Script for Doc

Scene 1:
Interview begins with asking question: “How was your first time?” in reference to stand up comedy. Screen is black and it opens with commentary from one of the comedians that I will be interviewing. I have gotten a hold of four up coming comedians from the Athens area and plan on using maybe three twenty second clips of them talking about their first experience. It will be the lead in to the titles and focus of the stand-up documentary.

Scene 2:
History of Comedy: It is not certain exactly when the idea of Comedy was first created. Whether Comedy was something that started in the Stone Age, as Mel Brooks parodies in his “History of the World: Part 1,” or in advanced societies that first developed the idea of performance and the arts. However, the advent of Comedy is often attributed to Ancient Greece. The word “comedy” is associated with the komos, a ritualistic drunken procession performed by revelers in ancient Greece, whose participants were known as komasts. The procession would consist of high-spirited celebration of human sexuality where men would sing and dance in the image of a large phallus. Thus, it is not hard to see the association between comedy and the perverse. But not all comedy has to be perverse. When Aristotle defined comedy in “Poetics”, he defined comedy as a play with a happy ending. Comedy often contains elements of surprise, incongruity, conflict, repetitiveness, and the effect of opposite expectations to bring about laughter (Simpson, “Comedy and Tragedy”). These same elements are evident in the stand-up comedy that we see today. Use cut scenes of Greek and Roman “comedians,” and painted pottery of festivals.

Scene 3:
“What is funny? What makes something funny?” Gather opinions of people from all over campus. Gather opinions of amateur stand up comics. “Stand-up comedy in theory, or Abjection in America”: In this book, Limon theorizes that comedy grows out of the “abject.” That which is “abasement, groveling prostration” or another way to put it, anything “of those aspects of oneself that one cannot be rid of, that seem, but are not quite, alienable—for example, blood, urine, feces, nails, and the corpse.” Thus, what is often seen as inappropriate is made appealing. In David Greene’s analysis of The Big Five personality traits of professional comedians compared to amateur comedians, comedy writers, and college students, he compares professional comedians, amateur comedians, writers, and college students in order to determine the types of personalities that stand out in a stand-up comic. His results related the idea that stand-up comics use “humor to disparage others and create and enjoy hostile and aggressive humor, including at the expense of the presenter, in the form of self-deprecating humor, or the audience.” Think about the comedians you have seen before. Ask students opinion of this description. About thirty seconds of response.

Scene 4:
Question asked for my amateur comedians: “Who were you’re role models as comedians growing up and what has caused you to become a stand up comic.” I will use excerpts from each and possibly show five-second bits/punch-line of their favorite stand-up performances.

Scene 5:
History of Comedy Recent: Though stand-up comedy can be traced back to music halls in the 1800s, the advent of stand-up, as we know it today did not arrive until the 1970s. The 70s greatly changed the way that comedy was approached. It went from set-ups, hooks, and punch lines to fast confessional, social, and political commentary. Jerry Seinfeld is a notable comic who has had a great deal of success due to his observational style of humor. But the scene is still shifting. Stand-up comedy of today is often called “alternative” or “new wave” comedy although really it’s making its way into the mainstream. It consists of sketch comedy, improvisation, and monologue. Alternative comedy is considered to have sprung up in the mid-90s with people such as Sarah Silverman, and Patton Oswalt. This type of comedy, which made its way out of local laugh clubs and bars, has really changed the face of much of the comedy we recognize today. Patton Oswalt defined alternative comedy as, “comedy where the audience has no pre-set expectations about the crowd, and vice versa. In comedy clubs, there tends to be a certain vibe—alternative comedy explores different types of material” within this common ground.

Scene 6:
“How has comedy changed in your opinion? Where is it heading?" I will ask the amateur comics what they believe is most influential on comedy right now and to provide examples from recent movies or their own bits perhaps.

Scene 7:
Comedy takes the mundane and turns it into a surreal adventure that is hopefully relatable in order to cause laughter. Based on the responses I receive from my interviewees and what I discover for myself about the direction that comedy is going in, I will determine how the comedy scene is changing and what really makes people laugh. As of right now, I think that although there is a large focus on the abject and the crude. Comedy is something more artistic than just a fart joke. It explores those things in our lives that are strange to us and makes those things that are ordinary something just as strange. Stand-up is a way to vent and critique, and I believe it is headed in the direction of much more performance style.