Standard of comedy writing

[HellCat]

To be honest, I believe the standard of comedy writing across various media is currently pretty low. This may just be my sense of humour and the fact I can see a good deal of punchlines miles off but I think a good deal of comedians and writers are offering up badly done, way too obvious jokes.

[Starsky]

That's probably true, but at least there's The Office.

[mr.happy]

Comedy is certainly a genre that has become a little stagnant compared to the evolution of dramas on TV. This is particularly true for the traditional sitcom, but there is still excellent comedy on TV, it has just taken a slightly different form.

[DisneyBoy]

The traditional sitcom really has seen it's day. The Golden Girls, Fraiser and Friends all set the standard, and comedic television needed a new direction. Now, with Arrested Development and The Colbert Report, we've seen people find new ways to make us laugh. If you're watching According to Jim and Reba and expecting to see something new, look elsewhere.

[SirLemming]

It's hard to keep finding ways to be funny, because once one way has been done enough, it's not funny anymore. I agree that the era of the sitcom is more or less over with the departure of Frasier and Everybody Loves Raymond.

I think we're still sort of living in the era of Simpsons influence as well, both in TV and in real life. Maybe more in real life, actually. That show really transformed our whole culture's perception of humor. But I guess once that happens, you have to move on to something else in order to be funny. Family Guy, when it's good, does a good job of pushing the comedy further within the same formula, adding that twist upon the twist upon the twist that makes things funny again.

But I agree that the real "next step" can be seen in shows like The Colbert Report and The Office. Two totally different shows, I know. But there's something there. The interesting thing about The Office is that a lot of the comedy is anti-comedy. You're laughing at the fact that someone (Michael, Andy) is trying to be funny. I think that shows where we are now, and I think that just a few years ago, the stuff Michael Scott does would actually have been considered funny. Actually, to a lot of people, it still is.

[launchpad25]

I'd like to see another 'Married With Children', or 'Unhappily Ever After' type show to really give sitcoms the kind of jolt they need right now. Yes, they we're raunchy, but they're funnier than what currently passes for sitcoms these days.

[Ragebot]

To be honest, I believe the standard of comedy writing across various media is currently pretty low. This may just be my sense of humour and the fact I can see a good deal of punchlines miles off but I think a good deal of comedians and writers are offering up badly done, way too obvious jokes.

90% of everything is crap. However, just this year we've had movies such as Knocked Up, Waitress, Hot Fuzz, and Grindhouse, plus recurring television series' such as The Office. Sure, none of them are as accessible to a viewer as, say, Fox's Animation Domination, but that doesn't mean they simply do not exist.

There is always (and will always be) more than enough great stuff out there to satisfy one person in their lifetime, you just have to look for it.

[aalong64]

I'm not sure that this is what the original poster is looking for, but to anyone interested in seeing a unique, quirky comedy from recent years, check out Trailer Park Boys. It's a Canadian mockumentary show that started in 2000, and if you can get past the foul language (they literally swear at least three times a minute), it's pretty sophisticated, edgy comedy, and the show actually does have a lot of heart.

But look out-- the movie that recently came out was pretty lame, as it was watered down a bit in an attempt to crack the American market, and the last two seasons haven't been as good.

Check out Season 1-5 though, for some of the best stuff on TV in the past few years.


...I also like Curb Your Enthusiasm, but that's really different from TPB.

[The Weed Of Cri]

To be honest, I believe the standard of comedy writing across various media is currently pretty low. This may just be my sense of humour and the fact I can see a good deal of punchlines miles off but I think a good deal of comedians and writers are offering up badly done, way too obvious jokes.

I have to agree with you. There's very little in entertainment media that I consider funny anymore. The only straight-up comedy show that I watch with any regularity is South Park (I'm not counting shows in other genres that have a lot of humor in them like, for example, Kim Possible). I just don't find most of what passes for humor these days to be even mildly funny. Actors who are lauded as comic geniuses -- Adam Sandler, Steve Carrell, Sasha Baron Cohen -- are people that I find more annoying than anything else. With the advent of each new TV season, I check out a handful of new sitcoms in the hopes that one of them will prove to be different and funny enough to hold my interest; the last one that held my interest for more than two episodes was Sabrina The Teenage Witch. There's just too much emphasis on sexual humor, body function humor, and white-male bashing, and none at all on character humor, satire, and verbal wit. And as for cartoons...jeez, when did slapstick get so gory?

And you're right about the predictability of punchlines these days. There's actually a reason for that, which you may not be aware of. There's a process to writing certain types of jokes. I'm not sure what it's called, but Jack Benny once referred to the process as "pullback": you lead the audience to think in one direction, then give them a verbal or visual gag that snaps them in the opposite direction. For example, a policeman boasts about his town being the safest and most crime-free in the state....just before a guy in a burglar's mask whacks him on the head and steals his squad car. Most of the prime-time cartoons that are on the air -- The Simpsons, Futurama, Family Guy, American Dad -- build about half of their visual gags around pullbacks. While it can be done very cleverly -- most comedians have used it at one time or another -- it's generally the most basic, and laziest form of humor writing, and can get tiresome and extremely predictable if that's all you do.

When I want to laugh, I watch my Monty Python DVDs or listen to my collection of old-time radio show. Jack Benny, Abbott and Costello and Stan Freberg are still much funnier than just about anyone in the comedy business today.