Dispatch From The Quest: Christian Fontenot
Over the course of the 24 weeks I am working with the writers in The Quest, each will write a weekly dispatch to share with the GITS community. There are several reasons for doing this, the main one educational: Hopefully you will learn something of value for your own understanding of the craft from the experiences of the Questers. I should also add they are a great group of people, so I expect you will enjoy getting to know them.
Today: Christian Fontenot talks about humor:
“There’s nothing funny about dead kittens.” — Bobby Giffordtonstein
Make me laugh. I was five years old when my older brother challenged me to watch a whole 10-minute episode of the “3 Stooges” without laughing. I did it, not even a smile, I was a bad ass even at 5, but this kind of screwed me up for the rest of my life. Something has to be ape shit, crazy funny for me to audibly “LOL” (no mom that’s not “lots of love” — Google it).
There are only a few movies that I can remember laughing all the way through. Actually, right now the only two that come to mind are “Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back” and “Happy Gilmore”. “Jay and Silent Bob” was definitely because I had a few beers in me, and “Happy Gilmore” was on an airplane flight from Sweden to Chicago (On that note, why are movies better on airplanes? Is it the lack of oxygen or could it be early warning signs for that horrible leg disease described in the back of the airline’s magazines?) (My wife says that its called pulmonary embolism, and it can kill, and there’s nothing funny about serious medical conditions, which is extremely ironic since that’s the main plot point of my Quest comedy.) MAN. I DIGRESS. Where the hell was I?) So… Back on topic… Both of these movies were less funny on second viewing on cable TV while sober and from the comforts my worn out recliner (No, I don’t really own a recliner — do you think I’m like 70? (I probably wasn’t sober either, I don’t remember — I was drunk)).
As Scott says “Watch Movies. Read Scripts. Write Pages.” At this part of my Quest, I’ve been doing the first 2 obsessively. I’ve probably watched close to 20 movies (Amazon Prime — no money was paid for this endorsement. However, Amazon feel free to contact me about where to send my check). I have also read 30 screenplays over the last 3 weeks. Watching movies received the usually smiles and smirks, and a couple even got a chuckle-grunt in the 3rd Act payoff (“Say my name bitch”). As far as reading scripts, there was only one that captured me from page 1 — a Halloween episode of “Parks and Recreations”. There were several uncharacteristic “LOL” moments — my daughter even peeked in my office to ask what’s funny.
So what is funny? Funny “causes laughter or amusement; humorous” (I Google’d it. Google call me). Should I be laughing more? Is my soul really a dark, dead, humorless black hole where good jokes go to die? Psychoanalyzing myself (my favorite hobby, second only to making beer can animals for my kids) I bonded with the “Parks and Recreations” script because of the characters. Having watched a few episodes, I knew the characters and could better identify the absurdity in the scenes. Looking back, at that time of my life, I could identify with “Happy Gilmore” which made it funnier then than now.
This week’s Quest topic is “Plot is Character”. Through our assignments, I explored all the potential character combinations for my Quest project. I’m still struggling with who will make the funnier, more interesting protagonist, and is it funnier, more interesting that he is a she or vice versa. “Funny is Character”. I’m looking very forward to “writing pages” that create characters readers will identify and will also make me laugh.
KEY STATS: Way too many parentheticals (even a parenthetical within a parenthetical). There are some serious violations of the 6-word challenge. In fact, I challenge you to find one sentence that is 6-words.
NEXT WEEK: Not sure, but have you heard the joke about the kitten who ran with scissors?
I write comedy. I’ve done stand-up comedy. Three of the five Questers’ projects this year are comedies. So a big topic of discussion thus far and ongoing for these writers is this: What is the tone of the humor?
Humor is so subjective. And there is such a wide range of comedies as you can see here on this Wikipedia page.
Figuring out the comedic tone, hitting it just right, and being consistent throughout the script is critical.
Christian is wise to be reading scripts and watching movies just now to immerse himself in the world of comedy. Is his story more like this movie or that in terms of humor and tone? Comparison is one of the best ways to zero in on it.
One thing seems likely: I doubt seriously Christian’s movie will have kittens running with scissors. But humans, on the other hand…
About Christian: From Louisiana, now in Seattle. Turns off street lights with his mind. Regrets not learning the tuba — TUBAS ROCK! Storyteller. @cmfontenot.
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