Ricky Gervais revealed some interesting thoughts about the nature of comedy in an interview with Associated Press writer James T. Chairman, reprinted on the Huffington Post site. On his comedy heroes:
“My comedy heroes are Laurel and Hardy. They nailed it a hundred years ago, it doesn't get any better. It's about the relationship and it's about empathy. And it's about those two characters, the blind leading the blind. One wants to do well, he's got pretensions, he's a gent. And the other, he's blissfully happy in his stupidity, but he's not the one that ends up in the fish pond.”
I share that admiration. One thing I really regret is that I didn’t know that Stan Laurel was still alive and living in LA, pretty much forgotten by the world, when I first went down there to work. How great it would have been to talk to him! Anyway, one more observation from Ricky G on how usually the joke is on the supposedly smart one:
“Groucho, he can do all the one-liners, but he's the one that's getting conned. Woody Allen, he's an intellectual, but he's not getting what he really wants. That's what's funny about these characters and that's why character elevates above everything else. It elevates above lines, story, everything.”
Of course as writers we are also hostage to casting, which is a big part of the equation. Ricky points out:
“If you've got a character, particularly on TV, you can watch him doing nothing if you like him. If you haven't got a great character, you could be delivering the greatest lines in the world, but who cares? There are stand-ups that just aren't likable. They can have the best lines in the world, but you go, (yawn) 'Yeah. Brilliant. Don't like you though.'”
(There are lots of tips about how to write your project, from idea through to implementation, in my book, Your Writing Coach, published by Nicholas Brealey--find out more at www.yourwritingcoach.com)