Just an observation that my brother and I discussed recently - without any exception that I can think of - US comedy sketches always go on for too-long; taking too long to get to the point, hammering it too hard, and/or continuing for too long after they have made their point.
I was reminded of this after seeing WmJas Tychonievich reference the "classic" More Cowbell sketch from Saturday Night Live on his blog recently - this displays the problem: the basic joke is funny; but to spin-out the joke for five minutes is just dull.
This is in contrast with British humour, which is often at its best in comedy sketches - which are either short, tighter; or else have more than one joke to fill them.
American humour is at its best in the Sitcom* (and movies); in which form (at least until recently) they were able to produce scores or hundreds of excellent, tightly edited, beautifully-paced shows; using the team-writing-script-editor system.
That is, a large team of writers generate a large surplus of comedy ideas; and these are selected and assembled by one or two script editors who maintain the show's distinctive character and continuity.
My understanding is that this is also the way that sketch-shows like SNL are assembled - in which case, I conclude either that what works for Sitcoms does not work for sketches...
Or else Americans need their jokes to be made very obvious and hammered home relentlessly...
Which latter does not seem true, in that a show such as Seinfeld is about as concise and meaty as 22 minute comedy ever has been, or could be.
*British Sitcoms are equally good at their best, but can never achieve the quantity of American shows, because they are the product of just one or two writers.
2 comments:
In the particular case of More Cowbell, I think going on too long is central to the gag, somewhat like the Black Knight scene in The Holy Grail. Even in the beginning, where they go on a little too long about how awesome it is that the Bruce Dickinson likes their sound, that going on too long is itself one of the jokes. But perhaps some of that is lost in transatlantication.
It could have been tightened up considerably, though. Three minutes would have been plenty.
For me, the biggest flub is the "in memoriam" ending. The joke is presumably supposed to be that Gene's cowbell playing drove his bandmates so crazy that they killed him, but it gives his death date as 2000, when the sketch was made, rather than 1976, when it was set.
@William "It could have been tightened up considerably, though. Three minutes would have been plenty."
Exactly.
Monty Python is Not what I would regard as an example of well structured sketch show, since Many of their sketches did go-on for too long - and suffered thereby. Monty Python was good, when it was good (which was only sometimes - but then first rate) *despite* their sprawling sketches, not because of them.
Indeed, I find it almost unbearable to rewatch the original old MP shows for this reason.
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