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In comedy writing there are scenes or sketches that read and play funny and those that don't read funny, but play funny. That's because of the actor performing in the material.
Sometimes lines on a page that get not even a smile will get huge laughs if the right actor is saying them. On Saturday Night Live a humdrum sketch has killed because Will Ferrell was saying the lines. The right inflection. A grimace. A look. Whatever. Something other than the line or lines made the audience laugh.
When you're relying strictly on your script to get a laugh you have to be sure that the lines you write are indeed funny. Down the road, if you're lucky enough to get a deal and get your script into production, you'll have actors who will make your funny lines even better and you're so-so lines shine.
But at the writing stage: making the script funny is all on you. |
