Who doesn’t want to make their stories funny? Or add jokes or humor? I personally like to laugh and can laugh at anything. 😄 My former boss, always asked me how I managed not to laugh at funerals. In fact, at my own dad’s funeral, I remember someone making a mistake during the service and couldn’t keep from smiling. Imagine that, despite being so distraught.
My natural state of entropy is to smile, if not laugh at everything. I can find funny anywhere. I’ve had a few friends with similar entropies. (Analiza Pabistuan, I’m talking about you! 😉)
However, finding humor in life or telling a joke is very different from writing it into prose. When I wrote Painting Kuwait Violet, I found it very hard to write some of that humor that now forms the various counterpoints throughout the novel. They were necessary to balance the story. Only when I re-read it now, I realize how important those humorous scenes are. It prevented the book from becoming a miserable pile of melancholia.
So through a chance tweet and retweet I found Dave Cohen or we found each other on Twitter. And when I asked him how to write comedy, he was kind enough to share a few tips. Dave Cohen is a writer, broadcaster and comedian. He has written for dozens of Britain’s top TV and radio shows including Spitting Image, Have I Got News For You and Horrible Histories. Horrible Histories – The Movie is out this summer. He has written two books, How To Be Averagely Successful At Comedy and The Complete Comedy Writer. He is represented by Kate Haldane and is the Guru of the One-Liner.
Tell us a little about yourself and how did you get started in comedy writing?
I was always interested in comedy, when I was a kid the BBC used to show loads of US sitcoms – I Love Lucy, Sergeant Bilko, My Favourite Martian – and we had our own British shows like Steptoe & Son (became Sandford & Son in the US) and ‘Til Death Us Do Part (All In The Family).
Then when I was a teenager I saw the original movie of The Producers and it was a life-changing moment. From then on I wanted to be Mel Brooks. I’m 60 years old now and I still want to be Mel Brooks.
Do you write in short bursts or do you have a fixed writing regimen?
I’m very lucky I can write anywhere, anytime. I write on the bus, I write on the underground. And individual jokes can be written very quickly. If I’m working on a book or a big script, I try and work to a regime, carve out 90 minutes in the morning to get as much done as possible. Then at least if I’m distracted for the rest of the day by life admin, pitching for more work, plugging stuff on social media, I can at least look back on a day and see a solid amount of work.
Why is being funny so important especially in writing?
Well for a lot of people it isn’t! If you look at the most popular books and movies, comedy does well but we can’t compete with action movies or grisly detective murder stories.
But for me the best and greatest writers use humor to draw you into the story, or to offer a bit of light relief if they’re telling a serious story. I like how shows like Orange Is The New Black can deal with dark stories and damaged people in a funny way, without diminishing the drama or disrespecting the people they write about.
Can writers who are serious, introverted write comedy/funny stuff?
I teach comedy writing, but I always say at the start I can’t teach people how to be funny. If you’re the kind of writer who comes up with funny ideas, or you often think of jokes, wordplay and such, I can help you focus your writing so you get to the funny places quicker.
What are your five tips for writers who want to make their work funnier?
1.The first tip applies to any form of writing, in any genre: get your characters right first. Come up with funny, compelling characters, give them a goal, and find a thousand ways to thwart it…
2. …but because this is comedy, and comedy characters generally never learn from their mistakes, not only must you ensure they never achieve their goal, also make sure they fail because of a flaw in their personality. Look at Frasier: wealthy, successful, good at his job, terrible at relationships. Whose fault is that? His alone, every time.
3. Don’t worry if your stories are real: real life is often boring, or so weird that people won’t believe you. Believability is what really matters.
4. We don’t need to like your characters. But we do need to understand why they are the way they are.
5. Never settle on the first joke. There’s always a funnier one.
6. Sorry but I wanted to add one for luck: backstory in comedy is unnecessary and dull. Bin it.
How can writers balance comedy and serious prose in their own work?
Well the Greek philosopher Aristotle, who was probably the first person to define stories, talks about comedy and tragedy as two sides of the same coin. The novelist Angela Carter defined comedy as “tragedy that happens to other people”, and the American comic Steve Allen said “comedy equals tragedy plus time”.
I come back to Mel Brooks, who in the 1960’s and 70’s used comedy to address serious issues head on.
It isn’t always easy to get the balance right: I mentioned Frasier, a great sitcom that right from the start dared to confront serious issues of life and death. And I’d say that although Friends is out and out comedy, there’s always that clock ticking in the background, each character confronting those questions we all face in our 20’s and 30’s – when do I stop having fun and when do I settle down? Is this the right person for me? Will I ever do what I want to do with my life?
I’d say the key thing is to always be trying to get to the emotional truth of your stories and characters. Plenty of laughter and tears on that journey.
Where can people find you and your work?
I’m running a short series of classes in the UK over the next few weeks – writing for stand-up, writing topical comedy, creating sitcom and comedy drama, and building your plots and characters. You can find out more here.
My new book The Complete Comedy Writer is out now.
Our regular podcast Sitcom Geeks is on Spotify.
My co-presenter James and I are creating a sitcom live.
You can find me on Twitter @DaveCohencomedy and @SitcomGeeks
Plus we have a Sitcom Geeks Facebook page.
Look forward to hearing from you all!
We hope you enjoyed this post. If you have a question for Dave or me, leave a comment below. Until my next post, never stop laughing!
Here’s some of the best moments from my favorite comedy, Keeping Up Appearances.
