(no subject)

[oakenguy]

This was a really bad day to experiment with ankle weights for the walk to work. Ten extra pounds + unshovelled knee-high slush on the two bridges I have to cross = exhaustion.


I wrote a sketch last night. I'd been given the topic "Mistletoe Hat" and asked to see what I could do. It's ennnh. I had a decent, Kids in the Hall-y idea while I was out holiday shopping, but when I got back and started typing it up it felt weak and hack, and by the ending I was starting to wonder if I'd ever in my life written anything that was truly funny. And then I was trying to remember a sketch, ANY sketch, I'd seen that was funny so I could figure out what worked, and I couldn't. By the time I fell asleep I was having serious doubts whether it was even possible for someone to write a funny sketch, and whether this "humor" thing wasn't just a strange myth, because it had certainly never made its presence known in MY life.

I'm feeling a bit better now.

Comments

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

I'd like that!

I love the usericon!

[malterre.livejournal.com]

Hope we'll see you Sat! And sometimes it's okay to not be funny. Look at Adam Sandler..an inspiration to us all that anyone can be a comedian.

[lemur-catta.livejournal.com]

Your description of your slide from a temporary creative block to generalised angst about the meaning and existence of humour was pretty amusing actually. Imagine youself as a character and take it to greater extremes and you could probably write a comedy about it (wasn't that largely the theme of 'Adaptation'?).

You can't help exuding wry ironic humour it's just a part of you.

On a more pragmatic tack , I think my favourite formula for comedy is to take a ridiculous premise to its logical conclusion.
Clearly the expected thing to do with a mistletoe hat is to have some smarmy or amusingly pathetic guy who wants to be kissed, so you've probably already decided not to even go near there.What's a totally unexpected possibility for a mistletoe hat? Have a brainstorm.

[lemur-catta.livejournal.com]

Okay here's my unsolicted and belated mistletoe hat brainstorm number one. Mistletoe is a parasite,right? What if the mistletoe hat were a parasitic alien lifeform that lands on the head of an unsuspecting partygoer and fills him with annoyingly cheerful holiday spirit. If he comically guilt trips hisreluctant co-workers,friends relations or whatever to give him a little kiss ('hey,where's your holiday spirit,you Scrooge..etc.) they become hristmas loving zombies too and gradually a mistletoe hat grows on their heads and they go off in search of the next office party or whatever.....

In the world of sophisticated,employed comedy writers would that idea suck?
Just wondering.

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

You know, you might have a future in this. :)

This would make a *really* fun short film. Especially because then you could get really fancy with the hats, making them look and act like a cross between mistletoe and the 'Little Shop of Horrors' plants.

[lemur-catta.livejournal.com]

and like the boil that became an evil second head in How to Get Ahead in Advertising!
My brother and his friends sometimes have a Filmmaking Night where they get together and each spontaneously direct a short film. The digital camera is provided, you can use whatever is lying around and recruit the others to act and help with camerawork and the rest is up to your imagination. I once attended and spontaneously wrote a pseudo-documentary about a woman recovering from her obsession with Tablespoons. I wish I lived closer to my brother. Maybe if I get to participate again sometime we'll make the ultra-low budget proto-version of Mistletoe Hat. Or you can make it..go ahead.

It's so much easier to just have the ideas than to actually make them work.