TEX AVERY THEMES: GENIUS DEFINED

Best known as the creator of Bugs Bunny, Tex Avery was a writer/director of many classic cartoons. Here are some approaches he used to create laughs:

1. The physicality of a character is the direct expression of his emotional state. For example, huge eyes for surprise or multiple heads popping with bulging eyes out for curiosity.

2. Avery ‘substance’ forms the characters’ bodies and the characters are hollow physically. This substance will bend, stretch, burn, shrink, crack, etc. and regenerate. Call it ‘cartoon stuff’ the stuff dreams are made of.

3. Explosions effect on characters:
a) Blackened face, hair straight back
b) Object obstructing character from the explosion leaves a hole in
character the size and shape of that object;
c) Leaves only outline of face

4. Catch phrase, “I’ve been sick” pops up in many cartoons.

5. Characters able to put on “breaks” with a rubber meets road screetch sound effect and smoke.

6. Exploitation of off screen contents (the pull back to reveal gag). This developed into ‘impossible’ pull backs or reveals. E.g. alligator with normal-sized head in water. It walks onto land to reveal a tiny body.

7. More innovative is the exploitation of 2-dimensional cartoon space. Avery lost an eye as a result of a practical joke gone wrong. This was actually used by him as an asset for cartoon perspective.

The viewer posits a filmic level of reality on the moving drawings. Avery breaks down this natural process resulting in a break between what is expected and what is given… and we laugh! E.g. the “Where are the girls?” scene.

8. The sudden stop in a quickly moving sequence, usually for a direct aside (Brechtian speaking to the audience). Or for a Coke break.

The natural extension is stoping what couldn’t be done in ‘reality’ – e.g. a horse in mid gallop.

9. The machinery of film is exposed. In one cartoon a hair on the screen is actually drawn into the film and commented on by the characters (this gag was used at least twice). Or the film will run off the frame, or fixing a skipping soundtrack. Characters, in another variation, see the beginning and end titles or the narrator can be heard by the characters.

10. Frank Sinatra lampooning. The teen idol of the day.

11. “Sucker” signs.

12. Extreme numbers with quick movements. Always fast movements. For example, ducks coming and going, large numbers, very fast. A group of people enter a plane in sped up fashion (200 people in a second). Speed overcomes logic in its motion.

13. The character is subordinate to the gag. Droopy is a great example of this. A slow moving character. However, at the end of several cartoons he spazzes out and acts entirely out of character. Laughs are gained at the expense and contradiction of the character. It’s achievement is through the direct violation of all of Droopy’s essence.

14. Sensuality. Red Hot Riding Hood, dancing doll, swooning sax. The ENERGY of it is more important than its sexuality. For example, The Wolf is going nuts over the dancer is the point, not the cause of, his arousal. Same thing with violence. This energy overcomes death in “Red Hot Riding Hood.”

15. Objects acting human. Body parts acting human (e.g. eyes knocking). All are transference of human characteristics to other objects.

16. Character putting something that would cushion the blow 2 ½ feet to the left of where the victim lands, or pulled away on purpose by the supposed helper at the last possible moment.

17. Characters possession of the knowledge they are in a cartoon, especially Screwy Squirrel. How sane is this Squirrel? If insanity is defining one’s worldview regardless of the actual world, then isn’t a character who lives in a world which can be self-defined (Cartoonland) the sanest one around?

18. A phone booth can be anywhere. Really, any object is the character’s desire way from being physically manifested.

19. Avery’s world is a world of images and sounds. Screwy Squirrel can make himself seasick looking at a picture of a sea he drew with the swaying sound effect. Whatever a character draws is as real as everything else in his cartoon reality. He can feel the swaying of a ship; the fact he’s on land doesn’t matter. He relates to his world through sights and sounds.

20. Objects have no weight.

21. A character once leaving the screen can reappear anywhere -- even if the object he disappeared into is still present.

22. Avery uses standard fairy tale stores as take off points. Why? Everyone knows the story, thus making it an easy mental reference. The story creates an expectation he can then spoof without having the audience worry about the actual story events or completion.

23. The “modern” look – long cars. Art Deco.

24. Visual literalizing of clichés – “Symphony in Slang” is an entire cartoon using these and the “Brainstorm” gag in “King Size Comedy.”

25. The character’s knowledge of its interdepedance on an adversary. They realize the opposition creates them. There can be no chase without a chaser. They often end as friends, their tasks complete.

26. Understatement dialogue. The entire Droopy character is based on this.

27. Overstated visuals. Looney bin’s building shaped “NUTZ.”

28. The use of magic wands. They make everything appear, like the cartoonists’ pen.

29. His “take” is the usually the character’s eyes getting large or popping out.

30. Drugs and potions have immediate effect, e.g. sleeping pill or quick grow pill.

31. Multiple paths make character or objects split into.

32. You can’t get rid of Droopy (as much as you may want to).

33. Rich coordination of visuals with soundtrack (see “Magical Maestro”).

34. A character who starts out as the chasee (one being chased) but later gains an edge and then becomes the tormentor will be punished for abusing this edge (see Bad Luck Blackie).

35. Mystery girls (obscured face) turn out to be dogs (usually).

36. A disguised bomb actually becomes the object its disguised as to the intended victim. That is, until the bomber picks it up again, then “Boom!”

37. Never ask for or take directions from the guy you’re chasing.

In one Screwy Squirrel cartoon, the dog chasing Screwy decides to play hide and go seek. Cut to close up on dog as he closes his eyes. Pull back to reveal the tree he leans against is now on a railroad track with train approaching.

Screwy sits nearby in a director’s chair. If you’ve ever had any doubts about who runs the show in a Tex Avery cartoon, they are now explained. In Avery’s cartoons, insanity reigns.

Now here's a video sampler:

One Saul, That's All: The Comedic Nexus of "Mr. Show with Bob and David"

"What is the best sketch comedy show of all time?" is a question if asked, would prompt many different answers from a great many people who love comedy.  Gen Xer's and below would probably answer something like "Monty Python's Flying Circus," or "The Carol Burnett Show," maybe even "Kids in the Hall." Where as millennials and beyond would answer maybe "MadTV," or even the current "Saturday night live."  But there's a hidden sketch comedy show that a case can be made for that it was the best sketch comedy show of all time. That show was HBO's "Mr. Show with Bob and David."

Mr. Show can be considered to be a hidden comedic gem simply because it had relatively very low viewership over its four season run despite being paired with the popular "Chris Rock show" in a Friday night time slot.  Mr. show, much like "Breaking Bad," has had a very small, but very loyal cult following that's only grown over the years.  But even though the writing and performances were nearly flawless over its short four year run, the show struggled to stay on the air every year it was up for renewal.

Initially it was support from comedian Garry Shandling that had a big hand in keeping the series on the air after the first season.  Seasons two and three were greenlit just on the fact that everyone at HBO, and a lot of important people in Hollywood and New York really liked the show; plus it was a cheap show to produce.

But for whatever reason, for its fourth and final season, Mr. Show was bumped to Mondays a midnight, a virtual death sentence for most shows, especially an Avant-garde adult sketch comedy show.

The "Bob and David" in Mr. Show were two comedians Bob Odenkirk and David Cross.

Bob had worked alongside Robert Smigel (Triumph the Comic Insult Dog/David Letterman) and Conan O'Brien (Simpsons/Letterman) on Saturday Night Live.  Bob's biggest contribution to SNL was the infamous Chris Farley Motivational Speaker sketch.

Matt Foley motivational speaker

From there, Bob went onto the Ben Stiller Show as a writer/performer where he contributed to many of sketches, with the show going onto win a posthumous Emmy for best comedy writing after it was cancelled after only one 13 episode season.

This was also the first time we saw Bob's affinity for rap music via the Kill Doug Szathkey sketch where Bob plays rapper "Ice Man McGee" who writes a rap song about his neighbor, Doug Szathkey, encouraging his fans to "Kill Doug Szathkey," which then Ice Man tries to claim that his fans were misinterpreting his lyrics.

ICE MAN McGEE (rapping)

That's right, I said, kill Doug Szathkey. He makes me mad, G, frontin' on my posse. Tellin' me to keep it down and all that. Just a suckah steppin' on my balzac. Just a stupid neighbor complain'. Keep it up, I'll call the block association. The one that meets at the end of my fist. Huh! Little doggies gonna get kissed.

Cuttin' up my lawn, and scatterin' his clippings. You think I don't know where my yard begins? He lives on Springer Road, number 311. Sucker gets home every night around 7.

Kill Doug Szathkey. That's right, I said, kill Doug Szathkey. Peace.

Kill Doug Szathkey

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic 
On Mr. Show, Bob expanded his love for rap in several sketches, including; Rap the Musical; Three times one, minus one, and the Fat Kids camp sketches.

RAP: The Musical!

Bob also wrote what many consider to the best sketch for the Ben Stiller show, the Manson/Lassie sketch.

Manson/Lassie sketch

While at the Ben Stiller show Bob worked with future big comedic names such as Judd Apatow, Ben Stiller, Robert Cohen, Dino Stamatopoulos, Janeane garofalo, Andy Dick and David Cross.  Bob then went onto the "Larry Sanders Show," for a few years before launching Mr. Show with David Cross.

David Cross had worked the stand up scene in the early 90's before joining Bob on the writing staff of The Ben Stiller show.

David's first sketch, the "T.J. Opootertoots" sketch, was the first sketch David also performed in.

T.J. Opootertoots

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic
Mr. Show had a relatively small writing staff, mostly all of which also were performers on the show at various stages of the show's run from 1995 to 1998.  Aside from Bob and David, Mr. Show's writers/performers included: Tom Kenny (Voice of Spongebob), Jill Talley (Boondocks), John Ennis, and Jay Johnston (Arrested Development).  These were the original writers/performers.

Over the course of the series there were other cast members and writers added to the roster.  Mr. Show added Jack Black (Tenacious D), Sarah Silverman, Brian Posehn (The Sarah Silverman show), Mary Lynn Rajskub (24), Paul F. Tompkins, Bill Odenkirk (Futurama), Jerry Collins (Curb Your Enthusiasm), B.J. Porter, Scott Aukerman (Comedy Bang Bang), Becky Thyre, Brett Paesel, Scott Adsit (30 Rock)
and Dino Stamatopoulous (Morel Orel).

The format of Mr. Show was that of sketch comedy, but not limited to strict parody, as most sketch comedies seem to embrace. Mr. Show was very rich in satire, which can the Chinese define as "laughter with knives." Vanity Fair noted that the series had mocked "satanism, teenage suicide, cock rings, hermaphrodites, after-school specials about mentally challenged parents, and the Ku Klux Klan" and just about everything in between.

Mr. Show didn't just make fun of things out of spite, but everything was fair game. There wasn't an agenda to push, or advertisers to appease, or the worry of censorship.  This allowed the show to push the envelope in ways that perhaps couldn't even be pushed today, but perhaps only on the internet. Mr. Show was for all intents and purposes an inside joke that was enjoyed by those in the know.

Much like "Arrested Development," Mr. Show was a show for those who truly enjoyed comedy and  Mr. Show's format was unique in that the sketches in each individual episode were all linked together in some fashion; maybe not as a whole, but usually in part. A character in one sketch, such as "Ty Maginty" appears in the adopted son sketch at the start of the episode as a full grown man adopted by a desperate couple.

Only to reappear at the end of the episode after the credits, as a promo for a faux new HBO series "Creepy Peeping Videos." being abused by mean Nanny, played by John Ennis in drag.

 

But there was one thing Mr. Show didn't have, and that was reoccurring characters or sketches.  The only character that can be considered to be a reoccurring character was that of the always sick character "Droopy" who was featured in three sketches over the years.

Chocolate Fingerprints

 

What was amazing about Mr. Show that they were able to play it straight and clean and deliver a classic sketch as the "Pre-taped Call in Show," about a frustrated talk show host desperately trying to figure out the format.

And then turn around and produce the hilariously, ADULT with a capital A, "Show me your Weenis" sketch, where the members an 80's hair band don't seem to realize that they're all gay until a "gay party tape" of them gets leaked on the internet from the "Underground tape railroad"(this was about six years before youtube), and then they are confronted by their angry manager.

Mr. Show was also prescient of future events, such as NASA in 2012 revealing that they wanted to blow up the moon, which the "blow up the moon" sketch accurately predicted back in the late 90's. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/9707686/US-planned-to-blow-up-a-nuclear-bomb-on-the-Moon.html

There was also the hilarious Larry Kliest sketch where the state was trying out a new work release program for criminals.  The program in the sketch involved a licensed public warning engineer (with a big sign) following around criminals via a work-release program that was supposed to warn the public that there was a criminal in the area, and to watch out.

This actually came true in early 2013 with Florida's new public warning against sexual predators initiative.

http://www.vice.com/read/sex-offenders-in-florida-now-have-warning-signs-outside-their-homes

Seeing that Mr. Show has spawned, or was the genesis of so many talented comedians that went onto work on other shows, and has even influenced non-comedy shows such as "Breaking Bad," and other comedy shows such as "Tim and Eric Awesome show Great Job" (Also guest starring Odenkirk and Cross), I'm going to be breaking down each Mr. Show episode into its constituent sketches over thirty or so posts.

I'll be breaking down what was funny in each episode and why it was funny, as well as throwing in any trivia tid bits I've accumulated over the years. The unique thing about Mr. Show sketches is that because they don't rely on topical references, but incredibly strong comedy writing, they are a perfect example to show what true comedy is all about, and how incredibly difficult it is to come up with something funny.

David Cross was once asked by a fan "Do you write the show while you're high?," to which David's response was, "No. Has anyone actually been able to accomplish anything important while high?"

I'm going to leave you with the "Jeepers Creepers Semi-Star," which featured Jack Black right around the same time as Tenacious D was taking off.

 

The Origins and Formatting of Modern Screenplays

Nice history of screenplay formatting as well as summary of how our current master scene only style should look:


The Origins and Formatting of Modern Screenplays from FilmmakerIQ.com on Vimeo.


Check out the additional videos from Filmmaker IQ. Quality info!

Bob Mankoff: Anatomy of a New Yorker Cartoon

Great TED talk.   Good summary of how comedy works at the 8 minute mark:

The Comedy of Groucho Marx: Characterization

The Comedy of Groucho Marx: Characterization

Eyeglasses, cigar, big mustache and ever-twitching eyebrows: who am I talking about? If you didn’t say Groucho Marx [Julius Henry “Groucho” Marx (1890 – 1977), the most famous of the four Marx Brothers], you are too young to know better. That is your unfortunate loss. However, to this day, you can go into a gag store to buy a glasses-and-mustache disguise and become Groucho. His distinctive look was carried over from Vaudeville, where he and his brothers actually started out as a singing group called The Four Nightingales. The Nightingales weren’t that big a hit (who likes a bird with twitching eyebrows?), but when they quit singing and started cracking jokes instead, stars were born.

The fast-talking, funny-walking, cigar-chewing wag with painted-on eyebrows and mustache came about as a substitute for his usual ethnic German accent, which started getting boos from patriotic audiences after the 1915 sinking of the Lusitania. He made a quick switch to his classic character and the rest is history.

Although Groucho started out wanting to be a doctor, those dreams were thrown out when the family needed money. The brothers went into show business, but Groucho made up for his lack of formal education by reading voraciously. One of his famous lines is “I think TV is very educational. Every time someone turns on a TV, I go in the other room and read.”

Groucho and his brothers, Harpo, Chico and Gummo, were a hit on Vaudeville, then Broadway, and finally on the big screen in a series of comedy spoofs, including The Cocoanuts, Animal Crackers, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers, Duck Soup and A Night at the Opera. Their movies were chock full of fast-paced, sarcastically silly, wickedly witty dialogue (especially from Groucho) and lots of physical humor.

In addition, Groucho, the one brother who could best carry a note, introduced several clever songs in these films, including Hooray for Captain Spaulding; Hello, I Must Be Going; Whatever It Is, I'm Against It; Everyone Says I Love You; and, probably his most famous, Lydia the Tattooed Lady. Groucho went on to host a popular radio and television show, both called You Bet Your Life, which ran from 1946 through 1961.

A master of the one-liner, Groucho Marx was well-known for his plays on words and groan-worthy puns that are quoted often to this day. Be sure to twitch your eyebrows when you use one of these lines:

• I wish you'd keep my hands to yourself.
• Marriage is the chief cause of divorce.
• Women should be obscene and not heard.
• Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
• Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.
• While shooting elephants in Africa, I found the tusks very difficult to remove. But in Alabama, the Tuscaloosa...
• I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception.
• You're only as young as the woman you feel.
• Last night I shot an elephant in my pajamas and how he got in my pajamas I'll never know.
• Behind every successful man stands a woman. And behind her stands his wife.