Recipes for a good TV comedy
Now that the new season of TV has started and/or is starting this week, I thought I'd go through a little rundown of what I consider the top requirements for a show to be funny. This is mainly for the sitcom variety, because they're supposed to be funny, yet they rarely are. So let's get started.
1.) This is absolutely the most important. No fucking live audience. And no laugh tracks either. Sure it works occasionally (like Seinfeld), but lately it seems like laugh tracks are just added, as no one can tell me they watch 2 1/2 men on CBS and laugh. And if you can tell me that, you are either mentally handicapable or you're a dirty dirty liar. And possibly both.
Arrested Development, Scrubs, The Office, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. Of these four shows, they all have many things in common. Three of them are great (with Scrubs being on the verge of great in my opinion), and none of them uses a stupid laugh track or live audience. People aren't stupid. If you write the show well, they'll laugh regardless of you letting them know if it's ok to laugh or not. Even that one show on Fox that I thought got picked up for another season, The Loop (I think that's its name) didn't have a laugh track and I respected it.
That's really all I have. No fucking stupid laugh tracks.
Ok, I'm lying.
2.) Swearing. I don't care if it's bleeped out or not, but I enjoy the use of curse words in my sitcoms. It gives it more of a real feel. Like writers didn't spend 3 hours coming up for a way to express anger in the most censor-friendly way possible.
In Always Sunny they say shit, which I think is awesome. But in shows like The Office or Arrested Development, they bleep out the explitives, which I'm fine with, because they do it intentionally. I'm especially reminded of a certain scene in Arrested Development where Gob goes on a tangent about what is and is not allowed at the Bluth Christmas Party and what he will do if someone flirts with Lindsay. If you haven't seen it, I suggest you get a life. Loser.
Let's see, what else.
3.) Shows that seem to work well are those that have a semi-sort of documentary feel about them. Obviously The Office uses this, and Arrested Development. But if you do it in sort of the mockumentary format, you really can't go wrong. Of course, this isn't really a requirement and I'm starting to run out of things to add.
4.) Other things that help are having the right cast and very smart writers. Steve Carrell is a genius, as was Ricky Gervais. And Will Arnett was the perfect person to play Gob, and David Cross was the perfect Tobias. Even Dr. Kelso on Scrubs is great.
5.) Realistic characters are great also. This is more just for The Office and Always Sunny. But everybody knows people like Michael Scott who think they're really smart and really they're just ignorant. Just like everybody knows a Charlie who is illiterate and pretty dumb and treaded all over by everyone.
So in conclusion, it's possible to have a funny sitcom without these requirements, but it's most likely impossible.
1.) This is absolutely the most important. No fucking live audience. And no laugh tracks either. Sure it works occasionally (like Seinfeld), but lately it seems like laugh tracks are just added, as no one can tell me they watch 2 1/2 men on CBS and laugh. And if you can tell me that, you are either mentally handicapable or you're a dirty dirty liar. And possibly both.
Arrested Development, Scrubs, The Office, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. Of these four shows, they all have many things in common. Three of them are great (with Scrubs being on the verge of great in my opinion), and none of them uses a stupid laugh track or live audience. People aren't stupid. If you write the show well, they'll laugh regardless of you letting them know if it's ok to laugh or not. Even that one show on Fox that I thought got picked up for another season, The Loop (I think that's its name) didn't have a laugh track and I respected it.
That's really all I have. No fucking stupid laugh tracks.
Ok, I'm lying.
2.) Swearing. I don't care if it's bleeped out or not, but I enjoy the use of curse words in my sitcoms. It gives it more of a real feel. Like writers didn't spend 3 hours coming up for a way to express anger in the most censor-friendly way possible.
In Always Sunny they say shit, which I think is awesome. But in shows like The Office or Arrested Development, they bleep out the explitives, which I'm fine with, because they do it intentionally. I'm especially reminded of a certain scene in Arrested Development where Gob goes on a tangent about what is and is not allowed at the Bluth Christmas Party and what he will do if someone flirts with Lindsay. If you haven't seen it, I suggest you get a life. Loser.
Let's see, what else.
3.) Shows that seem to work well are those that have a semi-sort of documentary feel about them. Obviously The Office uses this, and Arrested Development. But if you do it in sort of the mockumentary format, you really can't go wrong. Of course, this isn't really a requirement and I'm starting to run out of things to add.
4.) Other things that help are having the right cast and very smart writers. Steve Carrell is a genius, as was Ricky Gervais. And Will Arnett was the perfect person to play Gob, and David Cross was the perfect Tobias. Even Dr. Kelso on Scrubs is great.
5.) Realistic characters are great also. This is more just for The Office and Always Sunny. But everybody knows people like Michael Scott who think they're really smart and really they're just ignorant. Just like everybody knows a Charlie who is illiterate and pretty dumb and treaded all over by everyone.
So in conclusion, it's possible to have a funny sitcom without these requirements, but it's most likely impossible.
posted by Jtrouble at 10:36 AM
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