Knowing When To Kill Your Baby

Well look who came crawling back to their blog acting like they haven’t been AWOL for 2 months. Me, that’s who.

When I was a little boy I was always taught that if you haven’t got something constructive to blog about then you shouldn’t blog at all, which was weird because when I was young blogs didn’t exist. Maybe I was just mis-hearing the word ‘blob’? Still doesn’t make sense.

Anywho I’ve been away so long because I didn’t have much to say on the world of Sitcoms, my writing had dried to a creative trickle and life, as it often does, got in the way. But just like your wayward Daddy, i’m back (for now) with a six-pack of beer and some low-paying construction work, so come and sit on my knee and let’s pretend I was never away.

The subject of this blog is ‘knowing when to end your sitcom before you shit the bed’ or as I like to call it ‘not pulling a Scrubs’.

If you’re a fan of television comedy it’s more than likely that at some point you have bemoaned the cancelling of an amazing show well before its time. You have pulled your hair out at the fact that Arrested Development was cancelled whilst ‘My Family’ was allowed to birth forth turgid episode after turgid episode from it’s rotten comedic yawning. When a great show gets cancelled it’s easy to blame the masses, the people in the middle, the people who like Peter Kay, the ones who mindlessly consume regardless of quality and who watch easy, terrible television instead of well written, intelligent shows. We point the finger and say ‘You, plebeians are the problem. If only you’d be more discerning! You’ve ruined it for us all’, then we get on our high horses, ride to our ivory towers and put on the latest series of 30 Rock even though it hasn’t been good since series 3.

Y’see, to me a show that goes on too long is infinitely worse than a show that doesn’t go on long enough. Party Down was cancelled after 2 series. It was a terrible, crying shame- but at the end of the day those 20 episodes of pure comedy gold exist untainted for me to enjoy forever. Like Kurt Cobain, James Dean and the McRibwich it never got the chance to sell-out, turn shit and disappoint me in a way that so many other shows have.

On the other end of the spectrum is 30 Rock. When 30 Rock started, you wouldn’t find a stronger cheerleader for the show than me. I loved the writing, the cast and the storylines and ate through the series like this guy ate through cats. When it was time for series four to begin I went in just like I had before- optimistic and eager to enjoy. But although it was far from terrible, something had changed- the characters seemed bigger, more cartoonish, the plots seemed like a thin framework on which to hang surrealist jokes that meant nothing and the tone seemed more laboured and desperate for a laugh. I watched the whole of season 4, hoping it would pick up but it didn’t really. After it had finished I wrote it off as a minor blip on 30 Rock’s run and looked forward to the fifth series starting in the near future.

I wish I could give you my feelings on the fifth series but in all honesty I never finished it. 5 episodes in and I was done. I have no vitriolic feelings towards the show- I feel nothing for it. It exists, I used to like it, but for me the show has gone on too long and the makers no longer know what story they are telling. Jenna is crazy, Tracy is crazier, Kenneth is creepy and sincere, Jack is the definitive republican and Liz likes food and embarrassing herself. I get it. But after the millionth joke about the same thing i’m no longer laughing.

It might feel like i’m being overly harsh to show, and I certainly don’t mean to imply it is the worst offender of what I am talking about it, but it’s certainly the most recent example for me. There are countless other shows that have encountered the same pitfalls as 30 Rock and went on for another 5 or 6 series. 

Friends, Scrubs, The Simpsons and Roseanne are shows that not only went on too long- how bad they ended up being actually ruined my enjoyment of the earlier episodes. I can’t watch Scrubs at all anymore, not even the 4 boxsets I have on DVD because I know where the characters end up and how it went out with a whimper rather than a bang.

Look at the shows that have an finite shelf-life (either set by their creators or cancelled by the broadcasters). The UK Office, Arrested Development and Party Down never had a bad episode, Eastbound & Down will finish after its 3rd series and is incredible whilst Look Around You, Nathan Barley and Garth Merenghi’s Darkplace are untouchable. Like any good story it’s good to know where you are going when you start. If you don’t have an ending it’s easy to get lost and become something different than what you set out to be. There’s nothing wrong with doing what you set out to do and getting out before you outstay your welcome, if anything it’s honourable. Sticking it out longer whilst trying to reach the same heights as yesteryear will only end in tears. 

We spend so much time bemoaning when great shows finish that we forget that sometimes this is the best thing for them. Better to go out in an explosion of goodwill then limp towards your death long after you should have been put down. So next time someone tells you how all the good shows die young just put your hand on their shoulder, look them in the eye and tell them sometimes it’s good to kill your baby.

LB

Women and the Sitcom

I don’t know if you’ve noticed but lately the internet has been buzzing with articles discussing the role of women in various industries, whether it’s gaming, film or the world at large. There seems to be a zeitgeist (in the best possible meaning of the word) for calling out the thinly veiled misogyny that permeates much of our culture and rightly labelling it bullshit. This is a very good thing. Women are awesome- much better than men in almost every way actually, plus they smell great- so if they are an underepresented demographic in a particular part of our culture the world will be weaker for it. In the midst of this discussion I took at look at the things that I enjoy and pushed them through the Mental Misogyny Machine to see how they weighed up in female representation, and I started thinking specifically about sitcoms (Note- I’m aware that many articles around the role of women in various industries are written by men and this is problematic, but for the sake of this blog I’m going to ignore these inherent tensions lest my head explode through the guilt and irony).

In my opinion, the sitcom industry is doing okay by women- in fact I would say it was doing pretty fucking well and should be held up to other creative industries as an example of where we are doing things right. For all intents and purposes the world of sitcoms seems to be gender blind in a way that other industries are not. As a starting point here are a list of popular sitcoms that have been fronted by women over the years:

30 Rock

Absolutely Fabulous

Bewitched

Birds Of A Feather

Cougar Town (ugh)

Dinnerladies

Ellen

Gimme, Gimme, Gimme

I Dream Of Jeanie

I Love Lucy

Kath and Kim

Laverne & Shirley

The Mary Tyler Moore Show

Miranda

Parks and Recreation

Rhoda

Roseasnne

The Sarah Silverman Program

The Vicar of Dibley

Weeds

This list is by no means comprehensive, and it ignores those sitcoms where strong women are part of a greater ensemble (Friends, Will & Grace, Seinfeld, Spaced, Scrubs, Modern Family etc) but it goes to show that funny women have been fronting comedy shows since the fucking Fifties- the decade when sexism was pretty much invented! Lucille Ball, Mary Tyler Moore- these women were succesful comedy brands before brands were a thing. Of course, the roles these women played adhered pretty closely to the gender roles of the time but there is no doubt that the females in these sitcoms were the stars (bonus point if anyone can name Samantha’s husband in Bewitched!). The Mary Tyler Moore show even had a single woman in her thirties as the protagonist and that was in 1970- that’s the equivalent of the BBC releasing a sitcom today that featured a black paraplegic post-op transsexual lesbian in the lead! That’s how ahead of its time it was! The trend of female-led sitcoms isn’t one that comes in peak and troughs either- if you look at any decade since the invention of the sitcom you will find a consistent stream of funny, interesting, ground-breaking women fronting popular shows. I do mean ground-breaking as well. Look at some of the taboos that these shows have broken through- from the above mentioned single woman in Mary Tyler Moore, Ellen coming out as gay, Roseanne being a big woman who we laugh with not at, Sarah Silverman and abortion jokes, Miranda and her unconventional looks- it’s as if society subconsciously decided that they would let all of the baggage and scrutiny that they normally hoist on the female of the species go, as long as it was funny.

That’s because Funny trumps all.

Genuine laughter is arguably the least judgemental response a person can give to any situation because we can’t help what our brain decides is funny. There may be the most misogynistic, backwards, right-wing Christians out there who think that women have no place in the clergy- but as soon as Dawn French sticks her head in a chocolate fountain they find themselves laughing. At that point they’re not thinking of their prejuidices- their brains have decided to make their mouths smile and laugh and there is nothing they can do about it- the fuckers. If you laugh at something you’ve offered up a kind of complicit acceptance of the thing. It’s harder to say you don’t like someone’s lifestyle choices or don’t agree with what they represent after they have made you laugh- it would be like going around someone’s house for dinner, wolfing down the food they have cooked you and then telling them you actually found every mouthful disgusting- your actions speak louder than your words you horrible dick! Laughter is the great leveller- maybe there is an alternate world where Hitler laughed at a joke a jew told and WW2 never happened. I like to think so.

When all it becomes about is ‘well is it funny?’ then whether the person making us laugh has a penis or not takes a back seat. Well, in sitcoms at least. I do find it strange that there is still a massive difference between ‘female comedians’ and ‘funny women in sitcoms’. I’ve never heard anything described as a ‘female sitcom’- it’s just a sitcom, doesn’t matter what sex the main character is- but I constantly hear about ‘female comics’ as if the jokes will be coming directly out of their vaginas. I honestly have no idea why this is the case, but it feels like this is worth exploring at some point. If we so readily accept funny, interesting women who aren’t mere sex objects in sitcoms then why can’t we accept them as readily when they are on panel shows, or doing stand-up? Like I say, I have no idea.

Anyway, we shouldn’t just bemoan when women are under represented in a certain arena- we should celebrate when they aren’t. Sitcoms may not be perfect but I think they have been subtly fighting the female cause for decades and it’s time we gave sitcoms a pat on the back, a small party hat and a slow clap to show how much we care.

Thanks sitcoms, you the man… I mean woman.

LB

Two Very Funny Men. Two Very Different Styles.

Hello again- sorry i’ve been away so long. Been busy buying presents to celebrate the birth of a bearded hippie and all that. You know how it is.

In the past week I have seen two incredible stand-up comedians perform what I consider the most interesting sets of their careers. One was in a crowded basement in soho, the other was on my television as the result of a ballsy experiment in comedy distribution. Both were very satisfying in very different ways.

Stewart Lee and Louis CK are as different comedians as you can get- where Lee performs as a staunchly left- leaning defender of moral sense, Louis CK’s persona is that of an every-man schlub- trying to do right by his kids whilst acknowledging the world is pretty fucked up place. Now normally there would be no reason to compare the two- but seeing them both back to back brought something into sharp focus for me. Arguably no two comedians are doing more to push the form of what standup is (or can be) today than these two performers. What’s interesting is the ways in which they are doing this are very different.

If you haven’t heard already Louis CK decided to experiment in the way he distributed his latest comedy special. Whereas a comedian of his stature would normally sell a DVD of his latest show, or strike a lucrative deal with a channel such as HBO, Louis instead decided to release the special exclusively on his website for the bargain price of $5 (if you haven’t done so already I would strongly suggest that you head to https://buy.louisck.net/ and buy it- it’s worth it). Enough has been written already on how this model has worked for Louis (very well it would seem- http://mashable.com/2011/12/14/louis-ck-200000-standup-video/) for me to not rehash that here. I would like to talk about the form that CK’s standup takes in a broader sense.

To me, selling his latest show for $5 wasn’t about increasing his profit margins as much as it was about making comedy an event again. In years gone by when Richard Pryor, Lennie Bruce or Bill Cosby appeared on a special or released a new album it would be the talking point of all the fans- but nowadays with most shows split up all over Youtube, and the the ability to torrent anything we want whenever we want, means that many people digest a comedian’s output in a much more nebulous way. When his last special Hilarious was released, Louis decided to give a limited run in cinemas- thereby forcing people to have a shared experience of his comedy in a way that a DVD release rarely does. This seems to have been the first step in Louis giving value to his comedy through a distribution model, that – after the success of his latest experiment- he looks set to continue.

Whilst Louis’ jokes might not be the most envelope pushing in the world (which isn’t an insult at all- his jokes have a sense of familiarity to them that make them all the more understandable and hilarious) the way he is spreading them is. By distributing his own stuff in his own way he is showing all of the new comedians of tomorrow that getting on the latest panel show or doing a spot for Michael McIntyre isn’t the only way to success. If standup is merely about the comedian communicating with the audience, then can’t that communication take any form? There is an arguement that without Louis’ existing success his experiment wouldn’t have been a success, and I agree with that- but surely any act that makes us take a closer look at the accepted Christmas DVD model model to stardom is a good thing? Louis, whether he meant to or not has started a discussion and I for one love him for it.

On the other hand, the form in which Stewart Lee delivered his latest special Carpet Remnant World couldn’t have been more old school. One man, one microphone and an audience that lapped up every single word. What makes Stewart Lee so important to today’s comedy world is not the form of his material, but the content. To say that Lee’s set was well crafted would be an understatement of epic proportions. Watching him work is like watching a top magician- he tells you where is going to go, what he is going to do and how he is going to do it right up front, and then proceeds to astound you anyway.

During the set Lee comments on how it would be impossible to divide his content up into digestible chunks that could be put on Youtube or repackaged for panel show appearances and in this regard I think he hits the nail on the head as to the problems modern British comedy faces. Comedians nowadays have to create content that can be reused time and time again in various settings, and as such theme, structure and craft go out the window. There’s nothing wrong with doing ‘gags’ but it’s the comedy equivalent of finger food when it feels like the industry is ready for a banquet. Lee delivered a banquet and then some- it’s rare for a comedy performance to affect me so profoundly as this one did. It’s sheer audacity was daunting at times and he asked that you keep up every step of the way. He showed that comedy can be a two way street in that he will make us laugh and think, if we agree to work for it. Nothing is handed on a plate- callbacks and references loop through each other in a way that I found completely mesmerizing, and the themes at play in the show are woven through in such a way that to remove one gag or punch-line could send the whole thing tumbling down like a big old comedy Jenga.

Although his material and style is utterly unique I hope that Lee’s success at the comedy awards last week, and the strength of his new material heralds a bit of a turning point for UK comedy. Enough with the comedy as bitesized chunks, I want all of the stuff that keeps me thinking far beyond the end of the show, and I know i’m not the only one.

Louis Ck and Stewart Lee- pushing form and content. Two comedians who have earned the right to rest on their laurels, but who instead are using their power to change the comedy world for the better.

What do you think? Is modern comedy in a strong place or are we due for some big changes?

“I’m Ron F*%king Swanson”

The people in my life (friends, family, my pimp) can be split into two distinct groups- those who agree that Ron Sawnson is the greatest sitcom character ever created and those that haven’t met him yet. There is no middle ground.

To try and sum up what makes this character so great to people who have never seen an episode of Parks And Recreation is near impossible task but here is the thinnest of thin outlines. Ron Swanson (played by Nick Offerman) is the head of the Parks & Recreation department in the small town of Pawnee. He hates local government (despite being a part of it), loves meat and has the best moustache since Tom Selleck rocked the mighty tea-strainer in Magnum PI.

After reading this you might be starting to form an image of how this character plays out, but chances are you haven’t imagined a tenth of the brilliance that Offerman and the writing team on Parks brings to Ron. The line separating the character written on the page and the actor performing it can sometimes be hard to define, and with Ron Swanson it is near impossible. Ron doesn’t feel like a sitcom character who services a plot or delivers punch-lines- he is living, breathing man who just happens to live in my television. I selfishly never want to see Nick Offerman in another role again, as the work he does in Parks & Rec is so good that to see him in something else would be to acknowledge that Swanson isn’t real, and that would break my heart.

Ron’s first appearance is in the pilot, and interestingly a lot of the ingredients that would later come to make him such a fan favourite were already there (albeit in embryonic form)- his deadpan delivery, his begrudging acceptance of Leslie Knope’s sunny disposition and his hatred of government. Characters often change from the pilot to the main series but Ron was merely built on.

Since that very first appearance the audience has been drip-fed information that has added depth to the character without undercutting those initial choices that made him so great in the first place. As of season 4 we have met Ron’s 1st wife (Tammy 1), his 2nd wife (Tammy 2) and his mother (Tammy 0), we’ve seen the Ron Swanson Pyramid of Greatness, we’ve encountered his love of meat (and of Li’l Sebastian) and we have discovered the fact that underneath his glazy eyed contempt of most people beats a heart of gold. As the series progresses I hope that we meet more of Ron’s family, see him at home and find out why there are so many cats that look like him (http://catsthatlooklikeronswanson.tumblr.com/).

Anyway, the bottom line is I have never enjoyed a character more than I do Ron Swanson. You all need to watch Parks & Recreation as soon as possible and then thank me when you have. Now let’s just watch Ron do what he does best-

Ron Swanson on vegans-

…on marriage-

and on art-

LB.

PS- I am still writing my sitcom. Not much else to report at the moment. Will share more soon though.

Bloody Good Writing: Fresh Meat

Bloody Good Writing will be the title I give any post where I am reviewing/discussing one particular piece of comedy writing, This is my first in what I hope will be a long series of posts on comedy that I have found inspiring in some way or other.

I have held back on writing about Fresh Meat because I didn’t want to judge the show on a couple of episodes- instead I decided to take the series as a whole and keep my verdict until all of the episodes had aired. So it was with much trepidation that I sat down to watch the last episode this week. Would the show nail the landing, or would it undo all of the goodwill that I felt it had earned so far?

I have to say, with a few minor exceptions- that it rocked, and I can happily grant Fresh Meat a coveted place on my shelf labelled ‘SHOWS THAT I THINK  ARE REALLY GOOD’.

Created by Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong, the show’s main strength has been it’s rotation of male and female writers. With six main characters to service there was always the the chance that some of the housemates would be a little under-represented- and although there are some combinations I would have liked to see more of (have Howard and Oregon ever had a conversation?) I think the show did a damn good job at giving everyone a meaty storyline or two that we could follow through the series.

What has taken me by surprise though is just how strong the female characters of the show are. In a perfect world it shouldn’t seem a big deal to have female characters who are nuanced and complicated on our screens, but it says something about British television (and the media in general) that it still is. In a show created by two guys in their forties, you might expect every girl to be a cypher, merely there to set up gags and make the boys look good- but Armstrong and Bain are better than that. Instead we get three women who can’t be easily pigeon-holed into the ‘whore or virgin’ writing style that many male writers fall into. It’s been 90 years since television became commercially available and only now are we getting to see depictions of female sexuality that ring true. Kimberly Nixon’s Josie in particular shows that women in Fresh Meat can have casual sex (although sometimes with the wrong person) without it resulting in a pregnancy scare/std/heartbreak story-line that runs on for a couple of episode in a tedious way.At last we have a show that is happy to say it’s just sex. Sure sometimes people get hurt, and mistakes are made- but these things are true of every part of life, not just the sexy bits.

The other two girls have just as much to work with too. Zawe Ashton’s Vod is by far the most consistently funny character (watch her deconstruction of Salman Rushdie as proof) whilst Charlotte Ritchie gives Oregon a familiarity that we can all relate to. Everyone has met an Oregon- a girl whose image is precariously built on a loose foundation of fibs and white lies, and it’s a testament to the acting and writing on the character that she never becomes one note.

Lets not forget that 50% of the cast is made of men though. The writing on the boys has been just as funny and interesting as the girls- with no clear cut front- man coming to the fore. There is certainly an argument that Kingsley’s relationship with Josie and his every-man quality places him at the centre of proceedings, but Greg McHugh’s Howard and Jack Whitehall’s J.P are just too strong to let this be the case. If you have ever seen McHugh in Gary: Tank Commander then you are aware are of  just how great an acting job Howard is- McHugh imbues the character with a shuffling gait, and ragged sweetness that is hard not be charmed by. And I never thought I would say the words, but Fresh Meat has actually made me like Jack Whitehall. Fuck it, I LOVE Jack Whitehall now- he takes the poshness and pomposity that always turned me off his comedy style and makes it into something special. J.P is a little baby chick trying to be an arrogant, preening peacock, and the few moments where his mask slips have been some of the most affecting in the show.

I’m going to throw it on the line and say that Fresh Meat will ultimately be the best British comedy series of the year and that it will only grow in stature as more people come round to it. Whether you went to university or not, the show does an incredible job of building a recognisable and relatable setup that everyone can enjoy. It’s about the people, not the place. Saying that, I do enjoy the small moments of student squalor that I notice in the show. I am 4 years out of Royal Holloway and although the details may be different, the broad strokes of Uni life are bang on.

If I could change one thing about the show I might have tied up at least one of the stories that had been building through the first series (can we at least get a glimpse of hidden housemate Paul in series 2) but it just means that I am looking forward to the next series all the more. The second year of uni was my favourite and I can’t wait to see how the characters deal with the influx of freshers that are sure to be joining (although saying that- series 2 may just be term 2. In which case please ignore this last paragraph).

So there you have it- Fresh Meat. A fantastically written, satisfying series of UK comedy. It’s well rape.

The importance of knowing where you are going.

I’m going to level with you. Writing is bloody hard.

Don’t get me wrong- sometimes it is great. You get an idea for a setup or a line and away you go, typing like a Mad Man with cocaine in his fingers. Those moments are few and far between though and the rest of the time you are squeezing out one letter at a time like one of those metaphorical chimps who sit in a room and write a novel over a million years.

So that’s where I am right now. Writing is hard and I hate it and it’s rubbish and i’m rubbish because I can’t do it very well. I might as well throw my laptop in the bin, turn on The Only Way Is Essex and become a slack jawed, contented lump.

And yet, I really can’t bring myself to throw in the towel. Stopping would be the easiest thing in the world but then I’ve done that before. All that would happen is in another 5 years I will be back to thinking “Why don’t I give that writing malarky another go?” like the forgetful dinkus I am, so I might as well save myself 5 years and just keep going. To do so though I have realised that I need to prepare more. When I started Spectacle my preparation consisted of eating a Rustler’s Big One. That ‘s it. I naively thought that I would just load up the screenwriting software, tap away for a few weeks and end up with the next Blackadder. Now that this hasn’t happened I’ve had a bit of an epiphany- writing something that’s worthwhile, that has themes and subtleties and is truthful demands a pretty rigid planning procedure.

As such I am taking a step back and approaching the work in a different way. I like the characters I have written- I get them and I can see what makes them funny, but I feel like I need clear outlines of what they do, what they’re like and where they are from. I want to know what they would say in any given situation before I write it.

So the next step is that I’m going to write a one page outline for each main character that covers a bit more about them. This way I can figure out which characters get along, which ones hate each other, who is funny, who is not- and place them together in scenes where all of their contradictions will play off each other in ways that are as satisfying as eating a Cream Egg in the nuddy.

The second piece of preparation I need to do is a thorough plot outline. I have written an okay start, but then it just kind of meanders along in a confused way  like a child lost in the Blitz.. I want every scene to matter so I am going to have plan it out beat by beat I think. A solid outline will make the whole process a lot easier in the long run.

So in conclusion, the essence of this blog is ‘I have hit a massive wall so i’m kind of starting again’. Not the most exciting topic I know- but I thought I would share.

Anyway, enough about me- how’s your mum?

LB.

If it’s not from my brain it’s not getting in

Ahoi hoi,

I know what you guys are thinking. You’ve been reading this blog for a while and you’re all like “Sure Lee, we get it- you’re a big-shot blogger who entertains and amazes us with his fresh thinking about sitcoms, but what else you got?”

I’m all like “what else I got? HOW.BOUT.DIS!” – then I start blogging hard and I blow your mind. This post is the result of that weird imaginary conversation we just had.

For those of you who don’t know me personally, I have two older brothers. Through an ancient family curse we are destined to be each other’s best men in what I like to think of as a kind of long-term brotherly circle jerk. Now myself and my oldest brother are married- where my middle brother was my oldest brother’s best man, and my oldest brother was my best man. Still with me?

My middle brother is getting married on Friday which means it’s my time to step up to the Best Man duties that my other two brothers have already done in a very awesome way. It also means I must get up in front of many people I don’t know and make them laugh with recollections of my brother’s oddness.

When I started writing the speech I thought I would hit a few best man sites to find some killer gags, but after the 4th page of jokes like “I really got on well with my brother’s first girlfriend UNTIL HE OVER-INFLATED HER! BOOM BOOM!” I found myself disheartened. This was my brother- a man I had known for 26 years, and here I was looking for standard jokes that I could just insert without thinking about. I soon made a pact with myself- if it didn’t come from my brain it wasn’t going in the speech. As such I’ve ended up with something that is personal to my brother, and hopefully funny.

As I worked through the speech- adding in a joke if i thought it was too soppy, throwing in a bit of my real feelings if I said something crude- I found that this is exactly the same balancing act I have been doing in my sitcom. Writing any kind of comedy is somewhat of a high-wire act, with crass knob jokes on one side, and sombre over seriousness on the other- my job is to walk this line, dipping my toe into the crocodile infested waters that surround me without falling in either side. On top of this, every gag- whether it is in a speech or on tv, should have an emotional truth to it. It should all come from a facet of myself otherwise it runs the risk of being homogenized bland porridge that anyone could have made and that pleases nobody. Sure, in the sitcom my voice is twisted and subverted to reflect the character who is speaking it, but it’s still coming from my brain and is therefore my view on the world around me.

One of my biggest problems with many modern sitcoms is that I can’t hear the voice of the person or people behind it. Watching the Mighty Boosh is like going to party in the minds of Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt. Brass Eye is like watching Chris Morris in the pulpit- sermonizing on what is wrong with the world. I don’t like Gavin & Stacey but I won’t argue with the fact that you can hear Ruth Jones and James Corden’s voice in every single line of the show. I don’t know who wrote My Family, but I bet it’s some kind of fucking comedy android designed by the same people who attend neighborhood watch meetings. It has no personality behind at all. Comedy without an interesting point of view isn’t comedy- it’s just listing things you have noticed.

The most important thing you have in comedy is your own point of view. No one else has it, so use it as much as you can.

If you find yourself as someone’s best man, talk about the things you find funny about the groom- everyone else will be right there with you.

And if no one laughs you can always throw in a joke about an inflatable ex girlfriend.

LB.

Variations on a theme.

Hello. I’m still alive. Sorry i’ve been a bit quiet on the ol’ blogging front but the last week or so has been mad busy what with life, work and a certain bat based game taking all my time (not cricket- Arkham City you silly billys!).

Also, I didn’t want to write a post just for the sake of it so waited until I had something to say. That time is now, and the thing I would like to say is this-

WHERE THE CHUFFING HELL HAVE ALL THE GOOD THEME TUNES GONE FROM SITCOMS?

Not so long ago, a decent theme tune was a must for any comedy worth its salt, and what more- a lot of them were bloody excellent. If I write ‘Sunday, Monday Happy Days’- I bet you can’t read it without humming the tune in your head. Same with ‘Where everybody knows your name’, or ‘stick a pony in your pocket, i’ll fetch the suitcase from the van’. You read the line, you hear the theme in your head and you get that warm, nostalgic feeling in your nethers as you think about the classic sitcoms of past.

Now try and think of a theme from the last 5- 10 years that has the same effect? Friends springs to mind, but thanks to E4 repeats I can’t hear the opening chord of The Rembrandts without trying to stab my ear drums with the nearest available fork. In fact, all of the current themes that I can even remember, let alone enjoy are all from American sitcoms. Parks & Rec, the US version of The Office, 30 Rock all have pretty little ditties to open their shows, but none of them are full on, sung openers like the classics listed above. The UK theme scene is in an even worse state. Watching Fresh Meat the other day (a comedy that is growing on me week by week) I was shocked at just how little effort seemed to be put into the theme- it really is no more than a few ‘cool’ sounding bleeps and bloops. To look at the characters, setting and story lines that Fresh Meat contains and see that this is the best they could come up with is mind boggling.

Fresh Meat isn’t even close to the worst offender though. I caught the opening to Sky’s Trollied once and the theme to that sounds like the most turgid guitar solo that The Feeling never wrote. It’s so fucking bland it almost hurts my face.

Maybe having the title of the show sung loudly and proudly in the theme isn’t cool anymore, but surely it’s better than the boring, forgettable dirge that sitcoms open with nowadays?

Ultimately I think that’s what it comes down- a question of coolness. Putting too much effort or sincerity into your theme tune is seen as either ironic, or weirdly out of touch with the current climate. It’s a shame really because a good theme can lock you into the tone and style of a show before you have even seen the first frame. It rewires your brain in an almost Pavlovian way and says to you ‘sit down and shut up because you’re about to see some funny shit’.

If my sitcom ever gets made I want it to have a theme that people can’t get out of their heads for days, that they hum when they’re in the shower and which they ultimately end up despising through over-familiarity. That’s the dream RIGHT THERE.

What do you think? Are theme tunes fine how they are, or do you miss the mini masterworks of yesteryear?

LB

Updateapalooza

9 pages. That’s how much of my script is now written. They’re not 9 good pages but at this stage I am happy that I’ve got something down.

With this script I am trying to be very practical in the way I write otherwise I will just spend my time rewriting the same 3 pages over and over and over again- or worse- not writing at all. So i’m forcing myself to just move forward everytime I sit down- no going over what I have already done until i have a complete script. Only then will I start on the second draft and pull apart everything I have done to rebuild it into something better.

I’ve also got a title for my sitcom now. It’s called SPECTACLE. Nifty huh?

So 9 pages and a title. Not too shabby. I’m giving myself till Christmas to get the first draft done and I’m telling you guys so that you can berate me if it looks like it isn’t going to happen. If you see me and I’m not writing then slap me in the face, kick me up the arse and push me in a puddle- I need you to, because otherwise I will just stop writing and then I will hate myself for being so lazy.

That’s all really, i’m going to play some Xbox now because I’ve been a good boy.

Enjoy the rest of your Sundays.

LB.

Can you format a sitcom?

Everyone loves a good format.

To create a format first you have to come up with an idea for a show. For the sake of this discussion lets say my idea is ‘Animal Knockout With Pat Sharp’ in which Sharp punches a series of animals that increase in size- in the face- over  a 6 episode series.

Now an idea by itself is not a format.

To turn an idea into a format it needs ‘format points’- which in TV Land means bits and pieces that you throw into the show that happen every week, so that the mass population can put their brain on auto pilot whilst watching and can still know exactly what is going on. So in Animal Knockout With Pat Sharp a format point may be that before Pat fights, he must train for 5 days. So we see Pat training with an animal expert- there are highs and lows, Pat doesn’t know if he can take the hard training regime but he sticks at it. There is montage and before you know it he is ready to pound some penguin.

Another format point might be that the night before the fight Pat gets on the ol’ diary- cam. He sits in his hotel room with only a small bedside lamp illuminating his gaunt, haunting face. He speaks in whispers and says that he doesn’t know what to expect from the fight tomorrow- he is worried, but he is going to give it his best shot. Easy. Another format point done.

A third and final format point might be that before the fight Pat and the penguin get to pick their weapons- a table is filled with murderous tools, a judge flips a coin and whoever guesses how it lands gets to pick first. The penguin goes for some knuckle dusters (which is silly because he doesn’t have knuckles) and Pat goes for the prison shiv. The fight happens, Pat kicks the penguin into a lava pit and wins, emotions are shown, the end.

These stages happen every single week, and before you know it the viewing public know the rhythm of the show off by heart, and can half-watch it whilst firing rage filled feathered creatures into porcine villains on their expensive little tabby-wablets without batting an eyelid. Format points make things neat and digestible and familiar. Good formats are also very hard to copy and very easy to sell, making them the golden goose of the tv industry.

Lately I’ve been wondering if you can put format points into comedy and still make it fun and fresh to watch, or are format points the antithesis of creativity? If a comedy hits the same beats every week, will it quickly become stale?

It’s a complicated issue, because I whole-heartedly believe that some of the best comedies out there feature their own version of format points already- they’re a bit more fluid, a little less set in stone- but they exist nonetheless. Take Curb Your Enthusiasm for example. Curb has been running for 11 years and hasn’t seen a dip in quality at all. But let’s be honest- pretty much every episode of the show follows the exact same rhythm, goes through the same motions and ends in the same way- the details may change, but the broad strokes are always there. And yet the show works- the familiarity we have of the format only goes to heighten our enjoyment as we can see what will happen to Larry coming a mile off and enjoy watching it happen to him. Peep Show, Garth Merenghi’s Dark Place, The Trip, Knowing Me Knowing You- all have regular beats in them that they hit week after week after week, but aren’t any worse off for it.

On the flipside there are comedies that are so resolutely ‘anti-format’ that they border on experimental. The most recent series of Louie is a great example of this. In it Louis CK tells a very different story each week with characters appearing and disappearing as he sees fit with no regard to continuity. One week Louis might have a sister, the next he might have two brothers, one of his daughters has been played by two different people IN THE SAME episode. Louis CK kicks back against familiarity so hard that you can’t do anything but marvel at his audacity. The Chris Morris series Jam was another comedy that was a different beast each week. Beyond a disturbing opening monologue viewers had no idea what to expect, and it was brilliant because of it.

So which do you prefer? A comedy that fits like a warm blanket- that you can stick in the DVD player, zone out and still enjoy or one that challenges you to sit up, take notice or be left behind?

I am not saying these choices are binary, but I find it interesting to think about as I work on my project. As I’ve been writing I’ve found a natural rhythm occurring of how I want each episode to be structured. I have a device for an opening of each episode that I like, but I wonder that if I stick with every week i will wear out its welcome. Should I even try to freshen it up each week or should I just tear up the rule book episode by episode and try do something completely unexpected?

Maybe I will just chuck it all in and make Animal Knockout. That will get me some format fees.