  Comedy
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Funny spontaneously, or funny on cue, or both? |
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Claude, a Frenchman, is seventy years old and very active. However, he draws the line at leaving his cozy bed too early in the morning.
Once, with a group of friends, he was visiting Bangalore (South India). They planned to take a walking tour of the oldest part of the city. The three-hour tour had to be complete before the sun got too high in the sky.
“What time do we start tomorrow?” he asked.
“Seven A.M.” came the reply.
“I am not asking you how old I am,” Claude retorted, promptly. “Seven-zero is my age. I am asking you the time when we start to go for the walk.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
My mother’s younger sister was about to start college, and had to pick her majors. She decided on Commercial Art, and announced this to her family.
“I have one concern,” my mother said, straight-faced. “You are not an artist, you are art-isn’t.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
These are instances of on-the-spot, spontaneous humour, pertinent to the moment. The kind which, for most of us, occur as ‘I should have said that then' retrospection.
On the other hand, there is the 'prepared' humour, the kind that stand-up comics do. That’s their job. The audience knows they’re going to come out there and try to get a laugh. People anticipate the introduction, the build-up, the punch line and the denouement, and they go with it and chuckle.
To me, comedy is the most 'social' of the genres. Laugh and you want the world to laugh with you, be it spoken or written humour.
So does the distinction of 'spontaneous' and 'prepared' apply to written humour, also? Personally I think it does. This has been brought home to me in my nearly-two years on Writing Dot Com, especially when I write for contests.
Sometimes, when there is no prompt, or when the prompt leaves the genre to the participant, I find myself being funny without having set out with the intention to do so. I start with a snatch of dialogue spoken by one character -- and find that another character responds in a humourous way. "Why were you late for the audition?" "I'm sorry, I fell over my cat." And the piece goes on to be in a lighter vein. Speaking for myself, I find that comedy comes easiest to me when I'm not trying to be funny, when I just let the mood of the piece grab me and write whatever comes to mind then.
There are other contests, though, which specify 'Comedy' as the genre. There, you know you have to make the judge laugh if you want to win those great prizes. Sometimes, I can handle that. At other times, I find myself (figuratively) pulling crazy faces, sticking my tongue out, or getting out a feather to tickle the judge's funny-bone. Usually getting a yawn  in return, the tactics are so cliched and obvious. But it freezes me up, to have to be funny 'on cue'. Just like it froze my Mom, when, in a roomful of semi-strangers, the host of the party she was attending called everyone's attention to suddenly announce, "Gita is now going to tell us a joke." My normally garrulous Mom couldn't find a word to say, after an introduction like that.
There are many talented speakers and writers who can be funny on cue very effectively. My hat off to them, and I must admit I'm a bit jealous. In the world of films, Charlie Chaplin had comedy down to various formulae -- almost like he was saying x + y - z = LAUGHTER. From his tramp costume (too big in some spots, too small in others) to his movements, to the catastrophic situations his characters got into, everything was calculated to do one thing –- raise a laugh. It worked! It worked! Brilliantly, every time. Of course the man's execution of his formula was genius each time.
Which brings me to the end of this letter with a word to the wise -- choose whichever you like, spontaneous comedy, prepared comedy or a combination of the two -- but make sure you execute it with finesse.
Thanks for listening! 
- Sonali
PS - there are several articles about Chaplin's genius online, some which say he worked spontaneously, others which say he worked to a formula. In his own words, quoted from: http://www.charliechaplin.com/en/categories/9-Modern-Times/articles/6-Modern-Tim...
he says: (Quote) "I have measured it, gauged it, studied. I have been able to establish exact principles to govern its reactions on audiences. It has a certain pace and tempo." (Unquote)
From whatever I've read, I think he worked to a formula ... and was so good at it, he made it look spontaneous. |
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This is my first day as Editor, hope this Newsletter was useful to you!
So who is your personal favourite, from all the comedy writers on WDC?
Why (briefly) does that author's writing make you laugh? Eagerly waiting to hear from you!
Thank you,
Sonali |
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Comedy: February 18, 2009 Issue [#2879]
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