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1. Daniel Hopkins
Analysis of Comedy Shorts
Comedysketchesare oftenveryshortinlengthdue totheirnature.Theywill oftenappearinTV
showsandon the internetandcanvary fromjust10 secondstousuallynomore than a couple of
minutes.The humourisvery fast-pacedandtheyare oftenveryjoke-heavy,notoptingtospread
themliberallythroughoutlike afull 30-minute sitcom.Thisisbecause theyare shortandneedto
quicklyobtainthe attentionof the viewerandsubsequentlyholdit. Theyneedtohave a narrative
that isoververyquicklybutdoeshave a structuredbeginning,middle andend.Sketchesaspart of a
seriesmayevendevelopthe charactersmore,forexamplerecurringshortsinaseries.Shortfilms
are verymuchlike sketchesbutjustslightly longer.
The characters are oftenzanyand wacky,inorderto make themmore attractive andgive thema
largerarsenal of jokesandcomedyto workwith. The characters can be regularpeople innormal
situations,suchasa personat a party,or people with regularjobs,suchasa chef workingina
restaurant.The situationsare oftenhumourousand are whatthe majorityof the jokeswill revolve
around.
Many sketchesIhave reviewedandstudiedhave beenwackyandIthinkthisiswhathas helped
influencemy ideaandscript.For example,Iwatchedone Mitchell andWebbsketchentitled‘Green
ClarinetMan’,where the titularcharacterisa mythical manwhogiveshisclarinettoa man which,
whenplayed,revealsanembarrassingtruthaboutthe personitisaimed at.
There are variedsortsof humoursketchesandshortfilmsuse.Theycan range fromfast-pacedjokes
and observationalhumourtosharp,wittyone liners.The humourmayalsobe crude and offensive.
Othersketchesuse slapstickandphysical comedytocreate the gags.Thisisevidentinthe Mr Bean
seriesof shorts.Iwill mostlikelyuse amixture of bothspokenhumourandvisual andslapstick
comedy.
Overall,there are manytypesof humourandcomedythat can be usedand I thinkI will focuson
spokencomedy,usingprimarilywittyone linersandquickjokesaswell assome self-deprecating
humour.I mayalso use a level of slapstickandphysical comedy.