The Steps on how to make a good comedy?

[Leah]

What are, or is there, any steps to making a good comedy? I only can think of a few:

1) Don't over cliche it- If it's been done many times, don't over use it and abuse it.
2) Don't repeat the same type of joke over and over- pretty explanatory.
3) keep the jokes constantly funny- I'm looking at all of these modern comedies today- do something other than college humor!
4) be serious and don't crack- This is basically how Airplane! works-> it had jokes said in a serious tone, yet had the characters snicker or smile at all.
and last
5) don't force the audience to laugh, let them laugh- this is basically what s**t-coms are today, thay have those "Que the laughter" sound, very influential as to how a person can laugh at dumb ass jokes. I'm looking at you, Big Bang Theory!

Is/Are there any more?

[Dave M]

A high number of jokes per minute is good (like Airplane!), most of my rules are kind of corrolaries of that.

As far as possible, make every part funny. Make the straight man funny (like Bob Newhart). Make the premise, the resolution of the plot, the expository dialog, and the set design at least a little humorous, even if you can't make them "Woody Allen in 1972" hilarious.

If you're tempted to put in a serious scene, ask yourself if you're just doing it because it's easier than comming up with a funny way to advance the plot. If so, maybe you need another humor writter on your team to write that part.

If you don't have enough A material to fill a whole movie, go ahead and use your B material, it's better than padding your A material out with stuff that isn't even a little funny.

Ideally, the movie should be somewhat funny even with the sound muted, or with the picture turned down. You might try writing one screenplay as if it were for a silent version, and another as if you were writting a radio play, then put those together for your final screenplay. Rowan Atkinson made a documentary that I think was called "Physical Comedy" or maybe "Visual Comedy" going into quite a bit of detail about how to be funny without talking.

[Flick James]

Give enough time between big laughs. I have seen comedies in packed theatres before where there was a big laugh, such as from a very funny sight gag, which was followed too quickly by a line, and it was so close that the laugh hadn't died down enough for the line to be heard. I remember this happening more than once in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, which played to many packed theatres back in 1986 and I saw it many times because I worked at a movie theatre at the time. I've seen this in other comedies as well but that one was the first example that came to mind.

[Paquita]

Maybe this is just my personal opinion, but I don't like when a majority of the jokes in a movie are at someone's expense.  Shallow Hal, for example, is just a string of fat jokes, sure it has a heart-warming ending, and I guess a moral, but the entire time I just feel uncomfortable and sad for the girl getting reamed with the fat jokes and can't enjoy it. 

A few things here and there like someone slipping and falling in an unexpected way, or getting hit with a blow dart is OK, and a couple good jokes at someone's expense are fine, but it just seems a lot of comedies are flooded with all this mean-spirited humor that I would assume only jerks can sit around and laugh at for the entire duration of the movie.  If you're going to make a comedy, make sure there's some actual creative humor in it and it's not just an encyclopedia of insults.

[lester1/2jr]

brevity

[Jack]

I like comedies that are clever - like Seinfeld or Top Gear, where it's a group of people who know each other well and are constantly giving each other crap.  I hate that "I'm loud, moronic, and EXTREMELY obnoxious - isn't that hilarious!?!?" stuff. 

[Doggett]

Maybe this is just my personal opinion, but I don't like when a majority of the jokes in a movie are at someone's expense.  Shallow Hal, for example, is just a string of fat jokes, sure it has a heart-warming ending, and I guess a moral, but the entire time I just feel uncomfortable and sad for the girl getting reamed with the fat jokes and can't enjoy it. 

I love Shallow Hal because I was laughing at him and his buddy, not with him.

Also SPOILER:




She doesn't magically become thin and attractive which I like.
There are some films when the fella only falls in love when the chick becomes pretty which always leaves me feeling a bit 'Huh ??'

I also liked that Rose thought he was taking the mick when Hal kept saying how gorgeous she was, she had no illusions about her weight and had accepted it. Her constant eating was the only thing that very slightly bothered me. Its just not healthy. We, the audience, get that she's fat, we don't need to see her eating all the time to get the point across.

[AndyC]

Silly or absurd is not necessarily funny. Often, it's just dumb. That's the biggest pitfall of movies that try to do the Airplane! style of comedy. There need to be real jokes amid the silliness - things that are funny for a reason other than their absurdity.

The other thing that wrecks a comedy is too much of the self-referential wink-wink sort of humour. Done right, and sparingly, it can be good, but you generally don't want to keep yanking your audience out of the story with a lot of "hee hee, we know it's a movie" jokes. Breaking the fourth wall works best when it's somewhat subtle, or the joke is good enough to justify it.

And don't suddenly turn all serious and poignant. Yes, a little conflict, a villain to defeat, a problem to overcome, some seriousness is necessary to drive a plot. That doesn't mean letting the air out of the movie two thirds of the way through. Keep the laughs coming.

[Chainsawmidget]

Don't explain the joke.  If the audiance doesn't get every bit, that's okay.  Explaining it might make them get it, bit it's no longer funny.

[AndyC]

Don't explain the joke.  If the audiance doesn't get every bit, that's okay.  Explaining it might make them get it, bit it's no longer funny.

And further to that, it's OK to include a few jokes that will sail over the heads of many people. No need to dumb down all the humour so everybody gets every joke. Don't make the movie too inaccessible, but don't leave out really funny material because "not everybody's going to get that." Put in some treats for the people who will get it.

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

Maybe this is just my personal opinion, but I don't like when a majority of the jokes in a movie are at someone's expense.  Shallow Hal, for example, is just a string of fat jokes, sure it has a heart-warming ending, and I guess a moral, but the entire time I just feel uncomfortable and sad for the girl getting reamed with the fat jokes and can't enjoy it.

U got it. We're always told how it's a bad thing to label, demonize, discriminate, ect, and yet overweight people seem to be completely fair game. 

And as one who went to see this in the theatres, I overheard a number of women who were very despondent over the fat jokes, and have heard the same at other websites.

And, not to start anything, but just as a question, I wonder if these same women would have laughed if it was a guy who was the brunt of the fat jokes in the movie.

I don't mean you, though. I was talking about the theatre-goers 

A few things here and there like someone slipping and falling in an unexpected way, or g
etting hit with a blow dart is OK, and a couple good jokes at someone's expense are fine, but it just seems a lot of comedies are flooded with all this mean-spirited humor that I would assume only jerks can sit around and laugh at for the entire duration of the movie.

That's the dividing line with my wife and I over The Three Stooges. But like the old saying goes, it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye, then it's fri**in hysterical.

If you're going to make a comedy, make sure there's some actual creative humor in it and it's not just an encyclopedia of insults.

Well said! Seems that, despite the genre, originality w\o repetition is the eternal challenge.

[AndyC]

Maybe this is just my personal opinion, but I don't like when a majority of the jokes in a movie are at someone's expense.  Shallow Hal, for example, is just a string of fat jokes, sure it has a heart-warming ending, and I guess a moral, but the entire time I just feel uncomfortable and sad for the girl getting reamed with the fat jokes and can't enjoy it.

U got it. We're always told how it's a bad thing to label, demonize, discriminate, ect, and yet overweight people seem to be completely fair game. 

And as one who went to see this in the theatres, I overheard a number of women who were very despondent over the fat jokes, and have heard the same at other websites.

And, not to start anything, but just as a question, I wonder if these same women would have laughed if it was a guy who was the brunt of the fat jokes in the movie.

I don't mean you, though. I was talking about the theatre-goers 

A few things here and there like someone slipping and falling in an unexpected way, or g
etting hit with a blow dart is OK, and a couple good jokes at someone's expense are fine, but it just seems a lot of comedies are flooded with all this mean-spirited humor that I would assume only jerks can sit around and laugh at for the entire duration of the movie.

That's the dividing line with my wife and I over The Three Stooges. But like the old saying goes, it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye, then it's fri**in hysterical.

If you're going to make a comedy, make sure there's some actual creative humor in it and it's not just an encyclopedia of insults.

Well said! Seems that, despite the genre, originality w\o repetition is the eternal challenge.

What gets me is the comedies with a message about not judging people by their appearance, that get a good deal of their laughs taking cheap shots at those same people. Check your hypocrisy at the door. That should be another rule of comedy.

[Killer Bees]

Silly or absurd is not necessarily funny. Often, it's just dumb. That's the biggest pitfall of movies that try to do the Airplane! style of comedy. There need to be real jokes amid the silliness - things that are funny for a reason other than their absurdity.

The other thing that wrecks a comedy is too much of the self-referential wink-wink sort of humour. Done right, and sparingly, it can be good, but you generally don't want to keep yanking your audience out of the story with a lot of "hee hee, we know it's a movie" jokes. Breaking the fourth wall works best when it's somewhat subtle, or the joke is good enough to justify it.

And don't suddenly turn all serious and poignant. Yes, a little conflict, a villain to defeat, a problem to overcome, some seriousness is necessary to drive a plot. That doesn't mean letting the air out of the movie two thirds of the way through. Keep the laughs coming.

Totally agree there.  That's what made The Nanny unbearable for me.  She was constantly delivering her her lines to the camera and it made me want to slap her.  Although The Nanny was never high comedic art to start with, but it could have been okay if Fran Drescher wasn't so frigging annoying!!

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

Maybe this is just my personal opinion, but I don't like when a majority of the jokes in a movie are at someone's expense.  Shallow Hal, for example, is just a string of fat jokes, sure it has a heart-warming ending, and I guess a moral, but the entire time I just feel uncomfortable and sad for the girl getting reamed with the fat jokes and can't enjoy it.

U got it. We're always told how it's a bad thing to label, demonize, discriminate, ect, and yet overweight people seem to be completely fair game. 

And as one who went to see this in the theatres, I overheard a number of women who were very despondent over the fat jokes, and have heard the same at other websites.

And, not to start anything, but just as a question, I wonder if these same women would have laughed if it was a guy who was the brunt of the fat jokes in the movie.

I don't mean you, though. I was talking about the theatre-goers 

A few things here and there like someone slipping and falling in an unexpected way, or g
etting hit with a blow dart is OK, and a couple good jokes at someone's expense are fine, but it just seems a lot of comedies are flooded with all this mean-spirited humor that I would assume only jerks can sit around and laugh at for the entire duration of the movie.

That's the dividing line with my wife and I over The Three Stooges. But like the old saying goes, it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye, then it's fri**in hysterical.

If you're going to make a comedy, make sure there's some actual creative humor in it and it's not just an encyclopedia of insults.

Well said! Seems that, despite the genre, originality w\o repetition is the eternal challenge.

What gets me is the comedies with a message about not judging people by their appearance, that get a good deal of their laughs taking cheap shots at those same people. Check your hypocrisy at the door. That should be another rule of comedy.

That's exactly my point, Sir Andy of the C 

Sadly it's easier said than done, like most things in today's world. 

And, with Hollywood and their constant state of socio\political\religious demonization,  (and the fringe left-wing to back them up in the media) it seems that it'll be a looo-ng time before that happens.

[Leah]

Stop the "I Slept with Her and had sex as well" joke.
No more Dumb/Se-crazed Blonde/Female person. Keeps me annoyed.
STOP THE ALCOHOLIC JOKES!!