Comedy Devices
So I start writing a script and you just want to kick it off so you go to your comedy devices, which is a bag of tricks. Notice the heading. With me i often start off by reworking one of my stand up routines into a conversation. That's easy enough. Now it may not make it into the final draft but it kick starts the writing process for me. In LAST NIGHT OF THE HOODOO'S the first thing I wrote now appears on about page 60 and instead of being 4 pages it's now 4 lines.
First of all I love devices. I became aware than i n Woody Allen's early films he often made reference to "Chicken Salad" and every now and then he uses it again. So If he made a film now and mentioned "chicken salad" I'd probably be the only one in the cinema laughing but that's what he wants. That what all writers want. THAT FAN.
Benny Hill was packed full of deices so much so that , that's what had us laughing before the gag. Now here's the tricky part, he's not telegraphing the joke, it's just that we are so into him we know the joke. It's subtle but that's how it works.
Mel Brooks had a style just full of devices. Started off making comedies set in the past , full of references in the now. Cleavon Little in BLAZING SADDLES with the words Gucci on his saddle.
BUT there is a limit. Those terrible Jim Abrahams films like HOT SHOTS in which it's 100 minutes of devices and nothing else. Admittedly I've never completed watching any of films. I think that was the movie in which there was like 30 sight gags in first 5 minutes where one would have been enough.
Anyway here's one which I would use. Some characters are in a room with a TV. Whether it's background or foreground there is a ridiculous scene going on for the film on that T.V. that may be totally irrelevant to the film.
