This week: Do Formulas, or Templates, work? Edited by: THANKFUL SONALI Love my family  
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| Having read / listened to / watched several items in the 'comedy' genre ... I'm thinking there are several successful formulae to raising a laugh, provided they're done well. |
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Dear Reader,
Right from the old pie-in-the-face slapstick to subtle one-liners quietly stated, there have been and continue to be some guaranteed laugh-getters. (Given that they're well presented, that is.)
Charlie Chaplin said on comedy that it is 'tragedy happening to someone else' and that pretty much covers a lot of comedy. He also talked about the need for contrast (like his tramp costume, some of it too big for him and some too small) and surprise in comedy.
Here are a few 'formulaic' series that I personally love:
1. Asterix comics.
Formula - Asterix and Obelix on some sort of quest, they bash up some Romans along the way, tie up Cacofonix the bard, complete the quest successfully and eat a lot of wild boar at a feast to celebrate.
2. Professor Branestawm books by Norman Hunter.
Professor Branestawm gets a truly brilliant idea for an invention, becomes absent-minded while doing a key process in it, creates a lot of havoc for everybody around, calls Colonel Dedshott to help, things come right in the end and Mrs. Flittersnoop cooks up a feast. (Yes, comedy does involve a lot of feasting, glad you noticed!  )
3. The Yes Minister (also Yes Prime Minister) scripts / television series.
The Minister, Mr. Hacker, wants to do something, his Permanent Secretary Sir Humphrey doesn't want him to do whatever it is, they argue, the Private Secretary - Bernard - puts in a one-liner to get the biggest laugh, and usually Sir Humphrey gets his way. Except when the script writers want to 'surprise' the audience, and about once in every ten episodes they do let the Minister win. Oh, and Sir Humphrey always has at least one long speech where he takes 10 words for every necessary word, and uses ambiguity where clarity would've been easy.
4. The Pongwhiffy series by Kaye Umansky, which I discovered a few days ago on You Tube as out-of-print audio books and am thoroughly enjoying. Invariably, Pongwhiffy has an idea which she somehow gets the meeting to agree to, and then she winds up messing it up herself in some way after doing a lot of hard work in the initial stages.
5. The Hazel series starring Shirley Booth, based on the comics by Ted Key.
Hazel is the irrepressible maid of the Baxter family. The plot is usually about Hazel and Mr. Baxter trying to outwit one another, and Hazel's victory to the benefit of all concerned, including Mr. Baxter. She told him so.
The thing about these formulae, and I repeat, if done well, is that they make the characters out to be old friends whom you know, having another adventure. It's like a fresh conversation with someone you're comfortable with. You can relax and enjoy it, being pleasantly surprised but not shocked out of your wits.
Remember the Archie Andrews comic books? With his best friend Jughead Jones, who hated girls? I wasn't reading them any more by the time someone told me Jughead now had a girlfriend, but that disturbed me. That wasn't the Jughead I knew and I didn't want to read those later books. The old formula worked best for me.
Similarly, in the Hazel series, there's one particular episode where Mr. Baxter, a lawyer, is about to become a judge. Hazel overhears and boasts to her friends about it in the early stages when it should've been strictly confidential. Mr. Baxter withdraws his nomination because of this. Now, I didn't like this episode because it didn't stick to the formula - according to me, an episode of Hazel has to end with a win-win, not a lose-lose. I felt my old friends had betrayed me.
So yes
Something + something else - another thing = laughter
just might work for you!
Thanks for listening,
Links to some of what I've mentioned above ▼
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Comedy: February 19, 2025 Issue [#12987]
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