2.  Comedy a Difficult Art

A writer in one of the photoplay journals, advising writers who are struggling to succeed, concludes by admonishing them either to avoid stories which because of prohibited themes are likely to make them unpopular with editors, or else to “try comedies.”

It may be that this writer is one of those who have never tried to write comedy scripts, or possibly he is one of the favored few who have a special talent for humor.  Whichever may be the case, notwithstanding this well-meant advice, the truth is that the thoroughly effective comedy script is the hardest of all to produce, and this is proved by the fact that, no matter how many manufacturers announce that they “will not be able to use any more Western, slum life, or war stories for some time to come,” they never declare that they are “over-stocked with good comedy scripts.”  There is always a market for a fine, clean comedy.

3.  Comedy Requires a “Full” Treatment

But superior comedy scripts, we insist, are hard to write.  One of the less obvious reasons is that there are generally about twice as many scenes in a comedy script as in any kind of dramatic story.  This does not mean, of course, that the comedy script is hard to write merely because it takes longer to write it.  The labor expended on its mechanical preparation is trivial compared to the brain-work necessary to the building of a story which, while having almost double the usual number of scenes, must still display lively action, logical sequence, and convincing (which in the case of comedy means probable) situations from beginning to end.

Especially in comedy must each scene tell; hence there can be no excuse for “writing in” a number of scenes which have no dramatic value whatever, for that is palpable padding.  True, you may have seen many comedy subjects in which one or two fairly good ideas were stretched out until you could almost picture the director kneeling in front of the camera, stop-watch in hand and megaphone at lips, wearily pleading:  “Ginger up!  Work fast!  It will soon be over.”  Unfortunately, there have been many such “funny” plays, and there will be more, for the right kind of comedy is not to be had for the asking.  The number of scenes in a comedy photoplay arises from the necessity that the action be brisk, scene follow scene rapidly, and the whole be played from a full third to a half faster than is the case in a dramatic subject.

To say that comedy requires a fuller script-treatment than is needed for a dramatic subject does not mean that in writing comedy scripts you should write in line after line of action that would only be useful to give the director a few details which he could very well think of himself.  No matter what part of the script you are writing, be constantly on the alert to avoid including non-essential details.  Take pains, of course, to show the director just what bit of by-play it is that is responsible for a certain situation that will “get a laugh,” but do not be verbose, and do not go into tiresome details.  “It is a very easy matter, for a writer fired with enthusiasm, to overwrite.”