Here's a scene from the hit television show Friends in which Ross wants to know how to properly attack his two friends Rachel and Phoebe in an effort to prove to them that they need to be hyper-aware all of the time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtp9gQ3m-FE
Funny...Now here's the same scene (roughly), but without the laugh track...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgKgXehYnnw
Creepy, creepy stuff...haha.
I'm not sure exactly what I'd like to say in this post, but I think it's something along the lines of how different it is to write for a sitcom rather than, say, a short film. Watching the first clip is very natural to us, but when watching the second, we see the writing for what it truly is: Short, shallow lines that are engineered to allow laugh time and move quickly from one to the next. I just think it's very interesting that sitcom writers have to factor in the presence of laughing, whether it's live or not, into their writing process when other writers do not. Perhaps it's something we can all think about when writing our short films considering how much television our classmates seem to watch every night...
I 100% have to agree with oyu, sitcoms are a completely different style of writing. They require a different thought process while filming and writing the script. It also takes a different type of talent because you can't just write a joke to make people laugh, you have to write a joke in a non-traditional way that will allow time for people to laugh, fit in with the dialogue, and then continue on with the scene.
ReplyDeleteIn the old days, shows used to be filmed in front of a live audience, and the actors would have to be on their toes with their jokes. If you messed up, you would have to keep going with the scene. A perfect example of this would be Abbot and Costello's "Who's on first". Two comedians did the same exact stand up routine, but would have to change up how long their pauses were and where their pauses were due to the audience and how funny they thought things were. Also, their acts would be changed up because, lets face it, no matter how many times you do a routine, you're not going to remember it exactly the same every time.
Good points, Chris!
ReplyDeleteJust to add another layer of writing. Theatrical writing follows the same concept. Its person A talks then person B then A again and eventually there is a slight pause and then a punchline. In "Almost, Maine" (the stage production the Arts and letters department just put on) that writing style can be seen in the script, with actual notes that say pause or beat. Most plays are written that way but that script in particular does an extremely good job of it.
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