Reflection

The initial concept for this my script ‘I love you, man’ was one of the first concepts we as a group discussed, which was the stark contrast between mens and women’s toilets and why that is. This specific concept came more broadly from the idea of toxic masculinity and how affectionate females can easily be to one another, and how it is the complete opposite for men. Writing about toxic masculinity captured my attention in weeks 5 and 6 when we as a class were told to think outside of the box more. This made me realise that women are not the only gender in this issue, that men are just as affected as women when it comes to feminism.

At first, the group and I did not love where this idea was headed when we began writing the script, as we found ourselves unintentionally stereotyping women as ‘hysterical’. This was mainly because we were aiming to exaggerate the difference between how women and men behave in social situations. Because of this dilemma, after the group and I realised our individual sketch ideas, I knew I had to really start from scratch. I remembered that in the earlier weeks, I felt a strong attachment to the idea of reversal in comedy as I thought that it was a very clever and unique way to make strong statements about reality. Therefore I thought of continuing with the bathroom theme, yet completely reversing the gender roles and in fact the patriarchal world of the script, which was a smarter decision. Mainly because there is a distinct message that comes across to the reader when all genders and the patriarchal world is flipped.

I sent the group my initial first rough draft and straight away everyone in the group was a lot more comfortable with where the sketch was headed as I began not making fun of any gender but simply flipping both genders, which evidently made the sketch more funny as the group became relaxed to read it. However this draft of the script was far too long. Due to the length of my then second draft, we as a group decided that we wanted the class’s feedback on 3 other sketches in the group the most. This was good as it gave me time to reflect, and think of how I could cut my script down in order to receive more constructive feedback from my group later. I knew I had to reduce the size of my script as I was faced with the issue of accidentally making my initial sketch turn into a TV show. The current and final draft I have now is much shorter and is more appropriate as a sketch.

My intended comedy works because I believe that I have used specific examples of techniques and devices learnt in class. Especially examples from Tim Fergusons book’ the Cheeky Monkey’ when he writes about the principles of comedy. I found these specific principles extremely useful and knew that if written well, these principles would come across hilarious in a sketch. Therefore I used “reversal…furthering or exaggeration of given elements” (Ferguson, 2010, p.9) and I “present nonsense scenarios…and apply faulty logic to known truisms.” (Ferguson, 2010, p.9) I have achieved these principles in my script, by reversing the stereotypical gender roles of the main characters, as well as the world around them. For example by having a female be the bar’s bouncer out the front, the Netball on the TV, and the bathroom reversal.

The scenarios within the script, do not seem too absurd as the locations are very generic, however it is how the characters behave which may seem abnormal to the reader, which is exactly my intention. This therefore has the reader question the truism of everyday reality, and the stereotypes we place on gender. Tim Ferguson in his book ‘the Cheeky Monkey’, also includes a list of gag devices. Although my script does not include obvious gags within the dialogue, I believe that I still use the gag devices ‘contrast’ and ‘simplicity’ as I do use stark juxtapositions between the mens and women’s bathrooms, as well as make clear and direct punchlines throughout the characters actions, for example when Emily and Sarah are applying their different sized lipsticks.

As well as Tim Ferguson’s novel ‘the Cheeky Monkey’, Joel Gwynne’s article ‘Might as Well Be Dead’ offers great insight into feminist comedy. Gwynne’s article explains how irony works in comedy and how it is seen as the “gap between the said and the unsaid.” (Gwynne, 2015) Gwynne also writes about post feminism as “cognizant of sexism and knowing with respect to sexual innuendo” (Gwynne, 2015). He further explains how irony and postfeminism are linked, as they both indicate “cultural uncertainty or difficulty pertaining to shifts in the construction of gender.” (Gwynne 2015) I therefore believe the ideas written in this article relate to what I am attempting to achieve in my script, and reinforces to me that I am taking a more modern, post feministic and ironic approach to my writing in comedy.

The main theme that I have included in my script which I hope is obvious to the reader, is toxic masculinity. I really wanted to write a feminist script that wasn’t just about women and only women. I believe that men are just as affected as women are when it comes to feminism. As feminism is just as much about liberating men as it is women, to have both genders be equal. Men have always had the constant pressure from society to be stereotypically masculine, just like women are raised to be lady like and constantly feminine. When in reality, both genders are extremely hybrid and society needs to be more accepting of this. For the reader, I wanted to touch on the fact that society assumes men are gay if they are affectionate to each other, which in my view, is very sad. Although my script is a comedy and is meant to be humorous, my intention is also to make the reader deeply question why seeing women act ‘manly’ and men behave ‘womanly’ is uncomfortable for the reader.

References:

Gwynne, J, 2015, ‘Might as Well Be Dead’, Domesticity, Irony and Feminist Politics in Contemporary Animation Comedy’, The international Journal of Television Studies, Reading

Ferguson, T, 2010, ‘the Cheeky Monkey’, Currency Press, Australia

Link to my draft and final draft of my script, I love you, man:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1IWP0mR_84M7ugEWrujynSjjXcbJN71Ng?usp=sharing

‘Girl at a Bar’

SNL

The Saturday Night Live sketch ‘Girl at a Bar’ is about a woman called Michelle who is meeting her friend Amy for drinks at a bar, yet Amy is running late, therefore Michelle decides to sit by herself at the bar to wait for Amy to arrive. As soon as Michelle sits down, she is  approached by four men with the intention of playing the ‘nice guy card’ long enough so that she will want to eventually sleep with them. At the beginning of each conversation, the men  start off as extremely kind and express how much they care about feminism which does make Michelle interested to talk to them. However, as soon as the men ask if Michelle if she would like to go home with them, or exchange phone numbers, Michelle politely declines, and the men automatically call her a bitch. This sketch is surprising and hilarious, it feeds into the ironic idea that men only support feminism to try and get women to sleep with them, which is definitely not the point feminists are trying to make. This sketch ends with Amy finally arriving at the bar and replacing the seat of the last man that tried to hit on Michelle, which then leads to the conversation between the women regarding how inappropriate these men are, with Michelle saying “thank you for saving me, I love you”, to Amy. The sketch then takes a surprising turn as to Michelle’s dismay, Amy really believes that Michelle loves her and responds with “touch my tit.”

The comedy works in this sketch because of a variety of reasons. The sketch uses many techniques and devices, specifically from Tim Ferguson’s book ‘the Cheeky Monkey’, as he writes about the universally known ‘Principles of Laughter’. One of the Principles of Laughter that are included in this ‘Girl at a Bar’ sketch is “comedy that deals with abrupt negation, reversal, equation, furthering or exaggeration of given elements”(Ferguson, 2010, p.4). Michelle in this sketch uses negation to decline and shut down all of the men’s advances. Reversal is used as the men in this skit talk about feminism to Michelle like feminist women would, even if the reason behind this is way off. The reaction from the men when Michelle shuts them all down is extremely over exaggerated, their raise of voice volume and abrupt choice of inappropriate words such as “bitch” and “you won’t even let me nut” is over the top. However elements of this exaggeration does highlight an element of truth. This relates to another technique used from Tim Fergusons ‘Gag Principles’, which is “assertions with a grain of truth”(Ferguson, 2010, chapter 1). Although the way these men in this sketch talk is absurd, it also reflects what men who do not support feminism act or think.

This sketch is ironic, as all feminist women want is to be equal to men and want all men to feel the same way also. Yet the men in this sketch do the opposite by appearing to support feminism, and respect women, yet completely objectify women when they don’t give them what they want. Further more, another technique Ferguson writes about is comedy “examines individual human behaviour, often to highlight common behaviour or broader social concerns.” (Ferguson, 2010, p.4) This is definitely evident in this sketch, as it portrays the common ‘sleazy’ behaviour from men out at bars who hit on women, and highlights the social concern regarding men who either privately or in a public way, objectify and degrade women for their social benefit.

There are numerous themes within this sketch, some that are more subtle than others. The obvious themes are feminism, objectification, modernity and gender roles. Feminism is heavily portrayed throughout the sketch as Michelle the leading lady, is wearing a ‘the future is female’ T-shirt, along with Dave, in his attempt to pick up women. Feminism is the only topic of conversation the men use to try and have Michelle be interested in them. The men objectify Michelle by calling her a bitch, doing the complete opposite of what men who support feminism should do. Michelle immediately gets called a bitch as soon as she declines their offer, which the men cannot appear to cope with. This feeds into the idea of modernity or modern life dating, as dating now-days often happens immediately through apps such as Tinder. This creates situations in which men can automatically find women by matching with them online which then leads to a date, and this is why it can be such a shock when men receive a ‘no’ to their advance.

The characters in this sketch are extremely over the top, especially the four men and Michelle’s friend Amy, with Michelle being portrayed as the “straight man.” Therefore comedy is used to express and emphasise the sketch’s intended message, that men use feminism as a topic of discussion and tactic to pick up women at the bar. In the Vorhaus reading, John Vorhaus (1994) writes that in a successful comedy, the main characters need a comic perspective, which for the men in this sketch, is to use feminism as a way to connect and draw women in, and that it should be their way or the Highway. Vorhaus also writes, the characters should have flaws, which in this sketch includes the four men being rude, conniving, sly and sleezy. Yet Vorhaus also states that characters should show elements of humanity, to “build a bridge between the character and the audience so that the audience can care.” (Vorhaus 1994, p.39) The men do this at the beginning of each of their encounters with Michelle, by acting very nice and passionate about women’s rights. Referring back to the idea of the “straight man”, Michelle brings out each of the men’s flaws by acting as the ‘normal one’ in the sketch. Her very realistic and rather calm response to the men calling her a bitch, highlights the men’s exaggeration and has them appearing even more absurd.

In the book ‘Just Kidding Using Humor Effectively’, written by Louis Franzini, exaplains the funniest types of comedies are unexpected comedies. In chapter 8 titled ‘How you can be even funnier’ Franzini explains that “classic joke structure”(Franzini 2012, p.123) is when the audience has been taken down one path of a story, thinking they know how the joke will end, only to be surprised, this term is called ‘misdirection.’ Misdirection is used in this sketch by the men’s surprising reaction to Michelle rejecting them, and Amy finishing the sketch by saying “touch my tit.” The unexpected, shocking and surprising definitely works well in comedy and is why this particular sketch is so successful.

References:

Ferguson, T, 2010, The Cheeky Monkey, The Principles of Comedy, Currency Press, Sydney

Franzini, L, 2012, Just Kidding Using Humor Effectively, How you can be even Funnier, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Maryland

Vorhaus, J, 1994, The Comic Toolbox, Comic Characters, Silman-James Press, Los Angeles