Before starting with the topic at hand, I want to address the elephant in the room. Comedy writers, to quote Rodney Dangerfield, get no respect. If you’re not trying to channel Jane Austin, H.P. Lovecraft, or Hemingway and aiming for Larry David, then it’s commonly assumed you are not a real writer.
Ginger Rogers was a famous dancer and movie star of the 30s and 40s. Ginger and Fred Astaire were a fantastic duo onscreen and danced up a storm.
A cartoonist named Bob Thaves made this observation about Rogers and Astaire:
Sure he was great, but don’t forget that Ginger Rogers did everything he did, …backwards and in high heels
Ladies and gentlemen, comedy writers are the Ginger Rogers of literature. We have to do everything with laughs. Comedy writers need to understand story structure and character development, just like those not funny authors. for example, a good romantic-comedy script needs to have all story beats of a romance while making you laugh.
The obvious pushback to this point is that everyone is somewhat funny. A family barbecue shows this fact to be true. Uncle Joe tells that awesome joke he got from watching Two Broke Girls. Of course, it doesn’t make him professionally funny. Professionally funny people are the…
