fandomhigh | Birth of Television Comedy, Monday, Period One

"Today, we'll be talking about sketch comedy," Mitchell began. "Another brand of TV humor that's been around since time immemorial." He raised his eyebrows in amusement. "Perhaps the most famous of sketch comedy shows was ~~meta for~~ Monty Python. It aired in the late 1960s, early 1970s, and explored the boundaries of absurdism. Since, it's practically been implanted into many minds across the globe. 'And now for something completely different', anyone?" He rubbed at his hands. "Made up of a couple of friends straight out of Cambridge-- it's still hard to avoid John Cleese these days. Another big part of it was their completely random animation. The ensemble changed the field of comedy, especially on TV, for good."

"Sketch comedy is fairly simple. You've got a sketch - that's a short scene - and you sprinkle it with comedy. The genre hails from music hall and vaudeville, types of entertainment where they had to string a lot of tiny things together to form a program to entertain the unwashed masses. It found its way to radio, from which all things found their way to television. Sometimes, sketches happen once, then tail off into the next. Other times, you'll find a situation and characters from a sketch reused across the programme, or even the entire series. The main thing is that there's no long storyline to string them all together."

"Out in the States, you've got shows like Saturday Night Live who use sketch comedy to lampoon the news," he continued, "It doesn't all have to be absurd. A lot of it comes from improvisation, too - just a few people farting about in a room."

He grinned at the class. "Today is easy," he said, "We'll be watching some ~~meta for~~ Monty Python sketches, and then I'll be pairing you all off to make your own. You all get one word to work around, too. I'll be expecting to see these next week."

He jotted names on the whiteboard.

Bod - Delirium - Grass seeds
Robin - Chloe - Living legend
Kate - Layla - Epic showdown

"Now get to watching."

[[ ~~wait for the~~ ocd up! ]]

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Find your partner and get to it!

Epic showdown?

Well, this seemed like something Kate and Layla could do. The former thought so, anyway, as she waited for the girl who knew stuff to join her.

"Epic showdown," Layla commented as she plopped down next to Kate. "Any ideas?"

"Not sure yet," Kate admitted. "How epic do we want to aim for?"

"Whatever gets me a passing grade," Layla deadpanned. "Or is that just cynical?"

Kate snorted, glancing over at Mitchell. "I'm not sure I'd even have to do this assignment at all to get a passing grade."

"All right, then," Layla replied with a shrug. "So we can at least try to be funny. When I think of epic showdown, I usually think of the old west. Give you any ideas?"

Kate thought for a moment, before offering, "Epically absurd gunfight?"

"So instead of guns... the gunfighters make noises?" Layla asked grasping at straws.

Jamie was more of the funnyman.

Yeah, Kate's brother would've probably been better at this, too.

"The more ridiculous the noise, the more effective the hit?"

"Sounds good enough to pass," Layla said with a nod. "Should we write something or just wing it?"

"It's Mitchell, and a workshop," Kate pointed out. "We can totally just wing it."

"Works for me! I'll bring a black hat and you can wear white?"

Grass seeds was an odd sort of thing to build a sketch around but he looked thoughtful enough while he waited for his partner.

"Hmmm, grass."

Sorry Bod.

"I don't know what to do with the prompt either," Bod admitted, taking her statement as thoughtfulness. "I'm not the best at anything resembling sketch comedy."

"Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeell...." Destruction would have known, or at least have some horrible idea of sorts about what to do. "I'm not the best at anything resembling...anything, so it's a pretty balanced team." That didn't help them though.

"Oh, oh! A sketch with a gardener and a wife checking how he puts the grass seeds...or something?"

"That might work." Really, it was the blind leading the blind here. "Can you think of anything comical about that? Perhaps the grass seeds grow...unusually?"

"Or, um, ummmmmmmmm, the gardener is very funny. Like the man that walked funny, but he does his jobs in funny ways? And the grass grow...and sings?" Well, she could make that happen.

Bod...didn't quite follow. "I'm not sure I'm following you, at least on the gardener doing his job in funny ways."

Well, damn. Del raised her hands, trying to find a way to explain herself, but she was at a loss of words there. Or hand gestures, whatever. "..." Why couldn't she put the words on her mouth? Pesky words. "Maybe I can drive everyone crazy instead?" It was her idea of a plan B.

Well, that was an idea. Bod couldn't help a quiet laugh. "With grass seeds?"

Delirium raised a hand...and she was holding a grass seed. "Well, yeah." And the seed opened, and grass started to come and come, falling at the sides, making a little mess on Del's feet. "It's what I do, after all."

"That's quite impressive," Bod had to say, eyes widening. "I don't know if it will suffice for sketch comedy but it's really impressive."

Del let the seed fall...but there was no seed. Or grass. Nothing at all. Just an hallucination. "Funny, most of people don't like to have their sanity poked; it makes them feel the world they return could be just a lie after the lie." And then she went thoughtful.

Maybe the gardener has a funny accent? And the wife can't understand what he says, and he does the wrong thing to do?"

Re: Team Up and Discuss Your Sketch

therewaslife - 2010-05-24 21:09 (UTC) - Expand

mania-endless.livejournal.com - 2010-05-24 21:19 (UTC) - Expand