Callbacks explained
This week’s Daily Dialogue theme is callbacks. A few readers have asked me to explain exactly what a callback is. My definition goes back to the time I made a living doing stand-up comedy. In that context, a callback is when a comic recalls a joke / punch line they used previously in their set. When used, it reminds the audience of the previous reference, and allows the comic to get more laughs from a single joke. You can also use the callback at the end to bring the routine full circle and give the set a sense of closure.
Here is an example I found on YouTube:
In the comic’s set, he has a riff about seeing a newspaper advertisement for a vasectomy. The funny part is the ad offered a coupon. His point: A coupon for a vasectomy just doesn’t seem right, not like using a coupon to buy Fruit Loops. He continues on about the old woman in a shoe story, how she had 12 kids and didn’t know what to do. The comic offers his jokes on how she could possibly remedy her proclivity for having childen, then an audience member says, “Use the coupon” [01:50 of the clip]. The comic immediately recognizes that it’s a good line. That is an example of a callback, albeit a spontaneous one.
A writer can use callbacks not only to elicit laughs, such as “Parlay” in The Pirates of the Caribbean, but also romance, drama, anything else. Look at some of the other examples we’ve had this week:
“Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”
The Princess Bride
That is a great way to zero in on Montoya’s goal. And after he has a sword thrust into his side, appearing to be about to die, he says the line over and over in order to inspire him to rise up against Count Rugen.
“I don’t know. It’s a mystery.”
Shakespeare in Love
When used by Henslowe, it’s funny. But when uttered by Viola in her very last moments with Will before she heads off to America with Lord Wessex, it transforms into something both sad and beautiful.
Another thing callbacks can do is mark a character’s metamorphosis. They can utter a line at the beginning, when they are in one psychological state, then again much later, the meaning of the callback changed to reflect the change in the character. A good example of that is in the movie Casablanca. The first use of the line “Here’s looking at you, kid” comes during the extended flashback of Rick and Ilsa falling in love in Paris:
INT. RICK’S PARIS APARTMENT — DAY
Ilsa fixes flowers at the window while Rick opens champagne.
She walks over and joins him.
RICK
Who are you really? And what were
you before? What did you do and what
did you think? Huh?
ILSA
We said “no questions.”
RICK
Here’s looking at you, kid.
It’s kind of a throwaway line by Rick, offered spontaneously and casually. The same as this callback later in the flashback:
Sam looks at his glass.
SAM
This sort of takes the sting out of
being occupied, doesn’t it, Mr.
Richard?
RICK
You said it!
(to Ilsa)
Here’s looking at you, kid.
However the line is used twice more, first in this scene in Casablanca where Ilsa has confessed to Rick that she still loves him:
Ilsa puts her head on Rick’s shoulder.
ILSA
I can’t fight it anymore. I ran away
from you once. I can’t do it again.
Oh, I don’t know what’s right any
longer. You’ll have to think for
both of us, for all of us.
RICK
All right, I will. Here’s looking at
you, kid.
Here one layer of subtext is, “I’ll take care of things, don’t you worry.” The line is called back at the very end of the movie, capping Rick’s explanation why Ilsa must take the letters of transit and leave with Laszlo:
ILSA
You’re saying this only to make me
go.
RICK
I’m saying it because it’s true.
Inside of us we both know you belong
with Victor. You’re part of his work,
the thing that keeps him going. If
that plane leaves the ground and
you’re not with him, you’ll regret
it.
ILSA
No.
RICK
Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow,
but soon, and for the rest of your
life.
ILSA
But what about us?
RICK
We’ll always have Paris. We didn’t
have, we’d lost it, until you came
to Casablanca. We got it back last
night.
ILSA
And I said I would never leave you.
RICK
And you never will. But I’ve got a
job to do, too. Where I’m going you
can’t follow. What I’ve got to do
you can’t be any part of. Ilsa, I’m
no good at being noble, but it doesn’t
take much to see that the problems
of three little people don’t amount
to a hill of beans in this crazy
world. Someday you’ll understand
that. Now, now…
Ilsa’s eyes well up with tears. Rick puts his hand to her
chin and raises her face to meet his own.
RICK
Here’s looking at you, kid.
Here the line takes on added poignancy as it recalls both their personal history (Paris) and Rick’s implication in the previous use of the line that he will take care of things. He has done that, basically telling Ilsa this is the only thing we can do, it’s the right thing to do. And in this moment, he tops off his his transformation arc from cynic to reclaiming his idealism.
There’s one last thing about callbacks: When I read a script where the writer uses them, I know that writer has a certain level of sophistication and understanding of the craft. Callbacks can be a subtle art, and when used adroitly adding texture and meaning to a story.
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