Are You Sure This Is Funny?

And how Disney lost $122 million

Given my profession as a comedy writer, people often ask me if I sit on the sofa watching TV and nitpicking. No, I don’t do that.

At least, that is what I used to say. But, now I do nit-pick quite a lot. In fact, last week I did it in public on this Substack in expressing frustration with Ted Lasso. This is rare. I try not to criticise any comedy online. Why not?

It is partly cowardice. I don’t want to bad-mouth the work of colleagues and lose out. But it’s also because my experience tells me how hard it is to get comedy right, and so many things are beyond the control of the writer – and it is the writer that I don’t want to needless annoy. I get it. It’s hard. I’m with you.

But why am I nit-picking more and more? Are my tastes changing? Or are sitcoms getting worse and worse?

I’ve been writing comedy for twenty years. For most of that time, I’ve been watching comedy, sitting on the sofa having a very nice time. I didn’t need to find fault with plot, characters or jokes. There weren’t many faults to find with shows like Seinfeld, Friends, Frasier, The Larry Sanders Show, 30 Rock, My Name is Earl and Arrested Development.

I just enjoyed these shows uncritically. In fact, I was allowing these shows to critique me and my work being such well-crafted examples of the sitcom genre.

What’s Changed?

My own situation is a little different now. I’ve spent a lot more time in the last five years analysing sitcom writing, the mechanics of story most recently in particular. I’ve recorded 180+ episodes of a podcast about writing sitcom scripts, called Sitcom Geeks, run digital courses and webinars, and mentored for the BBC Writers’ Room. I really enjoy doing these things, so perhaps I’ve become even more of a purist in this sitcom genre.

Comedy is all about timing. (It isn’t actually. It’s about… well, I explain it in The Sacred Art of Joking). But my deep dive into the mechanics of sitcom, story and structure has coincided with a time when traditional sitcoms like Seinfeld or Frasier are much thinner on the ground. A lot of new comedy is breaking the established genre and bending the rules, so my critiques don’t necessarily apply.

The Golden Age

The TV industry hails this era as a golden age for scripted television. There are literally hundreds of scripted shows on network TV, cable channels and streaming services. But most of the really good stuff isn’t half-hour situation comedy. It’s drama, some of which is funny. But they’re not sitcoms. The rules are different. And maybe that’s the problem. What are the rules for comedy drama? With a series element? Or a drama with comic elements? Nobody knows.

I should already know that nobody knows, because of a mantra of my industry that has stood the test of time. It was written by William Goldman in his book, Adventures in the Screen Trade back in 1983.

Nobody knows anything...... Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what's going to work. Every time out it's a guess and, if you're lucky, an educated one.

Goldman’s point is not that we all know nothing. It’s that no-one knows anything for sure, about what will work and what won’t.

If movie studios knew anything for sure, they would only make hits. That studio didn’t mean to make a flop. Ten years ago, Disney spent $263 million on John Carter because they thought it would be good. But they could not have known for sure one way or the other. It did not go well. The movie lost $122 million.

Disney didn’t know. William Goldman didn’t know. If anyone knew anything, it would be Goldman. His CV is astonishing, having written novels like The Princess Bride and Marathon Man, for which he also wrote the screenplay, along with the screenplays of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President’s Men, Stepford Wives and A Bridge too Far. And if he didn’t know, who does?

How Being a Christian Can Have An Advantage or Two

Our problem is that many of us are over-confident in our own skills or powers of prediction. I don’t. But I do have two advantages. More actually, but let’s stick with two.

The first is that I’m a Christian. Therefore, I know that my identity is not in my latest artistic endeavour but in Jesus Christ. He loves me unconditionally, even if my sitcom script sucks which, statistically, it probably does.

My second advantage is that the Lord has caused me to specialise in studio sitcom. Most comedies now are ‘single camera’ and filmed on location. You cannot beat how a studio audience focusses the mind. The audience is going to be there in person. 300+ people. It’s being recorded on five large cameras¹. It’s going to be on TV. We don’t have the budget to reshoot this, in the UK at least. They really had better laugh. So that script we’re going to be shooting tomorrow… are you sure it’s funny? Take another look.

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Speaking of live audiences, you can find out for yourself if my new ‘stand-up theology’ show, Water into Wine, is actually funny. Be part of the audience in Cambridge on Saturday 29th January. Book your ticket, come along and say ‘hi’. (More dates coming in March-May)

If you want to know more about how comedy works, how Jesus was funny and why you can still tell Englishman, Irishman and Scotsman jokes, why not buy The Sacred Art of Joking? (And a copy of The Gospel According to a Sitcom Writer while you’re there). This is how that book begins.

People giving speeches at dull conferences love to start off with a joke. We like greetings cards with funny pictures and captions. We engage in practical jokes, hoaxes and April Fools’ Day antics. We think comedy is really important and yet it can so easily go horribly, embarrassingly, toxically, career-endingly wrong, especially in the realm of religion.

And that, dear reader, is why you are holding this book in your hands. That is why I have written it. Also, as a Christian and a BBC comedy writer, I keep getting asked about comedy and religion so I thought I might as well write a book and get paid for it.

I jest, because people like jokes. But the reality is this book exists because we need to think seriously about issues surrounding comedy, religion and offence in a measured, informed and good-humoured way. And if we learn those lessons, maybe we can break the cycle of misconstrued jokes, media outrage, hysterical punditry, reactionary comment and grovelling apologies.

But I doubt it.

1. The cameras operated by Steve, Mike, Dave, Jerry and Graham. This is what studio camera men are called regardless of the show.