How To Make Any Idea Funny - John Vorhaus

BUY THE BOOK - THE COMIC TOOLBOX: How to be Funny Even if You're Not

In this Film Courage video interview, author/speaker/artist/screenwriter John Vorhaus explains the concept of a comic filter as a character's unique perspective on reality. A strong comic character possesses a consistent and exaggerated comic filter, which forms the basis of their comedic premise. By contrasting characters with opposing comic filters, such as a cop who follows the rules and a crook who breaks them, conflict and comedic situations arise.

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[CamRebires]

I like this guy, you can just tell he's excited about it. My biggest takeaway from this video was how much you can learn about a character - or person - just from looking at their view on the world (as opposed to thinking about their past or character traits immediately)

[angusorvid]

This guy has a terrific understanding of how comedy works.

[Rye]

The cop watches the pirated DVD's but then he wants to make sure everyone who was part of it gets their residuals. As it turns out, the main star of the movie just so happens to be in town so the cop tries to meet them to give them the money. For which he will need the law breaker's help, to get into a venue, break into a house etc. (where he is blind to just HOW MANY laws he ends up breaking in the process, which of course is all 'justified'). In the end he gets arrested for stalking, trespassing, attempted robbery...

Maybe also a scene in which he tries to figure out how to give someone 0.05 pennies (their residuals) 😂

Honestly love Vorhaus, I've read every single one of his books, so worth it. Thank you both for taking the time to conduct these interviews!

[PPrexor-qkvq]

Nice work solving that story on the spot. This was very instructive.

[raywest]

I love his breakdown of Kramer: He's a total doofus but he sees himself as sharp and cool.

[jonathanrivlin]

One still has to do the rest of the work of building out a life, but adding these layers to your character can provide a useful means of generating humor.

[Oncearanger]

I don’t write movies. I write plays. And my biggest problem with writing is I sometimes try to force the joke to happen. My husband has read some of of my plays and he has told me numerous times “ the situation itself makes it a comedy. You’re trying to force a joke.”

[McLir]

I read his book. It's really good.

[GingerPeacenik]

“Good Omens”. An Angel and Demon who have known each other for 6, 000 years (old married couple vibes) team up to stop Armageddon. The Angel wants to follow every rule, even if the rule leads to, well, what is broadly thought of as “evil” by most of us (drowning kids in The Great Flood, for instance). The demon is hardwired to break rules. He does “good” when he was put on earth to do evil as part of “The Great Plan”. Rebellion is in his blood and much as obedience is in that of the Angel, and he’s found that he can simply take credit for humanity’s barbarity towards one another, and that satisfies his bosses. This frees him up to find various legal loopholes in the mandates he’s been given.

So there’s contraction and opposition in both characters, x2. Which is certainly humorous, and sometimes even thought provoking.

[geoffhoutman]

Thanks John! Excellent to see you on the utubes. Let’s do margaritas next time I’m in town

[GingerWaters]

“I’m not clumsy, my nerve system is just differently prioritized.”

[PoetryInHats]

Selection, exaggeration, and stylization: the three components of artistic imitation. Choose a mockable original for your imitation, and that's comedy.

[YavuzBavuz]

I felt like the info in this video really opened up my perspective about how to flesh out characters. Thank you for the wisdom!

[ShinkaTV]

3:50 the video ISN'T complete. Now he desperately wants to know how it ends

[davidchung]

10:35 the word he is looking for is "suave."

[jkelly]

Have you all published this full interview??? He is so great

[Tikkibombom]

The beginning example of law and disorder sounds like Nick and Judy from Zootopia

[dutch_asocialite]

So essentially, a comic filter is how a character perceives the world while the controlling idea is the reality of the world or an aspect of it? Like a an introverted otaku who prefers to stay inside because whenever they go outside (as the plot would invariably require) he winds up miscommunicating resulting in awkward, embarrassing and humiliating scenarios.

Just trying to compress the ideas so I can more readily apply them to my work.

[nickybjammin]

Hope I didn’t sound mean last time.
He’s not a bad guy.
❤💯 I love comedy too Brotha!

[jacac]

I'm writing a play now. It's a tragedy, actually, but I wanted to add some dark humour. This is SO helpfull!