Major Project Research - Dark comedy in the television and film industry (Is my film a Dark comedy?)

'Black comedy, also known as black humour or dark comedy, is a sub-genre of comedy and satire where topics and events that are usually treated seriously are treated in a satirical manner while still being portrayed as the negative events that they are. Typical targets are death, (mass) murder, suicide, blackmail, (domestic) violence, disease, insanity, handicaps, environmental disasters, famine, fear, child pornography/abuse, drug abuse, rape, castration, war, terrorism, racism, sexism, homophobia, bestiality and line-cutting.' (tvtropes.org, 2017)



My major project is a comedy and tackling comedy can be hard to do if you don't get the jokes and timing right. The industry today is tackling one of the biggest problems which is, what is even considered funny? Sit Coms such as the Big Bang Theory which is at this point in time on their tenth season introduced the audiences to geek and red culture with colourful different characters. However some people are discovering a system to how the comedy is executed. From some sit comes a certain amount of dialogue is used between characters before a punchline is then triggered and then set off to get the audience to laugh.



Whats sad is that even though some professional comedies are filmed in studios, some of these productions don't have a live studios audience even though you might hear them. These audience responses are pre recorded and then edited in to the final piece of footage ready to air on certain channels which will receive them.



If I wanted to make a comedy I would have to make every second count and put in as many funny aspects to the production design and dialogue as possible.


While the first comics from the circus, burlesque, vaudeville or pantomime, the first film studio that emerged to exploit the comedy genre was the Keystone Company. Formed in 1912, the studio quickly became the leading producer of slapstick and comic characters on the silver screen. Comedy began in film as silent shorts. The action appeared frantic and frenzied, created by the use of slow camera speed that accelerated in the projector.  (Duncan, 2008: 138)


This soon developed into silent comedy where some of the most use of slapstick occurred along with quirky piano or band playing music in the background as there was no voice or evolved sound technology in the early filming days. A classic example is of the American Comedy duo of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. These dynamic twosome of comedy have become iconic to the early days of classic slapstick comedy.









However some aspects of comedy has evolved into many sub genres, one such as dark comedy as I had pitched to my tutor and class as my major project. What exactly is dark comedy and it's conventions?
From tvtropes.org Dark or Black Comedy revolves around:

• Murder or mass murder
• Death (Suicide) 
• Blackmail
• Violence
• Disease 
• Environmental Disasters 
• Insanity
• Handicaps
• Porn
• Drugs

I took a look back at my film and saw only a few of these things -

Death -

The Jehovah's Witness religion is based upon it, the day you die is more important than the day you were brought into the world. Hence why they do not celebrate any birthdays of any kind, even their own.

Violence -

My characters do physical comedy and especially at the end when my main character has to punch the land lord in the face for the final scene.

Environmental Disasters -

The main location is an untidy student residence, the environment is messy and smelly. Although this may be taken as an over exaggeration and not considered an absolute disaster, the environment that the characters live in is definitely not perfect.

Insanity -

There is a moment when my main character decides to let go of everything and tell everyone that he is a witness and trying to make everyone come to their senses and think about each and every sin they may have committed.  He is tired and this is his last shot of redemption from his family and other fellow witnesses. Instead of calming himself, he shouts, yells and is angry because he just doesn't want to do this sort of thing anymore.

Pornography -

Although it is not %100 porn, there are however sex references involving blow up sex dolls.

However the more I looked into the slapstick elements the more I dabbled in the inspiration I had for this project in the first place the BBC 2 comedy series 'The Young Ones'.

One of the writers was none other than Ben Elton who along side Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer together wrote the series, one episode particularly was in fact the pilot episode 'Demolition'. While writing the script I tried to use aspects of comedic flare from the writing team how ever I discovered a realm of comedy Incompletely forgot, satirical comedy. 

With this in mind I found a documentary programme involving Ben Elton himself presenting the journey of the comedy of the 1980s. At one point he visits an old friend in a pub to discuss the writing process of the pilot episode of 'The Young Ones'.  As it turns out, I learned that in comedy a majority of comedy television series, there are multiple writers that not only help reach each deadline but also help make it funnier with collaborations and input that help bring out the best in a comedy script.

I found the script writing process the hardest due to my language disorder and I often tend to go off track with typing that I forget where I am.

(Documentary film - Ben Elton - Laughing at The 8os)

This type of comedy has a system I didn't realise I was following. While researching the comedy genre I came across a online Prezi Presentation about the conventions of satirical comedy by Alex Coady.

Satirical Comedy   

Comedic sound Over exaggerated Over exaggerated moment to mocking atmosphere.   

Heightened moment (ridiculed my the audience/ acting the full)  The runnning joke The running joke revovles around main character take decussion or moment of into another direction.  

• With this, the running joke is the fact that Henry is trying to get rid of his Magazine but is constantly moving from one place to another with no success.

Implicit message  The message has to be a current issue that current society is experiencing. 

• The message is about being yourself and being accepted for it. Some of the youth today find it hard to adapt to certain group as they just want to fit in even though they do not typically like the majority of things that are considered popular today.

Close ups Mid Shots and Exstabling shots Close ups and mid shots:

Short rage revils more oportunities to analise the highted facial expressions of characters and how they are mocked.  

Typically used with establishing shots so that the audience are made aware of the character's surrounding environment.

Realising I had been following this type of comedic system I came to the conclusion that in some ways my film was entirely a dark comedy at all, rather a Satirical comedy. Slapstick humour, the camera shots used, and style of jokes and messages, it all lead to the same thing I was putting together.

Bibliography:

Duncan, S (2008) Genre Scriptwriting How To Write Popular Screenplays That Sell. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group INC.


Web Links:

Coady, A (2015) Conventions of Satirical Comedy. [online] At: https://prezi.com/pqdltq-yq3ww/conventions-of-satirical-comedy/ (Accessed 03/03/2017)

RikMayallFanpage. (2012). Ben Elton - Laughing At The 80s - Rik Interview 1. [Online Video]. 6 October 2012. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUHOmSZwLZE&t=282s. [Accessed: 14 April 2017].

tvtropes.org (2017) [Online] at: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlackComedy (Accessed on 21/04/2017)


Appendix 1:  Script writing prompt 

Henry’s experience, who is influencing…does the dialogue conform to unique delinquent character traits Religious accuracy – (Jehovah Witness)

Running gags e.g. 

• Teddy bear-Robert 
• Watchtower-Henry 
• Rejection at front doors-Henry 

Timings?

• Keep the pace fast 

Sounds…?   

• Exaggerated  

Narrative 

• Realistic for age and character 
• Sarcasm/dark humour  

CAN I SEE IT IN MY HEAD AND ON THE SCREEN? IS IT FUNNY?