Bring the Funny

Table of contents

1. Cover
2. Title
3. Copyright
4. Contents
5. Acknowledgments
6. Act 1: You vs. Yourself
   1. 1 The Funny
      1. What Is the Funny? (An age-old question. Try my age-old answer.)
      2. Do I Have the Funny? (I hope so.)
      3. No, You Can’t Order It Online (It’s like the Force. Look within.)
      4. Pop Quiz!
   2. 2 Everything Matters
      1. Prepare Yourself (Sit down at your computer, roll up your sleeves, and get ready not to write.)
      2. Follow Your Heroes (The all-stars of comedy screenwriting)
      3. Mind Your Mentors (Well, me, for one)
      4. Live the Page (How to walk, talk, and blow your nose like a comedy screenwriter.)
      5. Pop Quiz!
   3. 3 Get On Your Horse
      1. What Is a Screenplay? (You think you know.)
      2. A.I.C. (Pardon my French!)
      3. Writing Hat
      4. Editing Hat
      5. Ass Hat (Again, my French!)
      6. The Long Haul of the Feature Screenwriter (Pack a lunch.)
      7. Season to Taste
      8. Pop Quiz!
7. Act 2: You vs. The Page
   1. 4 Funny Peeps
      1. What Is Character? (The undefinable element you must define)
      2. The Inside-Out Method (Starting with character)
      3. The Outside-In Method (Ending with character)
      4. Relatability (“Hey, that idiot onscreen is me!”)
      5. Your Character Stable (Where live the confidante, the antagonist, the mentor …)
      6. Pop Quiz!
   2. 5 The Big Idea
      1. Act Two Is All (Everything else is small.)
      2. High Concept (This stuff comes from God. Or cocaine. Or both.)
      3. Low Concept (AKA “execution dependent”)
      4. Comic Justice (Healing the world one script at a time)
      5. Genre-Bending (Where X meets Y)
      6. Fish Outta Water (and f lopping on the deck)
      7. The Idea Factory (Build it and they will come.)
      8. The Two-Hander
      9. The Ensemble
      10. Pop Quiz!
   3. 6 The String of Pearls
      1. The Basic Drama Rules (Ignore them at your peril.)
      2. The Conceit (You get one big gulp at the beginning.)
      3. Comedic Escalation (A BDR that’s so important it needs its own section)
      4. Farce (It’s everywhere. Just gotta see it.)
      5. Plotting
      6. Late Point of Attack
      7. The Juggling Act
      8. Gapping (What not to write)
      9. Really Important Comedy Screenwriting Rule #99
      10. Really Important Comedy Screenwriting Rule #100
      11. Pop Quiz!
   4. 7 The Pearls Themselves
      1. What’s in a Scene? (Again, you think you know.)
      2. Master Scenes (“Supper’s ready!”)
      3. Dialogue
      4. The Standard
      5. The Four Most Important Scenes
      6. Subtext (Much discussed, much misunderstood)
      7. Set Pieces (Leave them in flames.)
      8. Pop Quiz!
8. Act 3: You vs. The World
   1. 8 The Biz
      1. The Comedy-Industrial Complex (What’s being made now)
      2. Pitching (Who needs it, who doesn’t, how to do it, why not to)
      3. Agents (In Latin they are known as Tenpercenticus Exploiticus.)
      4. Managers (Agents who want to be producers)
      5. Producers (What do they actually do?)
      6. Everybody Else (There is anybody else?)
      7. Pop Quiz!
   2. 9 The Life
      1. Sacrifice (You wanna be famous? Get out a knife and lay your son on a rock.)
      2. Collaboration (And you became a writer to get away from people!)
      3. Other Screenwriters (Yes, they exist.)
      4. DePaul’s Ethical Code of Conduct for Comedy Screenwriters
      5. Pop Quiz!
   3. 10 The List (of Successful Live Action Comedy Movies: 2000–2016)
   4. 11 Movie Diagrams
9. About Greg DePaul
10. Index