Lesson 7

[Madeleine Vessel]

Madeleine’s Comedy Situations

“What I learned doing this assignment is… This was hard for me. I think especially so because I don’t have the scenes worked out. Still, I did come up with some ideas that could funny. I’ll have to see how it goes. Definitely more to do here.”

1. Misinterpretation

o Thea picks him up at Dora’s Doll House (a Nevada house of prostitution) before she hooks up his car. She mistakenly thinks he is there for service when he’s just seeking relief from overheating and dehydration.

o Topper: When he learns she’s coming to rescue him, he kisses her fingers, which she quickly withdraws. I’m not a whore.

o David overhears Thea and a young priest discussing putting images that look like stained glass on the church windows. From his vantage point, he thinks they’re talking about having sex: sword and scabbard. But when he confronts them, he sees them fooling with plastic faux stained glass to stick to the windows. They ask him if he can lend them a hand.

o Topper: He tries to piece the two haves of the faux stained glass painting and finds they don’t fit properly: The sword and the scabbard are misaligned.

2. Comedic Surprise

o Thea typically dresses in a work shirt and pants and steel-toed boots, whether she’s going to work in the mines or to work driving the tow truck. But once in a while she shows up in an office dress shirt and suit jacket over jeans. She wears this combo to attend Zoom meetings.
But on this one evening when she is entertaining a couple of mining promoters, she appears in the kitchen in a pretty dress and with her hair done up. Her unexpected beauty shocks David: “Holy Shit!”

Topper: I mean Wow! Who knew?

3. Wildly Inappropriate Response

o Think the priest.
o Think the barfly Marjorie
o Think the mining promoter Fred

4. Forced union of incompatibles

o David and Thea are forced to work together in the mines. They will run into rattle snakes (he hides behind her), vandals (he is tired of this behavior and takes them out without killing them.), and raging thunderstorms that force them to spend the night together in a small cabin that has a twin bed .

5. Embarrassment in an incongruent way.
o Losing the compressor hitched to the back of the truck.

o Spitting the fuses backwards and blowing up the mountain in one fell sweep. Now, they’ll have to muck out the tunnel carefully to avoid exploding any unexploded dynamite sticks.

o Driving with caps under the driver seat.

6. Comedic tragedy

o When David finds his business office empty of everything except his laptop, which he places in a corner, he receives a phone call from Phil apologizing for selling off everything. Before the call ends, David is mistaken for Phil and attacked by collectors wanting the money Phil owes them. He’s totally blindsided.

o Topper: Then the mailman enters with a handful of bills that need to be paid.

o Topper: He phones the bank and finds out the business account has been drained.

• This reply was modified 7 months, 4 weeks ago by  Madeleine Vessel.

[Gayle Jackson]

Gayle’s Comedy Situations
What I learned doing this assignment is that I have no solid throughline. My ideas are all over the place and I need to get organized for a linear progression.

• 1. Misinterpretation
The German Contact misinterprets a phrase Casey says as translating to the code phrase so gives her the package. The situation is worse because Casey doesn’t speak German so many false interpretations could lead to someone calling the police.

• 2. Comedic Surprise
The PR lady is focused on getting Casey out of danger and to the next scheduled book signing until the end where she uses tiny tools to help Casey escape because who cares about getting to the next event?

• 3. Wildly Inappropriate Response
Still working on what she says, but the PR speaking to the Interpol agent will say something inappropriate.

• 4. Forced union of incompatibles
Casey and Huck incompatible, now off the train must cross the mountains on foot.

• 5. Embarrassment
Plenty of embarrassment crossing the mountains with mountain goats and rams chasing them into a comprising position.

• 6. Comedic tragedy
Huck and Casey are buried alive and discuss their appearance or how Huck’s ex looked just then when she was shooting. He thinks she may still love him.

[Mary Buchanan]

Lesson 7:
Mary Buchanan Comedy Situations
What I learned doing this assignment is it’s hard to write comedy at any time but when your family is dealing with with hospice, it’s impossible.

My three comedic situations:

1. the opening scene is a kitchen fire due to forgetting cinnamon rolls were in the oven. this is the third time Margo has had to call the fire department and rebuild her designer kitchen. She has no culinary skills. embarrassment
2. Margo cooks a new recipe and the cake crumbles into a millions pieces because she left out two key ingredients and added them at the end of the process. She makes a mountain out of the crumbles. She calls it crumb cake. She refuses to give up and take the high road.

Will return to this post when the humor returns.

[Bent Hanlen]

Bent’s comedy situations.
what i learned doing this assignment was I’m finding funny things to make the characters appealing through humor

1. Misinterpretation – language barriers. Using hand gestures to communicate leads to confusion between Tommy and the filipinos
2. Comedic Surprise – Tommy sees something he shouldn’t. Perhaps in a changing area.
3. Wildly Inappropriate Response – Tommy’s boss thinks a dog is going to be cooked and the boss finds out it is a pet dog,
4. Forced union of incompatibles – Tommy works with Nimfa’s dad and the man tests Tommy in every way to see what kind of guy he is.
5. Embarrassment – Tommy doesn’t know how to respond to all the food coming his way.
6. Comedic tragedy – The boss tries to take Nimfa away from Tommy and it backfires against the boss.

[Alison Benson]

What I learned doing this assignment is that adding comedy is hard. I always heard that comedy writers are the most intelligent. I get it. It’s so much subtext. I managed to one example of each, but had to ‘slave’ over it. I can see by attempting, it does get a little baby step easier to spot the opportunities.

1. Misinterpretation: when Dave speaks to Bernard, Ina’s dad, about him and Ina being an item, Bernard thinks he’s talking about the gardening project and is consequently overjoyed they finally saw eye to eye.

2. Comedic Surprise: Matt’s magazine with the religious cover has the footy magazine inside.

3. Wildly Inappropriate Response: Mata and Shell (best friends of mc) have a flirtatious rant, Shell referring to Mata being Dave’s bodyguard with all his tattoos.

4. Forced union of incompatibles Dave and Ina thrown together on the community garden project, their ideas clash immediately.

5. Embarrassment Dave is embarrassed when his mother goes through all his footy injuries, the rest of the family pipe in and add on.

• This reply was modified 6 months, 1 week ago by  Alison Benson.

[Eugene Mandelcorn]

Eugene’s Comedy Situations

What I learned doing this assignment is that I have included many of these situations in my script.

When Joe first meets Beth, he mistakes her for a homeless woman and drops some coins in her coffee cup, which is not empty and spills scalding hot coffee on her. (Embarrassment)

(Joe tries to apologize but says the wrong things and only makes situation worse. He is attracted to Beth but keeps on saying the wrong things. Beth alarm is turned on when he starts making flirting comments. She thinks he may be stalking her.) Misinterpretation

When they are assigned to work on a film project together, and go to a movie together, Joe assumes that it is a date, but to Beth it is only an assignment. (forced union of incompatibles)

(When Beth feels funny about the two of them working together, Joe offers to pay her, and she takes it as an inappropriate gesture, even though she could use the money.) Misinterpretation

When Voice and Karen are chosen to star in the film project Joe and Beth are making, they turn out to dislike each other. (forced union of incompatibles)

(Voice is dirty and smells, while Karen is haughty and immaculate.) opposites

When a tornado hits the set of their film, the four of them, Joe, Beth, Voice and Karen must go into a dark, damp, cramped, underground structure. (Comedic Tragedy)

(They have problems with being so close but soon overcome their differences. They come out of the underground structure more than just friends.) Comedic Surprise