The Comic Toolbox: How to be Funny Even if You're Not by John Vorhaus

Author:John Vorhaus [Vorhaus, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
Tags: humor, comic, writing, funny, construction, comedy, mechanics, execution
Publisher: Silman-James Press
Published: 2014-12-14T22:00:00+00:00

THE HERO RISKS ALL

With no certain hope of success, the hero in a comic story hurls himself into the abyss. He abandons his entire investment in his original goals, sacrifices everything for the sake of his displaced loyalty. The key here is that the hero does the right thing even if he doesn’t know whether it will pay off.

With no certain hope of success, Billy Crystal throws himself into that raging river to save that drowning calf. He doesn’t know if he’ll succeed. He doesn’t even know if he’ll survive. All he knows is that things can’t go on the way they are, and that, in this moment, he’d rather lose his life than fail to take the shot. Notice that it’s just this sort of moment—one instant of genuine, authentic life experience—that he’s been seeking all along.

With no certain hope of success, Michael Dorsey rips off his wig on national television and reveals Dorothy Michaels to be a man. In this instant, he doesn’t know whether he’ll win Julie’s heart or not. All he knows is that he can’t bear to live the lie another instant. He has to come clean.

So often in a comic story, the hero risks all by coming clean, telling the truth, confessing to the lie that’s carried him through the story so far. Tom Hanks does it in Big when he admits that he’s not an adult. Dorothy does it in The Wizard of Oz when she clicks her heels and says, “There’s no place like home.” She’s admitting that she was wrong in wanting to leave home. Now all she wants is to have her home back. It takes a major leap of faith to risk everything on a pair of magic slippers, but that’s what Dorothy does.

Luke Skywalker uses the Force. He doesn’t know if the Force will work, he just knows that nothing else possibly can. He yields himself up to a higher power.

Mary Richards stands at her moment of truth, poised between Ted and Lou, loyal to both, and loyal to herself. Pushed to the end of the line, she finally shouts, “If you guys can’t grow up and behave yourselves, I don’t want to be friends with either one of you!” With no certain hope of success, she throws herself into the abyss. Is this a “strategy?” Does she hope that going ballistic will cause Ted and Lou to see the light? No. She just knows that she can’t live this lie (approval of their feud) a single minute more.

She has to come clean. The fact is, she doesn’t respect either of them any more, and she can no longer keep that secret.

Joan Wilder has her back to the wall, a knife at her throat. She calls to Jack, but Jack doesn’t come. What will she do? If she waits for Jack, she’ll die. When she can’t wait a minute more, she abandons her lie—that she’s a weak woman who needs a man to save her—and saves her own life.

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