So you want to write comedy?
Here's the problem: humor is subjective. What makes one person double over with laughter just elicits a groan from another. That's why writing comedy probably requires a little more self-confidence than writing other genres. At least you have to fake it long enough to finish the script and send it out.
How do you do it? Here's what writer Ian Southwood said about that in Screencraft magazine recently:
"I used to write what I thought other people would think is funny, always second-guessing my own sense of humor...But it never works. Never. Trying to write like someone else is like wearing a rented tuxedo. It doesn't fit. Not like it should. Now I just try to be honest, with the writing and with myself."
To the degree that there's a secret to comedy writing, that's it:
Keep it honest.
Honest to yourself and, equally importantly, honest to the characters.
Never have a character do something just because it's funny.
However crazy what they say or what they do may be, it should feel like something they would actually do.
If you want your character to beat a car with a tree branch (a famous scene from Fawlty Towers, starring John Cleese), create a character who is so full of pent-up frustration that this action is not only funny but believable.
The source of both the humor and the plausibility is the character's attitude to the world.
Take the leads of the Odd Couple as an example. Oscar is a lazy slob, Felix is a compulsive neurotic. Put them in the same situation and they would have totally different reactions--which could both be funny.
I served my comedy writing apprenticeship with TV writer Danny Simon and I've never forgotten his most important advice: "Never sacrifice a character for a laugh."
What he meant was if you have a character do something they wouldn't really do, you may get a laugh but you've destroyed their believability.
Huh, turns out honesty is the best policy, even in comedy writing.