Writing the Comedy Blockbuster. Keith Giglio

to prove they can be as raunchy as boys.

      Or, chances are, it’s something that hasn’t been written yet. At least not until you finish this book.

      THE SCREENING ROOM

       Night at the Museum

       Bruce Almighty

       The Break-Up

       The Proposal

       Due Date

YES, BUT WHAT KIND OF COMEDY?

      You’re at a party. You tell someone you’re writing a comedy. Great, that’s all you need to tell them. But you need to be a little more specific in your writing.

      Comedy is really how you see the world. Woody Allen made an interesting film in 2004 entitled Melinda and Melinda. Here’s the premise: A group of writers hear the same story and one decides it’s a drama, the other sees it as a comedy.

      You see everything as a comedy.

      Hollywood has, too. It has taken every genre and turned it on its head. As you begin thinking about your comedy blockbuster, think about what subgenre it might exist in. Here’s a few to get you started:

      THE SUBGENRES OF COMEDY

      FARCE

      Farce is defined as a light, humorous play in which the plot depends upon a skillfully exploited situation rather than upon the development of character. So we’re not talking anything deep. Farce is weaker on character development. It is superficial — but it can be very funny.

      Some classic farce movies include Woody Allen’s Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask). This film of the early seventies, featuring a giant rampaging boob, was actually based on a nonfiction sexual reference book written by Dr. David Reuben.

      Mel Brooks is a filmmaker who specialized in farce. From skewering Westerns in Blazing Saddles (and breaking down the fourth wall) to having Frankenstein dance — in one of the most famous scenes in film history in the classic Young Frankenstein.

      The Scary Movie franchise was a farce loosely based on the Scream movie franchise. Airplane!, the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker Brothers classic, was a farce based on a movie called Zero Hour.

      YOU ALSO GOTTA SEE: Duck Soup, Blazing Saddles, Hot Shots!

      SEX COMEDY

      Sex sells. Sex comedies became more in vogue and more popular with the emergence of the rating code. But sex comedies are not just about naked foreplay. They always are, as comedies are, reflective of the time and the environment around them.

      One of the first sex comedies was the 1969 Paul Mazursky film, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, in which close friends decide to go to Vegas to have an orgy. Judd Apatow and Steve Carell’s The 40-Year-Old Virgin is a must-see sex comedy. The character was born on the improv stage.

      Please note: Both these movies have very mature endings. The protagonists realize there is more to life than the pursuit of sex and find this funny little thing called love in the end. Both movies end in song. Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice ends with “What the World Needs Now” (is love sweet love). The 40-Year-Old Virgin ends with Andy (Carell) singing “The Age of Aquarius.”

      YOU ALSO GOTTA SEE: 10, The Sure Thing, Superbad

      TEEN COMEDY

      Teen comedies have been a mainstay of comedy since Mickey and Judy wanted to put on a show, or Frankie and Annette hung out in Beach Blanket Bingo. A recent addition is American Pie, which follows the adventures of three teens determined to lose their virginity. Even more recently, Superbad follows the adventures of teens with the same goal.

      But it’s not always about sex. Regardless of what parents believe their teens are thinking about — it’s not always about sex. They are dealing with real issues — identity, expectations, the social hierarchy in high school. And no one was ever better at talking to a generation than the late, great John Hughes. In 1985, he made The Breakfast Club, a film about five teens from very different cliques — stoner, jock, brain, princess, and social misfit — who are sentenced to detention on a Saturday and learn (as we do) that there is much more going on than we realize.

      YOU ALSO GOTTA SEE: Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The Girl Next Door

      ROMANTIC COMEDY

      Romantic comedies (or Rom-Coms) have been the heart and soul of comedy blockbusters. They are the perfect date night movie. A couple goes to see a movie about a couple falling in love — along the way they bicker, argue, break-up, and (most of the time) get back together.

      Annie Hall with Woody Allen and Diane Keaton is a romantic comedy where the couples do not wind up together. Almost thirty years later, The Break-Up explored similar thematic territory with Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston.

      From It Happened One Night and Roman Holiday to The Proposal, men and woman have long been going at it on the screen so they can go at it in the bedroom. Each has a clear point of view that grates on the other, but they are still attracted to each other.

      Pretty Woman was one of the break-out comedies of the 1990s. It made Julia Roberts into a star. It was your typical rich-man-hires-hooker-and-falls-in-love movie. Sure doesn’t sound like comedic material. Originally it wasn’t. The script by J. F. Lawton was entitled 3,000. It was dark and gritty and ended with the rich man tossing the hooker back onto the street. Legend has it that studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg decided it could be a comedy. He was right.

      Traditionally, romantic comedies were told from the woman’s point of view. That has changed in the Age of Apatow (Judd, that is) as we see in movies like Knocked Up.

      YOU ALSO GOTTA SEE: When Harry Met Sally, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Four Weddings and a Funeral

      ACTION COMEDY

      Lights. Action. Comedy! Guns. Explosions. Spies. Things that go boom can blow up in laughter. James Cameron of Avatar and Terminator did all these things for laughs in True Lies, a remake of the French action comedy La Totale.

      Midnight Run was about an accountant and bounty hunter on the run from the mob.

      Mr. and Mrs. Smith with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie took the battle of the sexes to new heights as the married assassins tried to kill each other. Talk about thematic!

      YOU ALSO GOTTA SEE: Tropic Thunder, Beverly Hills Cop, Smoky and the Bandit

      SPORTS COMEDY

      Guys love sports. Guys love comedy. It’s a total peanut butterand-chocolate moment. Perfect together ever since Harold Lloyd ran for a touchdown in The Freshman.

      Do you have a Bad News Bears in you? If you want realism in sports comedies, take a look at the movies of Ron Shelton. Shelton actually played minor league baseball. It sure shows in Bull Durham, although his comedic realism was also on display in Tin Cup and White Men Can’t Jump.

      Paul Newman’s foray into comedy — and you just thought he would be remembered for serious fare and salad dressing — was the classic hockey comedy Slapshot.

      Caddyshack is a classic comedy about golf! Dodgeball is a comedy about dodgeball! The Mighty Ducks is the Bad News Bears on ice!

      What sport do you love? Did you play field hockey, rugby, lacrosse, Ultimate Frisbee? Is there a movie there?

      YOU ALSO GOTTA SEE: Major League, Kingpin, The Longest Yard

      BOY’S CLUB

      Comedies will sometimes center around a group of guys and the trouble they get themselves into. Boy’s club movies give us a view into the psyche of the male mind. Boys will be boys. They will drink. Avoid commitment. Fight.