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Using the Undercutting tool in Comedy Scripts to Create Comedic Moments


My splendid new book The Complete Comedy Script Toolkit has just been released. It’s a highly practical and inspiring collection of creative tools for funnier sitcoms, comedy dramas, sketches, short films, and screenplays.


In the first chapter of the book I write about undercutting. This is the comedy tool where something serious or thoughtful or dramatic is abruptly undercut by something, well, trivial, stupid or banal. Here’s an example from Gina Linetti of Brooklyn Nine-Nine:

GINA

The English language cannot fully capture the depth and complexity of my thoughts. So, I’m incorporating emojis into my speech to better express myself. Winky face.


She goes from “depth and complexity of thoughts” to “emojis”. In the following edited excerpts from the book, I look at two ways you can work with undercutting in dialogue. Firstly we’ll look at character being undercut by someone else and secondly a character undercutting themselves. Each example is accompanied by a writing exercise – which is a feature of the book.


One character is undercut by another

The bigger the authority, the better for undercutting, and they don’t come bigger than characters from the Bible.

Monty Python’s Life of Brian, tells the story of Brian being mistaken for the Messiah in Biblical times. The start of the movie builds up the atmosphere of the Biblical scene of Jesus’ birth; the three wise men on camels, crossing the desert, the beautiful night sky, and the bright star that’s guiding them. This atmospheric build is then abruptly undercut by the fact that it’s not the birth of Jesus they have arrived at. It’s the birth of Brian. Mandy asks of the wise men:

MANDY

What are you doing creeping around a cow shed at two o’clock in the morning? That doesn’t sound very wise to me.

Here, we have these significant, wise, and beloved Biblical figures undercut by Mandy. The wise men explain that they are astrologers and that they come from the East. Mandy challenges them:


MANDY

Is this some kind of joke?


The wise men explain they have come to praise the infant and pay homage. Mandy throws them out:


MANDY

Go and praise someone else’s brat!


The wise men protest: “We were led by a star!” To which Mandy replies:


MANDY

Led by a bottle, more like.


She changes her tune when she discovers they have brought presents of gold, frankincense and myrrh (although she is less keen on the myrrh). Mandy says:


MANDY

Well, why didn’t you say? He’s over there. Sorry, the place is a bit of a mess.

The wise men duly pay homage: “We worship you, O Brian, who is Lord over us all. Praise unto you, Brian”. Mandy, bemused, sends them on their way.


But the receipt of these gifts is a false dawn (where a character seems to have won… but then they haven’t - another tool from the book) because the wise men snatch them back when they realise they are giving them to the wrong baby, and go instead to the stable where the baby Jesus has been born.


In the above example, Mandy is knowingly undercutting the authority figures. She is, as we’d say in Britain, taking the piss. You can alternatively have a character who undercuts the authority figure, but who doesn’t mean to. They are trying to be helpful or to contribute, but they mess it up.


Here’s an example from Key & Peele. In their Old Timey Catcalling sketch (pictured above), we’re in the 1930s American South, where Key is an expert in seduction, making eloquent advances to the ladies. For example, a beautiful woman walks past, and Key waxes lyrical.


KEY

The way that dress is flowing, you look like a mountain creek after a spring thaw. Simply refreshing. What is your secret?


Then Peele cuts in:


PEELE

The way that dress fitting on you got them titties popping out.


The comedy here comes from Peele ruining it for Key. He is oblivious that he is saying or doing anything inappropriate, let alone funny. (At the end of the sketch, in a reversal, the hopeless Peele actually wins the girl).


WRITING EXERCISE

Whenever you have someone saying something sophisticated or highfalutin, they are just asking to be undercut. Take a character who is high-minded, have them make a sophisticated, thoughtful or serious comment, then have a second character undercut them with a crude, stupid, or flippant remark. (They are either knowingly undercutting the first character, or they are trying to say the right thing but failing.)


Try writing a few of these exchanges and you might end up with a comic moment that could go into your script.


Of all the kinds of undercutting in the book, this is the one that happens most often in real life. Picture a teacher in a classroom making a serious point, and then the class clown jumps in with a stupid comment and undercuts them. You can however also have a character undercut themselves…


A character undercuts themselves

Here’s an exchange from This Is Spinal Tap, a mockumentary movie, where Nigel plays a soft piece on the piano, and Marty listens. (In this case, the dialogue is improvised.)


NIGEL

It’s part of a musical trilogy I’m working on in D minor, which is the saddest of all keys, I find. People weep instantly when they hear it, and I don’t know why.


MARTY

It’s very nice.


NIGEL

Just simple lines intertwining, you know, very much like - I’m really influenced by Mozart and Bach, and it’s sort of in between those. It’s like a Mach piece, really.


MARTY

What do you call this?


NIGEL

Well, this piece is called “Lick My Love Pump”.


Nigel builds up the sensitivity, the artistry, the emotion, and then undercuts himself firstly by the absurdity of combining Mozart and Bach to make Mach – and then definitively with the crude name of the piece. Nigel is not intentionally being funny. In his mind, he is a serious artist talking about his work.


WRITING EXERCISE

To try this, write an exchange where your character seems to be about to say something poetic, caring and thoughtful… then they undercut it with something crude or blunt.

 
 
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