Oh no I came on to talk about numbers because I have a kind of unique perspective of that but I just realized itâs a days old topic
But its Humor Time and I think I can talk a little bit about that. Iâve drawn strips and comedy series with some level of success for the past few years as a full time gig. I feel like I donât necessarily write âjokesâ so much as I write comedic sequences and have comedic dialogue.
I feel like it comes pretty naturally to me in the sense that Iâve always been a person who sought to entertain people. Sometimes I rip dialogue straight from something funny that happened with my husband in the kitchen and I feel like being kind of goofy in my speech IRL is my default setting whether I want it to be or not.
I think having comedic elements in a story can be vital. Even now Iâm working on more dramatic works that are less straight forward âcomedyâ and more drama and/or horror. But having strong comedic elements in more âseriousâ works is such a helpful way to deliver a gut punch. Itâs not there to be an antithesis to the dramatic elements but to help bring some levity to something that might otherwise be too heavy or veer into just being straight up boring. It also just creates a really interesting friction. Shows like Fleabag where youâre laughing at a characterâs mishaps and then mourning a loss with them a scene or two later really highlight how much comedy can be used to highlight the hard stuff. Even Get Out employs a lot of comedy to the point where a lot of reviewers thought they were watching a horror/comedy film but it doesnât negate the story; it makes the heavy stuff feel more heavy if youâve just come back from giggling at a funny scene or a silly piece of dialogue.
Itâs also less of âhow may jokes can I get away withâ and more âhow is the humor driving the story forward?â In Get Out humor is used to sort of reveal the evil; the girlfriendâs father talking about how he supported Obama, the girlfriend eating fruit loops while listening to âIâve Had the Time of My Lifeâ, the scene of Lakeith Stanfieldâs character in the party scene manages to both be funny and completely eerie. Fleabag uses humor to show the downward trajectory and fuel the events that end up forcing her to learn how to move on and move forward. Itâs all a part of the same thing and thatâs just presenting who characters are and moving the plot forward. If itâs just a silly scene for the sake of levity I think its best to look at it and figure out how, if at all, it helps move the story along.