I don't know what to do, right now my script is crying out for some funny dialog but I can't deliver!

Right now it's looking like a bad version of Airplane! with all of its dialog stripped away. I can't even carry on with the plot because of this =/

If you post a short description of some of your characters plus some of your script where you need some laughs, then I might be able to help you out. ^.^ That, or someone else might be able to. LOL

I'm having a similar problem, but whenever it gets a little too boring and serious, I try to add in something random for laughs. =P I get laughs out of childish jokes, because those things are funny to me. LOL

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xD! I can't describe my characters because I didn't have time to plan any plot or characters. I've no mental image of them but I suppose Leslie Nielsen would do fine.

And to be honest, I've no idea where exactly I need funny dialog. My script is just filled with sight gags and not a lot of dialog really.

I'm trying to aim for Airplane! type comedy but alas.. the original writers are simply too good.

AIRPLANE! is a spoof of disaster movies, esp AIRPORT, and it's funny b/c the story and characters are familiar to the audience...and then twisted to be ludicrous ;-)

Is your story a spoof of a familiar movie-genre? or some setting or situation readily-recognizable to the audience? [workplace, school, family vacation, etc.]

Dialog isn't jokes, remember (well, unless your story is about a stand-up comedian) -- it's usually funny b/c the characters are taking everything very seriously.

It sounds like you have a lot of sight-gags waiting for a story -- that's fine, you have to start somewhere, and there's no reason not to start with a situation, a gimmick, even a line of dialogue. But eventually you have to create a story, i.e. Plot + Characters. Then the dialogue will follow.

So, what do your sight-gags involve? any common theme, location, purpose?

What kind of characters would be the most funny in those circumstances? (again, they're probably taking the situation very seriously, it's *real* to them) -- Often it's contrast, i.e. the nun in the mosh pit or the tat-covered biker dude working in a stuff office....Contrasts provide natural conflict, and conflict is key to drama [including comedy].

Conflict doesn't necessarily mean, battling the arch-villain who is going to take over the world [unless it's a spoof of James Bondian type movies, altho that's been done, so, maybe don't...]
It just means, the Protagonist wants something (tangible, visual) and people, situations, everything seems to be blocking his progress toward that objective.

I think my story's going to be a typical action movie spoof. You know, hero having a rubbish life, some outrageously actiony thing happens that only he can sort out, hero appears, overcomes fear and saves the day =P

As for the sight gags, I'm going out on a whim and sticking them everywhere. Looking through all the scenes so far, there's not one without a sight gag. The gags aren't contrasting ones though, for now. Is that good or bad?

Great advice there by the way, I can see light at the end of the tunnel now =D

Q~ Dmac (sorry if I misspelled it- short attention span, plus I'm blonde and over 35) has great advice. Most spoofs are funny because they take the well known and make it, well, funny. My play (slightly off genre from yours) is a spoof on fairy tales. Like many spoofs, it has been done before. However, my dialogue gives it comic releif by having my characters speak classic lines in different ways. For example, the three pigs declare- in outrage- "By the hair of our chinny chin chins..." and Hansel, tired of following his sister utters the classic "Are we there yet?"

Typically what makes most comedy funny is a)sublety or b) a twist on the familiar. Hope this helps.
~Lex

The key to being funny, is being funny at random times,when you can think of it. Never try to force it, it's hard.

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I'd like to see you do whatever it is that I'm about to do. ooo.

Timing is everything . . . and sometimes it's just the way you say it!

Rita B
Act One Sat WP '08

"Dialog isn't jokes, remember (well, unless your story is about a stand-up comedian) -- it's usually funny b/c the characters are taking everything very seriously."

Mine is about a stand-up comedian, and it's still not funny. Although, it's kind of the point that he isn't funny. The only problem is that none of the rest of it is funny either. I've decided I'll just write it and add the funny later. Or turn it into a drama script.

Hahaha. I'm cheating just a little itty bitty bit. I'm writing TWO scripts. one is an adaptation of a book, and the other one is an adaptation of an improv game me and my buddies played. so some of the funny lines are not TECHNICALLY mine.

Oh, and btw. When you're aiming for setting the mood of a certain scene, it helps to listen to music with the level of intensity for the scene. If that makes sense.

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I'd like to see you do whatever it is that I'm about to do. ooo.