Friday, February 20, 2009

Comedy Scripts at a Glance

By Charlie Reese

To my mind, writing comedy scripts has an appeal far greater and more universal than most types of writing do. After all, not everyone wants to create a dramatic, serious story, but everyone wants to be funny now and then. I think that most people like to tell jokes and imagine comedic situations, and it is not uncommon for your average guy on the street to dream about stitching these jokes together into comedian scripts.

In reality, of course, there is a lot more to comedy scripts than just being funny. For a script to be truly funny, it has to be woven together well. Usually, doing one gag after another only works for so long. There also has to be a plot filled with compelling characters that the audience genuinely cares about. Just because you write a comedy script does not mean that you can ignore the more universal script requirements. You still have to put together something compelling.

That does not mean that writing comedy scripts is necessarily out of the league of the average person. The most important thing for a writer is to be able to relate, and there are a tremendous number of people who can relate to funny scenes and situations. Good comedy scripts are often based on real-life awkward situations and events that we all go through. Bringing a bit of humor to these issues is one of the best ways to really examine them. Writing or watching a comedy film can really deepen your understanding of some crucial things.

One of the best ways to become a comedy writer is to simply watch and read as many comedy scripts as you can get your hands on. Watching movies is a good start, but it is also important to look at a copy of the script to see what it was to begin with, and how it got transformed into a film. After all, to write a comedy script, you have to think like a comedy writer, and not just like a movie watcher.

This can be a pretty difficult task for some people, but having a movie script in front of you can really help you to do it. When you see a movie, you are seeing the vision of the actors, the director, the cinematographer, and many other people on top of that of the writer. With the script, you get to see the writer's vision in better focus.

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