Make 'em Laugh, Make 'em Laugh

The cast didn't want to be in the same room as the script

One man's funny is another man's tablecloth, mushroom or chicken. We know what makes one person laugh can leave another shrugging.

"What? I don't get it".

We also know that there are certain elements required within a comedy. There must be some funny, quite a lot of funny actually. Things off kilter, warped, wrong. Things that  break the logical pattern, or expectation of what will happen. Things that make us laugh. I'm not trying to work out one of those bizarre equations here:  if L (laughter) is the end result of W (warped logic) over S (situation) STOP.... trying to find a formula for comedy is like juggling geese on a slack wire.

However, I say again, television 'comedy' is a precious thing and we can't keep churning out shows that don't make enough people laugh out loud. Watching the new Channel 4 show Friday Night Dinner is a pretty dismal experience. It's billed as an appointment with "...the gloriously idiosyncratic Goodman family. Starring Simon 'Will from The Inbetweeners' Bird, Tamsin Greig, Paul Ritter, newcomer Tom Rosenthal and guest star Mark Heap". Good cast. But come on. This is another quirky 30 minute show that is masquerading as funny. At times it is pretty desperate stuff, as the husband/father flips the bin lid and finds a piece of toast he gets the reprimand  "Stop eating out of the bin" . But there it is, boasting a cast that includes Mark Heap and Tamsin Greig. It's another show that purports to beautifully observe the idiosyncratic dynamic of the family unit but without much that isn't puerile or achingly unfunny.

I'm beginning to worry that we're losing our sense of what a television comedy is. It absolutely HAS TO MAKE YOU LAUGH. More than a wry smile, more than once in an episode. Comedy is not a tool to bring about world peace or change the human condition. Comedy has one purpose. If it doesn't make you laugh, it ain't comedy.

I've written elsewhere about the UK/US 'comedy co-production' Episodes. Since then it has come in for a lot of stick from critics who were less than impressed. But I wanted to add this, I've just heard an interview with Tamsin Greig where she said - get ready for this - "We never thought it was a comedy". Whoa! Rewind.

"We never thought is was a comedy".

Turns out they were making a quirky drama about a couple who go to the States and have their sitcom ripped apart in the US system. To be fair that is EXACTLY what it was. More drama that comedy, it was quirky and insightful about the industry - and sometimes funny.

But it wasn't promoted like that. In the weeks leading up to TX we saw trailers for the new Matt Le Blanc comedy. And that it most definitely was not. So, the problem was we were sold the wrong product.

If a chef presents you with an apple pie that's what you expect to get. If it turns out to be a blackberry pie you might spit it out. Ugh, this isn't apple. It doesn't matter that it was probably a perfectly good pie, it wasn't the one you had your mouth ready for.

The message is simple. Don't keep selling drama as comedy simply because there are laughs in it. You are badly positioning your audience.
Don't tell them it's a rom com if what you've made is a monster movie. Have I underlined this enough? Too much.

There is a flip side. I remember Six Feet Under winning a British Comedy award a few years back. Michael C. Hall said thank you but was a bit bemused because they thought they were making a drama. And they were. The fact that it had some laughs in it didn't make it a comedy. (See also The Sopranos). Funny in a drama doesn't make it a comedy.

It may be time to organise a seminar to remind a few folk what laughter sounds like. It doesn't have to be in the studio. It can be at home. But without it, there is no comedy.
Strange and idiosyncratic are not the same as funny.