Monday 18 June 2007

Could Be Anything

I noticed this on Graham Linehan's blog earlier. The actual post is about an American show Channel 4 have picked up that seems very similar to The IT Crowd. However on the comments page someone links to a clip of a sketch they've made and asks for his opinion.

Linehan watched the clip and offers some very good constructive critisism. He also follows that up when the commentator comes back on slightly disappointed that he didn't like it. I mention this only because I found it very refreshing that a guy working in television is happy to offer advice to a general punter.

I found what he says quite interesting as well, as he refers to something he calls 'CBA - Could Be Anything' where the punchline would remain unchanged even if you altered the payoff to something entirely different. It's not something I would have considered before but I'll probably think about when writing sketches in future.

I also mention it cos several years ago Iain met him at the Edinburgh Festival and asked him if he'd have a look at a couple of issues of Cheery Bananas. He did, and he also provided constructive critisism on them.

Here's one of the best sketches from the first series of Big Train. Oh aye, it's not suitable for work.

1 comment:

Fraser said...

That is pretty interesting. I watched the guys sketch and it was ok. An ok idea not very well done, just as GL had said.

Of course, this makes me want to revisit every sketch I've ever written to see if it "passes" now.

But its good advice. You have to give your character(s) something to deal with rather than having them standing around awkwardly in the midst of a vaguely funny idea - which is literally what happens in the joy-thingumy sketch.

Solid advice from GL, as usual.