Comedy Writing Group

In my Xmas/ New year comedy writing course, one of the group nominated this scene from Bridesmaids which led to us working on one-upping as a technique.

Bridesmaids (Engagement Toast Scene)

• Comedy Technique: The scene is a prime example of the comedy tool one-upping or one-upmanship, where two characters try to outdo each other, in this case, through their wedding toasts.

• Scene Structure:

  • The back-and-forth competition is allowed to build pace towards the climax.

  • While economy and tightness is typically prized, on the other hand comedy scenes can benefit from being long enough to breathe and allow the awkwardness to build, based around one very clear game.

Last night was the first session in my Xmas-New Year comedy writing course. A member of the group nominated this Derry Girls clip for us to have a look at.

Here is my analysis of Dramatic Irony, Comic Problem-Solving, and Undercutting in the scenes.

Here's a dining scene from the movie Date Night: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aspBKFz2dBI

So you want to create a comedy character. Perhaps it’s a character for you to perform or for a sitcom/comedy drama script. In this post I am particularly thinking of narrative comedy script characters, but these thoughts can be equally useful for sketch characters and so on. Here are some ways you can explore and develop your characters to make them as rich and comedic as possible.

Base your characters on real people

Characters are fleshed out and made individual by drawing on the qualities of real people you know or have encountered. Whether they’re neighbours, bosses, colleagues, friends, family members or even spouses, real life offers up an abundance of eccentric and dysfunctional people who can become comedy characters. When you have a real model behind the character they become more individual, believable and idiosyncratic.

You might base a character on someone close to you, your nearest and dearest, however,…