Writing Jokes...Why Bother?

A lot of comics will argue that writing a comedy is much more difficult than writing drama. You know what? I have to say, I totally agree with them.

Have you ever tried writing a joke? Trust me it really isn't that easy. Well, it's easy to write a joke, but getting a laugh out of people, that's the hard part. Whether it's for stand up, sketch, a movie, or whatever else a joke can be in. It is difficult.

Now compare that with drama where you would write the dialogue pretty straight, as in you'd most likely write it like a normal, serious conversation. (I had to put 'serious' there because none of my conversations are ever serious. Just in case someone else has that issue.)

I study Film Production at university, and as you may have guessed, that pretty much covers everything. One of the things that we have recently covered is the 'Kuleshov Effect'. Now, (not to get technical or anything), but pretty much this means that our brains react to an image based on what we saw in the previous image. So no matter how bad the writing, editing, or acting is, (well... maybe that stuff is important. Usually it is.) our brains will still tell us that something has happened or is about to happen.

 

 

You can still do this type of thing in comedy of course, but I think the outcome would be more serious than comical. So that's why comedians have to take so long to come up with gags, or jokes. Comedy doesn't have this magical brain thing that drama producers can use.

 

 

Does anyone else find that unfair? Just me? Ok....

 

So why do comics even bother with working so hard on writing jokes? I don't know! Maybe they're crazy. But I guess then that makes me crazy since I write jokes too. :/  Not to mention trying to get more laughs by changing the timing, nature, or tone of the joke on each take. People in drama Just have to look at the opposing actor with a straight face and suddenly the audience think they want to kill each other. Ok, that was a bit extreme. I won't even go into the whole discussion on how the Oscars don't consider comedies for anything. I'll leave that argument for someone like Howard Stern. Doesn't he make great points about everything? That was so sarcastic. Sorry.

 

Think about it this way, if we didn't have comedy, we would be so unhappy and gloomy. There would be no SNL, no Seth Rogan making silly movies, no stupid Foo Fighters music videos. What would the world come to? I'm sure we would survive, but we would be very depressed. I think that's why comics keep trying to make us laugh, and keep writing even though its argued to be harder than writing or acting in drama.

 

Are you an actor or writer? What do you prefer comedy or drama and which is more difficult? Let me know in the comments below.

 

Until Next Time...

Morgan ^^