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Work In Progress #1 Espenson's Challenge 1
busyI decided I might make my latest work in progress a little more public because I've been accused of secreting it away Secret Squirrel style because I can't handle the criticism. That's so not true! Actually it is, but I'm not going to be posting whole chunks of script, just random bits and exercises. To bring you up to speed my new sitcom that I'm working on is about people who typically work at weddings, so we have a barman, photographer, videographer, two DJs, a nightmarish venue manager and an annoying table magician who all work in the same venue at various weddings. There's a B story which is probably the A story involving a will-they-won't they with the videographer and the barman, called Molly and Simon. Nico is the photographer and AJ is the DJ. Anyway, Gossi directed me to Jane Espenson's blog which I have been devouring and which has led to my most productive writing period in a while. I also like the new format of MS Word which is making the whole formatting thing much easier. Anyhow, here's the first post about 'Other People's Weddings', coming to a screen near you, erm, one day.
Jane's Challenge - Write a joke similar to the ‘Bait and Switch’ line in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog.
In case you haven't seen it, this is a brief precis of the joke.......
DR HORRIBLE
Did you have a date last night? Conflict Diamond told me you were doubling with Bait and Switch!
MOIST
Yeah, it was alright. I kind of thought I was supposed to end up with Bait....
Did you have a date last night? Conflict Diamond told me you were doubling with Bait and Switch!
MOIST
Yeah, it was alright. I kind of thought I was supposed to end up with Bait....
I must admit I didn’t get this joke properly the first few times. I heard it, and I thought it was funny but for other reasons ; for some reason I jumped to the conclusion that either Bait or Switch was a guy, and this was why Moist was so perturbed about the fact he was set up with him. I don’t know where this came from but it took me another couple of viewings before I actually got the joke, and now obviously, it’s much funnier! I can be so incredibly dense sometimes, but it goes to show that even the best jokes can go over peoples’ heads, even people who read TV scripts every day and analyse them like they’re dinosaur DNA. Jane tells us to go and look at the joke and figure out why it’s funny, before writing a similar one. So, why is it funny?
My first instinct is this – it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you’re going on a date with Bait and Switch you should have seen this coming. It’s funnier because our dater Moist is portrayed as kind of a reluctant romeo, a bit of a geek who seems to react to this failed date as just one of many.
A similar joke was used on the Simpsons – Marge was supposed to be renting the movie Waiting To Exhale :
LISA
Did you rent Waiting To Exhale?
MARGE
Well, they put me on the Waiting To Exhale waiting list, but they said don’t hold your breath.
It boils down to a play on words, which can be easy enough to pull off if the set-up is right. The Bait and Switch joke wouldn’t have worked outside of a world where there are super heroes and villains with comic book names. In my show, there are no super heroes (unless you count heroic consumption of alcohol) and no villains (unless you count the rebound fiancé) so I’m going to have to come up with something more suited to real life.
So first, to find an idiom or similar that I can use as a pun to set up my joke. I struggled for ten minutes before I typed ‘idioms’ into Google.
OK, a rubbish first attempt which really flags up the idiom and would probably go over everyone’s heads.
NICO
Alright AJ? You look knackered mate.
AJ
Yep, I was burning the midnight oil.
NICO
Mmm. I always preferred Men At Work.
Lame as hell but at least it’s on the page. This got me thinking about the word ‘burn’ as a verb, as in burning a CD. I liked the idea of Nico or Simon taking the piss out of AJ but on reflection I think I might have Molly doing it and unwittingly endearing herself to Simon.
MOLLY
Hey, AJ, can you burn me some music on CD mate?
AJ
Anything for you sweetheart, what are you after?
MOLLY
Burn me some Midnight Oil.
AJ
Yep
MOLLY
Erm, burn Bridge Over Troubled Water
AJ
Will do.
MOLLY
And, I’m getting into Pink Floyd. Have you got Money to burn?
AJ
Er, yeah I think I’ve got that somewhere.
MOLLY
Cheers mate, you’re a legend.
AJ
Anytime sugar.
She winks at Simon as she leaves, having hoodwinked his nemesis, and the last bit of Simon’s heart goes with her.
Not entirely happy with the 'burn Bridge Over Troubled Water', I don't think it works so well but I felt like I needed three in there. I don't know if I'd use this in a final draft but it's a great exercise for writing a joke to order.