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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Who might be humming Always Look On The Bright Side, yeah.

"You know what I just realized? I got through the entire spring term without turning into a cat. Or anything else, actually."

It probably wasn't something that should be said out loud, but... Well, Kate did anyway.

"I wouldn't cheer yet," Mitchell said, laconically, draped as he was over his seat. "I've yet to see you turn into a functional teen, either."

"Yeah well, that's never going to happen," Kate replied, undeterred. "When it comes to that, I'll only ever turn into a just barely functional adult."

"Scraping the bottom of the functionality barrel?"

Mitchell smirked. A little. "You're in a better mood."

He didn't have to spend as much time fearing violence.

"I guess functionality just isn't in my genes." Sure, she was all smirky about it now, but give it a few months.

She shrugged. "Last week was better than the one before it."

"It would have had to be," Mitchell agreed. "You don't whip out the epic flounce for just any old rubbish." The sarcasm was strong with this one. Or was that sardonic?

"Shut up, I don't flounce." Yes she did. "And you didn't even get the worst of it." Yes he had. "Anyway, there was no trauma, and I had my room all to myself, and no one turned into an animal during cabin move-in. It was good."

And accordingly, Mitchell gave her a look that clearly telegraphed you know you're full of shit, right, Kate? "So there was trauma before, then."

Kate made a face at that look, then shrugged and said, idly, "Just some old stuff that came up again."

"Uh-huh," Mitchell said, ignoring the face.

Mostly.

And that got him a raised eyebrow. "What?"

"Just wondering if you're going to tell me or play the avoidance game."

"Why should I tell you?" Kate asked, and raised both her brows now. "It's old news."

"You yelled and stormed out of my classroom last week," he pointed out. "If I was even remotely pretending to be a teacher..."

"Yeah well you're not."

It was surprisingly easy to slip from cheer to that trademark near-expressionless thing of hers.

"I just had a bad time in First Aid. Or after it. Whatever."

"What happened in First Aid?" he prodded, lightly.

"Major catastrophy simulation in the Danger Shop," she said, her face still a stubborn mask. "We were in the gym. Lots of cots."

And lots of blood.

That whole 'explosions outside, complete uncertainty inside' part of the scenario, on the other hand, hadn't had much of an effect on her.

"Wait, he simulated an emergency hospital setting?" Dubious Mitchell was... dubious. "No wonder you were put out." Was it really that hard, Kate?

Yes. Yes it was. "Hmph. Guess so." See?

"You guess so." Look, that dubiousness wasn't going anywhere ~~unlike the mun and her no good day~~.

She shrugged. "It was just a simulation."

... Yeah, and that wasn't the problem. The problem were the memories of real-life situations it had dragged up.

"Which once again brings us back to the flouncing."

"What exactly is it that you'd like me to say, Mitchell?"

That was one sarcastic curious headtilt she was doing there.

"Oh," he said, "I think you know what I'd like you to say and you're simply being--" Ineffectual hand gestures, "...you about it."

Re: Talk to Mitchell

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