Bad Screenwriting Versus Great Screenwriting by Steve Kaplan Video Lecture | Screenwriting: From Beginner to a Pro - Career Development

the perfect example of that is the
revelation scenes in big and seventeen
again there's a very similar revelation
seen in seventeen again Zach Gaffney
Matthew Perry wishes that you know he's
going through midlife crisis he wishes
he were young again a magic janitor puts
a curse on him and you know you're
scraping the bottom of the comedy barrel
when you've got a magic janitor the
magic janitor puts a curse on him he he
in in kind of an homage to It's a
Wonderful Life
the janitor jumps in the river he jumps
in after him cut - he's he's going back
to his apartment he goes into a shower
he's starting to shower and then he
looks in the mirror because we all have
mirrors in our shower because it's such
a safe thing to do and Matthew Perry
looks in but it's no longer Matthew
Perry and Zac Efron and in about a
second he goes ah my thought is why was
he why did he know so much why did he
anticipate I mean now take a look at the
same similar see scene in big Tom Hanks
wakes up all we see is his feet stepping
on a rubber you know a rubber ducky
plant he goes into the bathroom that's
what you do when you wake up in the
morning he looks in the mirror and
there's a 30 year old man looking back
at him so what does he do does he go ah
no he goes that's strange he looks in
the back of the mirror okay
maybe something there he maybe they slip
in my eyes so he rub some water in his
eyes and then he looks at me a still a
thirty year old man and then he feels a
beard and he's he's starting to notice
it's about the revelation it's about the
discovery uh and he kind of his freaked
out and then the very next shot is he's
lovingly slowly looking at this new
phenomena really discovering it I mean
then they go to a joke in a second where
he notices his hair his chin hair his
chest hair and then of course he because
he'd peek wouldn't you um
the fact is is that all the crazy stuff
that's going to happen is given the
foundation of reality because we care
about the guy he's real he's acting
believably rather than worrying about
what's that where's the joke here you'll
find the joke you'll find the gag first
create the reality I mean there's enough
comedy in life that you don't need to be
inventing it you can use a metaphor
where you don't invent stuff you just
recollect it like in a metaphorical
relationship there's a scene in Seinfeld
when Jerry and George are in the back of
a police car and they start going
no no they start playing around and the
metaphor is you know two kids in the
back of a car and I'll ask people in my
in my workshop who-who here has a kid in
the back of their car who here was a kid
in the back of the car and everybody
raises their hand then because we all
were kids in the back of a car so when
you're using a metaphor you don't have
to invent something funny you don't even
make up you simply have to
recollect it and if you put if you put
the true organic honest behavior into
the wrong vehicle into the absurd
character but they're still acting
honestly and organically it creates a
comic moment without trying to be funny
that's the whole point
don't try to be funny because funny
subjective what makes you laugh might
not make me laugh so funny subjective to
try to hang your hat on funny you know
you might find it funny somebody else
might not find it funny you want to try
to create a comic moment which is an
ordinary guy struggling against
insurmountable odds without many of the
required tools yet never giving up hope
you