There can be a science to joke writing, there are certainly rules and patterns that can be followed, but I think most of the best comedy goes beyond the rules.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I really like comedy. There's always a choice, when you're writing: you can either go for the joke or you can go for the story, the important stuff.
Comedy, at least the way I write comedy, is just drama with jokes.
I think the first rule of comedy is that it has to be funny and I find a lot of the broad comedy which is sent to me, painfully unfunny.
It seems that two of the most basic forms of comedy are jokes and stories. And, of course, they are not mutually exclusive.
There is a universality to comedy.
I know this is going to sound very self-serving, and I apologize for it, but if you can write comedy, you can pretty much write anything, because it's the hardest. It's the most technically demanding, the most precisely evaluated form of writing. People know if it works or not. There's a big button marked 'fail,' and that's when nobody laughs.
Comedy is one of the toughest genres. It is so essential to get the timing right, failing which the humour can fall flat.
I think the best comedy is tragicomic. Yeah, I suppose if you were to look at everything I've done, there is a bit of a black streak through all of it. It's not deliberate: it's what makes me laugh, and there's a fine tradition of it, especially in Ireland.
All of my comedian friends are some of the best joke writers in the world.
I think comedy tells a lot; you can tell what people think by what they laugh at.
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