Are you too busy to be funny?
I’m stupendously busy. This is a good thing for a writer. Part of the reason why this true will come out in a blog post tomorrow (exciting!) Another is that I’m writing about five different plays at once and my head is exploding. That’s ok, I can do this, but I’ve run into a problem: at least two of the plays must be comedies, but for me everything starts with drama. So, what the hell to do? How do you make a funny character when you have exactly 30 minutes writing time before you have to switch projects? Fear not – this guide will show you one approach to understanding what makes a character funny. Read on.
Nope, it’s not about slipping on a banana (although, why the hell not. Also, fart jokes.)
First, I’m going for none of this slapstick crap. I love a bit of silly action comedy. I love the Sergeant boldly declaring his love then running away from Harlequins stick. But that’s not what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about writing plays (or novels, or stories) with some meat to them. We’re talking about being funny AND good, and doing it when we have no time at all. What is a comedic character – no a banana skin dickhead but someone we laugh at and love.
Comedy is really technical, and really, really precise – but starts with a comic character.
I’m also not going to talk about comedy techniques in this article. There’s an awful lot to write about that, and maybe I will when I’m not trying to blast out a blog post in a bar three hours before midnight on the last day of the month. But this is about creating character. What is the fundamental quality of a character that makes them funny?
The difference between comedy and tragedy – the difference between heroes and clowns?
It has been said that the difference between comedy and tragedy is whether everyone dies at the end. There’s some truth to this. Funny is important. Funny provokes empathy. If a character is funny, the audience will like them. And once the audience like a character, you can do horrible, horrible things to them all. That’s the point of writing, yes? Hurt everybody the most you possibly can?
So what’s the difference between a hero and a clown. We must start with the same basic facts. Someone wants something. They want it so badly they are prepared to do anything. But something insurmountable is in there way. And they have to change and grow to overcome this barrier.
A hero has the skills to achieve this. They have a flaw, perhaps a fatal flaw, which is what prevents them from winning in the first place, but they also have “a very particular set of skills, skills… acquired over a very long career.” You get the idea. They’re awesome. Something big comes. They lose the first fight. So they become even awesomer and they win.
A clown has the same desire – perhaps even greater desire. They have the same obstacle that they must overcome. But, crucially, they do not have the skills set. They have the exact opposite. Something fundamental about the character makes them uniquely unsuited to deal with the problem they face. This contrast is what will make humour. It will also produce drama, empathy, and love. Small promises, right? But a great flaw makes for a great character.
Building a better clown.
I’m talking about clowns but I mean real people. I am comedically incapable at most of the useful things in life. And all of us are like that. We stand in the moment where we could have that what we want most, and we fail because we are incapable of simply saying “I love you” or “Can I have your phone number” or “Sure, I’ll lend you the money” three days before the suicide. Does this sound funny yet?
Take a list of your characters. Then, brainstorm (mind-map, yeah, whatever) random shit. People, animals, caricatures, skills, flaws, TV characters, anything.
What you’re looking for are massively contrasting, impossible pairings. An agoraphobic who is national parks manager. A donkey who is made pope.[i] Throw things together until you find something funny.
An example of funny matchmaking
Here’s an example for my own work. I’ve been commissioned to write a 5 woman comedy for the stage. What I came up with was a political story about a fascist head of state trying to find God. Ok. Excellent. Clearly a concept as inherently funny as being stuck dining with a matchstick artist when you have a bad back.[ii]
As I have no time and am writing two full length plays back to back alongside three shorts, a new novel and editing the old one (plus, a baby), (plus, new project revealed in tomorrows blog post!), I naturally panicked. If I’d been chilled I’d have found the humour naturally. As I’m not chilled, I needed to cheat. So a wrote a list of the characters(ish) in a left column, then a list of as many random things I could think of as I could. The following copied directly out of my writer’s notebook[iii].
| Characters | Random Characters/Characteristics | |
| President | Soldier | Sister-in-Law |
| General | Mary Poppins | Kim Kardashian |
| Director of Policy | Middle school child | Kleptomaniac |
| Chief of Staff | Pop Star | Donkey |
| Spokesperson | America’s Top model | Trainee clown |
| Maverick from Topgun | Tourettes | |
| Preacher | Compulsive liar |
This is a teeny-tiny list (I was in the park, it was raining and my daughter fell off the slide.) You should make a bigger list, if you can. But if you can’t, your next step is to think of each our your characters, the thing they want, the obstacle in the way, and the characteristic from the right hand side that would make it the most difficult for them to achieve.
Remember, all good character’s take themselves absolutely seriously.[iv]
So, let’s try twinning some up. Obvious candidates spring up immediately. A spokesman who is a compulsive liar? A kleptomaniac general? A director of policy who feels the need for speed, or Kim Kardashian as the Chief of Staff of a nation’s government?[v]
Now you play. Think – what would Kim Kardashian do if she was suddenly in charge of the government (you won’t be the first to think about this)? The humour comes from somebody horribly underequipped to do their job trying their damndest anyway because it is the thing they want most in the world. Basil Fawlty loves that bloody hotel. He just doesn’t know how to run it. They don’t have to be crap human beings (one suspects Ms Kardashian has one hell of a business mind). But something about them makes them horribly incapable of dealing with this thing that is suddenly the most important thing in their world.
How to boost the humour
First, go big on the characteristic. This needs to be a dominant part of their world view. The general, a woman of decency and honour trying to lead a nation in a time of crisis, needs to steal something in every scene in which she appears. She needs to take things. Why? Well, figuring that out will be fun, just as a kleptomaniac general is funny because it is surprising. Your compulsive liar spokesperson must never tell the truth. Even when it is obvious (“what is your name?”). Even and especially when it would help them achieve their goal (“Would you like something to eat?” Starving to death spokesman: “No, I’m fine, thank you.)
Now, having found a near random (and I’ll come back to ‘near random’) characteristic, you need to centralise this as part of your character’s flaw. This is the thing that prevents them from succeeding the first time they are challenged, and which they a) overcome for a happy ending or b) are defeated by in a tragedy. Their heroic struggle against hopeless odds will constantly be dragged back to this exaggerated comic perspective: a man who can’t read must win a literary prize or lose the woman he loves. You get the idea.
Hang on, this is just bloody drama in disguise!
Yep. It’s all the same stuff. The difference between drama and comedy is that a) in drama the characters are capable and suffering in a struggle against overwhelming odds whereas b) in comedy the characters are incapable and suffering in a struggle against overwhelming odds.
Best of all, it doesn’t have to be nor should it be black and white. The empathy created by comedy is awesomely powerful. Exaggerate the character’s flaws just a little, and your audience may yet love them.
And really well done comedy becomes truly exceptional drama. I cried when Truman touched the sky and discovered it was a wall. It’s all the same shit. Just tell good stories, in the span of life you have before you kill yourself.
The “near random” characteristic
I said I’d come back to this. Your list of random characteristics won’t be random: your subconscious is working away on your play. Compulsively lying political spokesman suffering from grotesque cognitive dissonance seems somewhat relevant to current politics. Kleptomaniac generals stripping the treasury before fleeing to friendly first world countries is the sad story of near innumerable states. In the process of finding a comic extremity you will often find an emotional truth. Just go with it, and trust yourself. Take risks.
They key to unlocking the comedy is building the brainstorm and looking for comic opposites. Always make things difficult for your characters. In comedy, make things absurdly difficult for the characters – while always remembering that for them things are deadly serious.
When you are writing your random list, your play is in your head. The brainstorm helps you find the truth. The extremity helps you find the humour.
Is that really it?
First answer, no. Comedy is hard and there are a lot of technical techniques, of which we shall speak should we find the time.
Second answer, yes. Donkey wakes up one morning to discover that a) he is Pope, b) his servants will do anything except let him out of the palace, c) he now how political enemies who want him dead and d) he speaks only donkey and everyone else speaks only human. If you can’t write a play that makes me laugh out of that, put your pen down and go break your fingers.
Allow me to revise my last statement.
You can write a funny play from that. Give your characters extreme flaws that are radically inappropriate for their situation and cripple their desires: you will make the audience laugh. If they don’t laugh, listen to what they say and keep working until they do. The comedy is out there. You’ll find it right next to the pain.
[i] No, wait, that actually happened.
[ii] Le diner de cons. Come on dude, get an education 😉
[iii] You do have a writer’s notebook, don’t you? Go and get one! Now! Essential! Fake news! No, wait, that’s my brain being dragged down by the world. We’re on comedy – funny – funny funny funny!
[iv] Except when they don’t. The golden rule of writing – if it’s brilliant, then the rules don’t reply. But, truth be told, nine times out of ten when you think you’ve been rule breakingly brilliant you’ve actually been shit.
[v] Note: These are not the choices I made for my play. Although, having written this article, I’m now tempted to change my mind.
