Hi, at my new job, I need to think of a funny concept for a short film. One example which they gave was, 'if technology was given to guys in Flintstones age.'
How do you write funny scripts?
How do you think of funny scripts? Where do you get the ideas from? Any advice...
Writers use various approaches. Mark Twain usually employed an unreliable narrator who was often literal-minded. Statements representing his naive view of the world often deflated the arrogance of other characters. (
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a classic example. Twain said, by the way, that he based his novel on Alain-René Lesage's
Gil Blas.) In
Don Quixote de La Mancha, Miguel Cervantes satirizes chivalry and other knightly codes of conduct by having Don Quixote mistake mundane persons, objects, and events for fantastic ones (windmills, for giants, for example). (In fact, as William Shakespeare's
Comedy of Errors title suggests, much humor can derive from various types of mistakes, misinterpretations, and misunderstandings.) Jonathan Swift uses exaggeration and absurd situations to criticize real social problems and moral evils. (His "A Modest Proposal" is a famous example.) George Bernard Shaw juxtaposes the ideal with the real (as does Twain, at times). Erma Bombeck and Bailey White make reasonable claims that they then "support" with absurd examples. In addition, White often depicts eccentric, even grotesque, characters. Much humor results from a narrator's point of view; if the perspective itself is humorous, often the character's statements will also be humorous. A good example of the use of this technique is Shakespeare's Falstaff (
King Henry IV, Part I); the humor is an effect of Falstaff's own jaded and self-centered view of life. Not everyone appreciates the humor of
Mad magazine or the
National Lampoon, as I do, but these publications, nevertheless, can be instructive (although they tend toward visual, rather than verbal, humor). Neil Simon said that he effected humorous plays by creating conflict between characters with completely opposite views and values (think
The Odd Couple). As a learning strategy, there is no substitute for reading the actual works of acclaimed humorists, past and present.