TARGET Flashcards
Viewpoint - it’s the audience, stupid…
The choice of target is up to the comic but the viewpoint or perspective must always reaffirm audience prejudices and hostilities - comedy is subjective - it’s fair only in the sense of what the audience subjectively considers to be fair
(their version of fair)
CWS - 3/41
THREES - what / why - humor
The “what” is target.
The “why” is hostility, realism, exaggeration, emotion, surprise
Superiority + Surprise
if superiority and surprise are the 2 primary generators of laughter - they should be the primary considerations relative to framing a target
Narrow Target = Surprise
Broad targets do not lend themselves to humor - must be more specific - narrow the general target to specific premise - improves odds of generating surprise - CWS 3/42
Target - lots of options
Judy Carter says something you are emotional about - anger or passion - always frame it relative to audience prejudices and hostilities - here are some target options - yourself - sexual ambiguity (insecurity) - celebrities - politicians - places - products - ideas - addictions - daily frustrations - technology
Target - more options
We all have hostility toward some person, thing or idea unless we are a saint - happy is not funny - authority - sex - family - angst - technology - group differences - arrogance - men worry about sex - women worry about money - business practices (raising prices) - angst (fairy tales are not true) - CWS 3/49-54
Logical Facts - realistic as possible
Facts should be logical, clear, predictable - time and locale should be familiar - hostility that fits audience (prejudices and hostility) and commensurate to irritation - realism - CWS 3/57 - also Howard (John Cleese)
Role of Emotion - build tension and anxiety
Blowing up the balloon with tension and anxiety - until it bursts with laughter - emotion is often hostility toward the target (anger, frustration, irritation)
Empathy, not sympathy
Love it - Howard - you don’t have to
agree with prejudices and hostilities of audience but you have to feel it and understand it - cool phrase - empathy, not sympathy
TEE test = solid target (premise)
T = truth
E = emotion
E = explicit
your target is defined in the setup - it has to be true to be relatable by the audience and to enable exaggeration - emotion has to be stated or implied - often anger or hostility at stupidity or absurdity of reality (premise) - clarity is key to explicitness -
it must be readily understandable
Unresolved Issues - often make good targets - TM experience - Starts with general sense of interest, emotion and confusion - emotional enough to be of interest but unresolved enough to need exploration to achieve some form of clarity - pet peeves without being pet peeves - maybe Seinfeld territory
My Issues - things that stick like mud - buried bones - ulcer - wife’s career -
poverty - birds and bees - first alcohol - first pot - sociology - dad (influence) - travel (moving around) - life insurance sales - clothes horse - naive ambition - living in a dream - said anything that I wanted (dad’s idea) - work (jobs) - fun times working - first fight - heartbreak - optimism - mom (embarrassment) - service station house - leaving home - first love (too young) - hitch-hiking - European trip - exercise friend - making money (first $100,000) - parenting - brain games - DNA - true love - wife’s parents - crazy college behavior (destructive) - motorcycle - art museums - Beatles - drunkenness - sobriety - management - MBA - stealing money from mom - sisters - marital conflict - therapy - anxiety - fired - golf (weird swing) - jokester - general idiocy - making it up along the way - never ending ambition - stuck with myself (overwhelming) - swim (young) - swim (old) - envy - movie hero’s - philosophy - bridge - comedy - run - gardening - first house - second house - Nick - mean enough - social status - starting my business - fights about career - faith in myself - birds and bees as father - spanking my son - humiliation by son - disloyalty of daughter (divorce him) - success of children - separate bedrooms - respect - pleasant - television - yoga - writing inside bureau - sanity inside - arrested for pot - court case - Mike - encounter group - cruel mocker - using people - live us my light - one person person - desire for casual socializing - death of my brother - reading great books - encyclopedias -
Guitar lessons (sitting with kids) -
Mantras (oh my god) - meditation - confessional openness with strangers - strange form of therapy -
POV - point of view - after reading my issues
There is a life force that propels us forward - something resembling unquenchable optimism - perhaps a dream force - an imagining not based on reality - the hell with reality - I will not be denied - fighting spirit - home is more than home - symbol of everything I have worked for - it is my life story wrapped up in a metaphor - my dream story wrapped up in a metaphor - fuck you attitude - self preservation - liberation day - I’m going to be me - I’m pretty fucking cool - follow me, I’m the pied piper - sometimes you have to sit yourself down and have a conversation with yourself - private stuff - stuff you can’t talk to anyone else about - knowing what you want and not letting idiots distract you from it - smart people are just as dumb as dumb people - just at a different level - some smart people are lazy - self satisfied - I’m really competitive - not necessarily talented - but definitely competitive - learning to be nice - I’m self critical - in all fairness I should become more critical of others - I can keep it quiet just like I keep my self criticism quiet - dragging me down - depressing me - motivating me to do things to prove myself - maybe self criticism is a friend
