Comedy In Screenplays

It is the hardest thing in the world: to make strangers laugh. Particularly when they know you are trying to make them laugh; when they expect it. However, that is the mandate of every screenwriter penning a comedy or even just a comedic beat. There is a slight difference between those two things though: penning a comedy versus penning a comedic beat. And it goes back to the expectation I just talked about. A comedy comes with the weighty expectation of being funny, while a comedic beat could be slipped into a horror or drama as a surprise.

And that is the secret ingredient to comedy. Surprise! You need to be able to surprise and delight your audience. That is not to say employ only non-sequiturs and obnoxious shocking developments. In fact, avoid doing those. They’re antithetical to surprise. They are annoying and deflating. True surprise involves taking things in an interesting direction based on the elements the audience is already aware of. For instance, a character is a veterinary doctor and a patient calls in saying they would like to bring their dog in after a biting incident. One would assume the dog bit someone but maybe it turns out the person bit the dog. That is humorous and surprising but also based on the prearranged elements. If after that phone call the hospital were to just randomly explode that would not be good comedy as there was no set up.

This is a paradigm we try to be aware of at Nsibidi Fables. Comedy isn’t easy but when it is done right nothing is more rewarding. Try it and see for yourself.