  Comedy
This week: Falling Down Edited by: Robert Waltz  
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"I had thought - I had been told - that a 'funny' thing is a thing of a goodness. It isn't. Not ever is it funny to the person it happens to. Like that sheriff without his pants. The goodness is in the laughing itself. I grok it is a bravery... and a sharing... against pain and sorrow and defeat."
- Valentine Michael Smith
(Robert Heinlein,
Stranger in a Strange Land) |
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FALL
With the Fall Equinox upon us, we here in the One True Hemisphere are saying goodbye to summer and getting ready to wear clothing again. So I got to thinking about Fall.
And because I can't help but pun (one night not so long ago, I made a pun in my dream), I found a way to relate that to comedy.
Not much of a pun, really. The season is called both "Autumn" and "Fall," confusing the heck out of three-year-old me when my mom told me this from her perch atop her dinosaur. I mean, two words for the same thing? Really? Why? And then she taught me that sometimes, the opposite is true - that one word can mean two different things, as she fell off the dinosaur.
Now, that was funny.
Point being that falling down is funny (provided, of course, that it doesn't happen to you; even then, in a few years, it becomes funny). Now, granted, the result isn't always funny - Christopher Reeve comes to mind - but I bet that until the medics airlifted him out of there, someone was laughing about it.
Which reminds me: What's the opposite of Christopher Reeve? Christopher Walken.
Okay, that's not funny.
Except that it is.
Chevy Chase (the comedian, not the suburb) made a name for himself by falling down a lot. So did such greats as Charlie Chaplin and the Holy Trinity (the Three Stooges).
Falling down - physical comedy in general - isn't quite the most advanced form of comedy out there, but it gets laughs, and it's still better than fart jokes.
Here's the problem, though, for us writers: Reading about a pratfall doesn't pack nearly the punch of viewing a pratfall. There's an aspect of the sudden in watching physical comedy that the written word lacks. For example, you can write, "Dressed in his best suit and tie, Ralph wanted nothing more than to make an impression. As he strode over, bold as day, to shake his new boss's hand, he slipped on a banana peel and landed on his butt."
Which is not nearly as funny to read as it would be to watch.
But the act of writing that example reminded me of two important facts about the comedy of falling down:
1) Banana peels, while perhaps overused, are inherently funny. As with ducks, you just have to mention them to get laughs.
2) It's only funny when men fall down, never women. Seriously. I challenge you to write a funny scene where a woman falls down. (Okay, there are exceptions - models in high heels on slippery runways. And your mom. But that's about it.)
Anyway, how do we writer types get around this problem?
One way would be to only write screenplays, and don't let anyone read them until the thing's performed.
Another, more realistic one, would be what I call "elision," but probably has a technical term. Something like: "Dressed in his best suit and tie, Ralph smiled, looked his new boss in the eye, and strode over to her with his hand out. He never saw the banana peel."
There, you never actually read about Ralph falling on his butt; it's implied. (Left out - hence "elision." If anyone knows the actual term for this, let me know.) It's one of my favorite comedic devices, but the disadvantage is it's sometimes hard to spot unless someone's reading carefully.
There are probably other ways to make falling down funny in writing, but remember, the humor in the scene relies on suddenness and incongruity (that is, it's not as funny when a drunk falls down, because we're expecting it).
In any case - enjoy your Fall! |
All these items are somehow related to "fall" - in its several meanings.
And since I found those items via a random search of comedy genre items with the word "fall" in them - and because I've been playing Fallout:New Vegas pretty much nonstop except for breaks to write newsletters - I'm going to include this interactive that I found. As a disclaimer, I haven't read through it, so I really don't know what the actual content is... but hey, it kind of fits in this month's theme, right?
...and, finally, a discussion of relevance to all of us:
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Last time, in "Comedy Newsletter (August 24, 2011)" , I talked about comedy found elsewhere on the internet.
Wrathnar the Unreasonable  : This is my all time fave web comic:
http://www.goominet.com/unspeakable-vault/
The Unspeakable vault of Doom. You don't have to be a fan of HP Lovecraft's 'Cthulhu Mythos' in order to enjoy it, although you'll miss some of the finer points if you're not familiar with HPL's work.
As I'm also a fan of fantasy and horror, that is relevant to my interests. This, however, is NOT.
Midnight Dawn  : Something Positive and Cracked are already two of my favorite websites. And I have a fondness for LOLcats. I might even admit to enjoying puns on occasion. LOL But you've given me a few new links to check out. Thanks Robert!
I've got two related links to share, if anyone is into fantasy gaming and sarcasm, they may like Richard the Warlock and "friends" in the webcomic, Looking For Group.
http://www.lfgcomic.com/page/1
And if they enjoy Richard the Warlock as much as I do, there are several videos of him in action, and here is one of the tamer ones:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQm_Tx2VA5Q&feature=related
Again with the fantasy... maybe I should post these in that other newsletter I sometimes edit. Anyway, great link - I'm totally stealing the line, "You're putting points into your delusion skill right now, aren't you?"
And that's it for me for the summer. See you in dreary October! Until then,
LAUGH ON!!!
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Comedy: September 21, 2011 Issue [#4627]
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