How to Write the Best Comedy Sketches

by Brian Luff

The first thing to do before you sit down and try and write a sketch, is to watch and read as many other comedy sketches as you can. Go to the library, borrow books, videos, tapes, records, lock yourself away and watch sketches until they come out of your ears. Study the masters of the art. Monty Python, Mel Brooks, The Fast Show, Saturday Night Live, French & Saunders, and so on. Doing this will help to teach you what is funny, but more importantly it will teach you what has been done before.

Research

Make notes. If you laugh at something, try and figure out why you're laughing. What was it that pushed the funny button in your brain? Something visual? Something to do with the way words were used? Or was it because the joke reminded you of something funny in your own life? Start to watch comedy in a different way. Take it apart and put it back together again. You'll soon start to notice that the same tricks are applied again and again and again.

Brainstorm

Bounce comedy ideas off the people around you. Don't work in isolation. If you don't have a writing partner (which I highly recommend for this type of writing), throw funny ideas at your wife, boyfriend, brother, sister, teacher, mother—anyone who will listen. A better approach would be to sit down in a room with about six people and brainstorm ideas in a group. Write down everything. Sift through it later. Hit shows like Friends and Frasier are sometimes written by as many as 12 people.

Where Do Ideas Come From?

If you're stuck, the best place to go looking for ideas for sketches is in big reference books such as Halliwell's Film Guide. A book like this lists thousands and thousands of movie titles and plot lines. Stick a pin in, read a description of the film, and see if it sparks any funny ideas.

For example, your sketch could be a spoof of:

A western
A space movie
An historical romance
A war film
A Hollywood musical
A documentary about snail farming in Gdansk

Getting Started

Never sit down in front of a blank sheet of paper. You'll never think of a damned thing. Carry a notebook around with you for at least a week before you start, and write down anything you see or hear that makes you smile. At the end of the week, pick the best three ideas from your notes. Think of titles for them and throw all the other ideas in the wastepaper basket.

Write the titles at the top of three separate pages, and then, working on all three sketches at the same time, write down everything you can think of connected to each of the three subjects. Lists of words. Connections. Related subjects. When all three pages are full, pick the one that seems to have the best comic potential and put it on the top of the pile. You are now going to start writing your first sketch.

Choose a setting. Avoid common set-ups like doctor's surgerys or "Man Goes Into a Shop." Think ORIGINAL. Only set the sketch in ONE location.
Don't make the sketch too long. Two minutes is a good length to start with.
Don't use expensive props. If you're trying to sell your material to TV, don't put in anything too expensive like a helicopter. Most TV shows are on a tight budget.
Don't write for a cast of thousands. Three characters is more than enough for a two-minute sketch.
Work out loud. Say the lines as you write them. You need to hear what the material sounds like.
Think about what is happening visually. Describe the physical action in detail. What are the characters wearing? What do they look like? What are their names? Don't just call your characters first man, second man. Being more descriptive will help to bring the characters to life in your mind.

Put a Spin On It

There a literally hundreds of thousands of potential starting points for a sketch. But once you find a subject, try not to approach it in an obvious way. For example, if you're writing a sketch about hairdressers, don't set it in a hairdressing salon, instead set it half way up Mount Everest! (You may have seen a sketch like this in Monty Python.)

Work Backwards

Sketches should have a strong finish, so always work backwards. Think of the punch line first. If you can't think of one after 10 minutes, you probably won't. If that happens, throw the whole idea into the bin and move onto your next sketch title.

Once you've got your funny ending, work out how to get there. Start by writing the line preceding the funny end line. Then, when you've worked out the last 10 seconds of the sketch, it's probably safe to think about the beginning.

Types of Sketch

The following examples are a few tried and tested comedy formats for sketches.

Escalation: Funny idea starts small and gets bigger and bigger, ending in chaos of ridiculous proportions.
Lists: Sketches in which the bulk of the dialogue is a long list of funny items. The best example of this is "Cheese Shop" in Monty Python.
Mad Man, Sane Man: This format speaks for itself, but don't go for obvious settings.
Dangerous Situations: For example, a sketch set on the flight deck of aircraft.
Funny Words: Sketches that use the sound of language itself to be funny. For example, use of the words "blobby" or "wobble" (e.g., Mr. Bean).
Old and New: Getting a laugh from putting something modern in an historical setting (or vice versa). Example, Sir Walter Raleigh using a cigarette lighter.
Big and Small: Getting humour from large differences in scale. For example, a mouse trying to make love to an elephant.

Edit Your Own Work

When you have finished writing your sketch remember that it is only the first draft. Go back and read it again. Improve it. Change it. Make it funnier. If there isn't a big laugh at least every 15 seconds, put one in. Then sleep on it. Look at your material when you wake up in the morning. If it's still as funny as you thought it was when you wrote it, great! If it isn't, throw it away. Don't waste your time trying to rescue an idea that doesn't work. Go onto writing a new sketch. Be brutal with your own work. Only try and sell work you are totally happy with.

Hit Rate

For every good sketch you write you should be throwing away about 10. Think of sketch writing as being a totally disposable art form. Don't be precious about your work. Comedy is as much about what you don't write as about what you do. But remember: Whatever you do, keep scribbling.

Get Clues

You must be persistent. If the editor or producer you're sending work to doesn't want to buy it, ask him or her why? If he doesn't want your type of material what does he want? Try to learn who he or she finds funny: Jim Carey or John Cleese? In the long term, this will help you to write material that he or she will buy.

Presentation

If you're trying to sell your material, present it properly. Put your name and address on every sheet, number all the pages. Most writers use CAPITALS to describe location and action, and for character names (set above the dialogue). The rest can be in lower case.

Example:

BBC 040499/4

HIGHWAYMAN QUICKIE by Brian Luff

DAY. A MOTORWAY

CLOSE-UP OF DICK-TURPIN-LIKE HIGHWAYMAN

HIGHWAYMAN

Stand and deliver! Your money or your life!

CUT TO WIDE-SHOT HIGHWAYMAN STANDING ON THE HARD SHOULDER OF THE M6 MOTORWAY. A CAR HURTLES PAST AT 95 MPH.

HIGHWAYMAN

Oh, shit!

IN A NUTSHELL

Study other writer's work. Make plenty of notes before you start. Keep the writing short, tight and with as few people in it as possible. Brainstorm. Avoid common set-ups and expensive props. Plough through movie reference books for useful genres. Think about the visuals as well as the words. Work backwards from the end. Avoid plays on words or puns. If it's not funny enough when you read it the next day, throw it away and write something funnier. Good luck.

Planet Comedy's Brian Luff was one of the creative team members behind the successful UK version of legendary Japanese torture game show Endurance.

This article originally appeared at Planet Comedy.

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