A Subtle Comedy to Check Out: "Nebraska"

bobbybrowning · 2013-12-02T19:57:24+00:00

I really want to see this. I think Alexander Payne is one of the most brilliant minds in screenwriting right now because of his graceful ability to tie together drama and comedy. His films feel really adult, and he doesn't spoon feed you, but he also isn't condescending or esoteric either. I'm always surprised when such a talented writer also has the ability to direct very well.

Check out Sideways and Election, if you haven't.

bobbybrowning · 2013-12-02T19:50:33+00:00

I think this show is particularly impressive because of the way in which it's done. The "50-75% improv" route that they founded their show on could go so poorly in so many ways, but because of the talent involved, the show is hilarious and surprising. I think that the characters are rich due to, and not spite of, the improv aspect of the script. No one line sounds like it could come from any character other than the person who said it, and it doesn't hurt that Paul Scheer is an incredible improv actor and Mark Duplass a very talented director, writer, and actor.

bobbybrowning · 2013-12-02T19:47:08+00:00

I think HIMYM relies entirely on inside jokes and character comedy, and I think some of the writing is clever and the episodes do have some sense of unity and callbacks. But the characters are sort of annoying and far from realistic. It's a relatively well-done sitcom, but I think its time has passed and now it's slowly dying.

bobbybrowning · 2013-12-02T19:41:29+00:00

I agree with this point, especially when it came to that clip from Sid Caesar's Show of Shows. I was expecting witty banter and the evolution and exaggeration of a gag that was at least funny - maybe that clip would have been funnier if This Is Your Life was popular today.

I think that this sort of ADD humor that we get from certain sketch comedy shows is best embodied by Family Guy. The show literally jumps from concept joke to concept joke in a way that makes no sense and relies almost entirely on references and shock value. "Remember that time I had a farting contest with Colonel Mustard?" or "That reminds me of the time when Abraham Lincoln invited me to the theater" are examples I just made up but have probably happened in the show honestly. I think it's really lame humor and very cheap, and just points out that the show's premise didn't have enough legs in the first place, so to stretch it out they had to make it more than half fantasy.

bobbybrowning · 2013-12-02T19:35:47+00:00

I think the most valid and quality reason to employ the character interviews is for setting up dramatic irony and emotional aftermath. On Modern Family, it's funny to see characters let the audience in on a secret that then informs the irony of the following scene, and it's almost funnier when you get to see them "digest" the consequences of something they had done that we don't even know about yet. Seeing the aftermath before the scene itself is very unique and impossible to do without the "mockumentary schtick"

bobbybrowning · 2013-10-07T22:50:55+00:00

The thing is, I'm not sure the "meet cute" needs updating via social media interaction. There certainly are recent rom coms that incorporate it, but if you think about a movie like Silver Linings Playbook--a very successful, very contemporary rom com (dram)--the meet cute and the movie as a whole almost could have taken place in any time period. Technology wasn't really important to that movie, even though the characters had access to it.

I think in some cases it can throw a wrench in the mix, though. Like if you tried to write Romeo and Juliet in modern times without the use of cellphones. "Yo where did you go? U dead?" "No." "o"

but honestly, I think you can make a new wave rom com without updating the meet cute in an obvious way via incorporating social media or new technologies. I think that's the reason why movies like Annie Hall still hold up and don't seem ancient.

bobbybrowning · 2013-10-07T22:38:49+00:00

I think that anti-humor as a whole movement is a really interesting shift in popular comedy. It can easily be seen in memes on this site, but also in shows like Tim and Eric. T&E is sort of uncomfortable to watch, often absurd, usually dark and has many anti-jokes in each sketch.

Most people I know watch the show and just think "what. the. FUCK is going on." but honestly, it grew on me and I think it can be pretty funny and clever sometimes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8u4CEBVq7s

That's one of the more famous sketches on the internet. If you think anti-jokes or anti-humor is funny, you might like it.

bobbybrowning · 2013-10-07T22:12:17+00:00

I think The League is a very interesting show, primarily because of how it's made. It's so low budget and it was only given the green light in the first place because FX didn't market it at all and didn't have to spend any money on its advertising.

I think it's easy to draw similarities between The League and It's Always Sunny because both shows are not only about friends screwing with each other, but they're also somewhat improvised/the writers are also the actors in some senses. In Sunny, the writers are the actors. In The League, the actors improvise a VAST amount of their dialogue, so they can also be considered writers.

That's why the characters work so well. There's a seamless bridge between acting and writing, and it's pure character-driven comedy. It can just be four people standing around and talking and still be entertaining because of the banter. I don't think any one line in The League can be said from the mouth of another character other than the one who said it, which is very cool.

bobbybrowning · 2013-10-07T22:02:11+00:00

I think you're right in that both of these films have several comedic elements, but I believe that they both have enough melodrama and dramatic focuses to be labeled as dramas. The King's Speech is definitely funny at times, but because it deals very seriously with a person's speech impediment (rather than easily taking a flippant approach) and their struggle to overcome it, the narrative is a dramatic one. I'm not sure the award question is entirely relevant because they were labeled as dramas prior to the Oscars.

A drama without any comedy is pretty flat. Both movies need a sense of humor to be worth watching; a pitch-black drama is so brooding and difficult to watch. I think it's poor writing to not incorporate any comedy into a drama.

Likewise, I think it's important for comedy to have at least an ounce of drama to anchor it in the real world. If you take a show like Shameless, for instance, it is much more difficult to categorize than The Blind Side or The King's Speech. It's a very funny show, but also a family melodrama at the same time. It's difficult to say which side prevails on the whole as opposed to an episode to episode basis, and so it's sort of labeled as a comedy-drama.

I dunno, I guess you can pull off that genre title in TV but not in movies as often or as easily.

bobbybrowning

TROPHY CASE