad
Making Your Own Comedies
Selling Your Script in the United States
APPENDIX 3— FOOD, RECIPES AND COMIC SCREENWRITING
A Screenwriter's Recipe for Comic Jambalaya
BIBLIOGRAPHY
On Comedy
On Film and Television Comedy
Screenplays and Works on Comedy Screenwriting
Literature, Stage Comedy and Specific Studies
Autobiographies
INDEX
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D
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