- Old Adage
"Tradgedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die."
- Mel Brooks
Timing is the purest aspect of comedy. That's kind of why it was considered inferior to the only other kind of story in existance back then, the tragedy.
The most revered of writers back then had what I once recently called "diarrhea of the pen". Take Homer, for instance. He takes roughly 30 lines at the end of Book 7 of The Odyssey to describe the lineage of the Queen of Phaecia, just so that when Odysseus meets her next book he'll know something about her. This style of eloquent and descriptive writing greatly benefits the tradgedy, where the goal is to upheave a full eotional response fro the audience. For comedy however, this may not work.
Comedy is virtually never this discriptive (unless your comedicly listing off meaningless details). The makers of Airplane! have stated that making a large volume of brief gags allows them to move on from a potentially bad joke before it actually registers in your mind. The goal is to be concise, but not necessarily short. Especially in the visual medium, many authors like to draw out gags to almost excruciating lengths. This sets up expectations for the audience, which makes it funny for them to see just how long it goes. Seth McFarlane in particular grabs onto this style like a chigger and sucks it until it collapses from bloodloss.
Want to know how it's done? I used a textual type of comedic timing at the top of this page. By spacing out the two quotes, I prevented most of you from seeing the "punchline" quote until after your eye scrolled down from the "set up" quote.
2 5
*For the record, if you don't get it, The black guy's name is Roger, the guy in the back is Victor, and Peter Graves is Clarence Oveur.
Brian, your post was very original and the video at the end was a nice touch! I agree when you say comedy is not long-winded; if it is, it loses its effect and your audience's eyes will start to glaze over...my own brand of humor is deeply rooted sarcasm. It never fails to make me laugh, at any rate.
ReplyDeleteBrian, I like how you related your post to the Odyssey and Homer. Homer does seem to be a bit long winded sometimes.. Comdey does seem to be a bit more effective when in the shorter version.
ReplyDeleteI'm interested in the fact that you focus on comedy that's rooted in language. While some comedy is visual (sight gags, prat falls, and pantomime) it takes another type of talent (and timing) to master language-based comedy.
ReplyDeleteThe embedded video and video link are effective examples.
Keep this post in mind when we watch "The Importance of Being Earnest."