Eight rules for comedy

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Kurt Vonnegut wrote a book titled Slapstick. It is NOT a book about comedy. Wikipedia describes it this way:

Slapstick is dedicated to Arthur Stanley Jefferson and Norvell Hardy (better known as Laurel and Hardy), and the title of the novel is in reference to the physical and situational comedy style that duo employed. Vonnegut explains the title himself in the opening lines of the book’s prologue:
“This is the closest I will ever come to writing an autobiography. I have called it “Slapstick” because it is grotesque, situational poetry — like the slapstick film comedies, especially those of Laurel and Hardy, of long ago. It is about what life feels like to me.”

Kurt Vonnegut also gives us eight rules of storytelling that work great for comedy.  These are the rules, and I follow up with comments on a few of them.

  1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
  2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
  3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
  4. Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.
  5. Start as close to the end as possible.
  6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
  7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
  8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

Rule #3.  Every character should want something.  Sometimes in comedy, however, one character just wants be left alone to live their life, but some other character is ruining that for them.

Rule #4.  Many people in animation will tell you that everything in a story must advance the action.  That you must cut out anything that doesn’t do that.  Vonnegut provides the option of revealing character. And that is quite true for comedy.  Funny characters can be exquisitely entertaining even when they are not advancing the story.

Rule #6. Put your character into a situation where even you don’t know how they are going to get out of it.  Make it difficult for yourself.  If it takes you a while to find the answer, then it won’t be obvious to the audience.

Rule #8.  This rule is especially good for short stories/films.  The challenge is in how quickly and elegantly you can get the viewer up to speed with what is going on.  You do not want them confused at any point.

 

The Secret Handshake

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Here is a great idea for an animation exercise.  The secret handshake.  Secret handshakes show two characters physically interacting in fun ways.  They can involve way more than the hands, and style is hugely important.  Generally, these greetings are believed to have started with men’s fraternities such as the Freemasons or the Shriners.  These private fraternities were lampooned in films from Laurel and Hardy, as well animated shows such as the Flintstones.

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Still it is very relevant, and currently alive in “bro” culture. These days, you are most likely to see them at sporting events. This first example is from a team where each player has a special handshake for the captain, who must know them all.  Note how it can include dance moves.

One advantage to this exercise is the fact that the audience will probably understand what is going on instantly, so even a short clip will make sense.  The action can involve the whole body, or small finger movements.  I really like the timing in this shake.

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This next video is a series of simple shakes, but each one has a name.  The handshake is then a form of mime that represents the name.

In secret societies that are closed to the outside world, knowing the handshake is a way to prove you are who you say you are.  One of these societies is the college fraternity.  This live skit is built around an extended handshake that goes way beyond the hands to all sorts of silly behaviors.

Then there is this very nice animated example from Disney’s Big Hero 6.

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I had this post in a draft form for several months, and I decided to finish it when I discovered this short film by Jackson Read and Susie Webb, students at Ringling School of Art + Design.  They started with the basic idea and took advantage of animation by having them do things way beyond what normal humans can do.

How to buy and watch Tex Avery on DVD

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This week, Cartoon Brew mocked Warner Bros. for a press release about an old animated Tarzan video being made available on DVD.  They suggested nobody cares about Tarzan, and what they should be releasing is the complete Tex Avery collection.  I couldn’t agree more.  Warner Bros. should release the great 5 disc collection in the United States.

However, you don’t have to wait.

The DVD’s are easily available from Europe.  I used Amazon.co.uk  to order mine using my regular Amazon account.  With shipping, it cost me about $40. Some sellers won’t ship to the US, but others will, so check carefully.  You can also get them on Ebay, but they will cost a lot more.

Here’s an important point.  The European DVDs are encoded for region 2, meaning they won’t play on North American DVD players.  That’s okay, though, because there are two solutions for that.  You can spend a small amount of money on a “region free” DVD player, just search Amazon for that.  Samsung makes one that currently sells for about $35.  Or, there is a free option for use on computers with DVD drives.  VLC is a video playing software available for Mac and Windows. Animation studios often use VLC because it plays just about anything.  It is highly reliable.

Mac computers will allow you to change regions, but only a limited number of times.  It is the Apple DVD playing software that has the region controls, so you use VLC instead.  I changed my preferences so that when I load a DVD, it doesn’t automatically open the DVD player.  I open VLC, choose the disc, and play.  It works like a charm!

And on this same subject, I highly recommend this sweet item which is also not available in North America.  A 21 disc collection of Laurel and Hardy films, about $50 before shipping.

L&Hbox

Eating: The elements of comedy for animators

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I am happy to present my latest video.  Eating is all about the subject of food in comedy.  Great comedy is about common things that all people understand, and food is the most common subject of all.  It has been explored by comedians for centuries, if not millennia.  This video is filled with examples of how comedians have used the various elements of food, such as cooking, table manners and simply being hungry to create laughs.

One topic I didn’t include in the video is the idea of “signature” food.  That is, characters who have specific foods associated with them, such as:

Popeye – spinach

Wimpy – hamburgers

Wallace – cheese

Cookie Monster – cookies

With a lot more research, I could see a part two video that would include “food out of control”  The Three Stooges and Little Rascals, for instance, have had created crazy food in the kitchen.  I fondly recall a scene from The Beverly Hillbillies where Ellie May cooked up some popovers that literally breathed as though they were alive.  I avoided pie fights, as they are well known and practically a topic to themselves.

I would very much appreciate any feedback and suggestions about this topic!  Please comment.

Zootopia’s Flash the Sloth

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Anyone who enjoys animated movies must have seen Flash the Sloth.  He was given a lot of time in one of the trailers for Disney’s Zootopia.  When I watched the full movie, I fully expected the audience to laugh at Flash, even though they had already seen him at least once or twice.  Not only did they laugh, but I laughed again myself.  He is a very successful character.

The first layer of the joke is that Flash works at the Department of Motor Vehicles.  There is no bureaucracy more familiar to Americans than the DMV, which is infamous for having its customers wait in long lines that hardly seem to move. Having the office be staffed by sloths is simply brilliant, and brilliantly simple.

Flash is a character built for contrast.  For his joke to work, the situation around him has to have an opposing energy.  There has to be something moving fast.  When the Fox, Nick Wilde, brings the rabbit police officer, Judy Hopps, into the DMV, she is in a great hurry.  So having to deal with Flash’s slowness is agonizing for her.  Contrast between characters is one of the essential tools of comedy. You might, for instance, have a character who is established as a germaphobe, and he he has to deal with someone who has a obvious cold.  One is instantly at odds with the other, and the comedy can get moving quickly.

Flash is appealing because he is focused.  He finishes his sentence regardless of how long it takes.  The single minded character is admirable, because they seem assured and confident that they are doing what needs to be done.  He appears calm, centered, and meditative.  They are simple for the audience to understand, and can be built to fit the comedy.   Nick is able to distract Flash with a joke, but it’s less a distraction than an extension of the gag by making things go even slower.

Flash also works the comedy of miscommunication in a unique way.   Classic comedy double acts would sometimes have one person verbally confusing another person.  Hopefully you are familiar with Abbot and Costello’s famous “Who’s on first?” routine.  The exchange between Hopps and Flash is entirely spoken in medium close up shots.  These are just two characters talking.  But we can’t deny that Flash’s sloth nature is physical trait that influences his communication.  His words are not funny, but they are delivered in a way that is funny, especially given the situation.