Great post, it really feels like the last piece of the puzzle has now clicked into place for me.
Unfortunately I couldn’t do the meditation app exercise because I’m familiar enough with the CH back catalogue that I knew exactly the sketch you were talking about as soon as you started to describe it, so let’s give the emotions exercise a go!
Strong Emotions I’ve recently experienced:
a) Frustration at a co-worker for not putting away equipment in its correct spot.
b) Anxiety at watching an ambiguously worded political statement on TV, unsure if they’re about to make a good point or spin off on a racist tirade.
c) Embarrassment that I instantly recognised a 4 year old sketch from a one sentence allusion in my online sketch comedy course and now people will think I’m an obsessive weirdo.
Sketch ideas:
1a) Someone has just moved into their partners apartment and is being shown how they like to organise their things. They twisted logic behind their system gradually gets more absurd.
2a) A chill, “go with the flow” type dude clashes with his fellow brain surgeons as he disregards organisation and procedure.
1b) Characters ride a “News-coaster”, experiencing the whiplash of watching political current events, while experiencing actual whiplash.
2b) “That one friend who’s actually the worst” Someone defends their friendship with a politician by charitably interpreting all the statements they make, while another friend points out all the dog whistles and actual meanings.
3a) Someone reconnects with a casual friend and gradually reveals that they’re too familiar with how their life is going.
3b) The cool, devil-may-care, leather jacket dude at the bar is gradually embarrassed as it’s revealed that in fact, he does care about many things.
If I had to pick the one that had the most legs, it’d probably be 3a), mostly because I know Raph Chestang wrote basically that sketch back in 2020.
Haha, I had to edit the meditation exercise too, for the same reason! What a bunch of nerds. Instead, I tried to brainstorm a similar sketch premise, but someone signing up for too many newsletters instead. I thought maybe she could spend more and more time reading emails while her actual work starts to gather cobwebs and decay, eventually getting cataloged by alien anthropologists while she's still like 'I'm so inspired now omg.'
Also, 3a does seem like it'd be lots of fun - Do you remember which sketch Raph did? I also really like your 1b idea, that seems like it'd be ripe for fun visual jokes without getting too heavy, subject-wise.
Nice, I like the newsletter angle, definitely think there’s something there about inventing your own false productivity that’s very relatable. Did a little digging, the Raph’s sketch is called “Caught Internet Stalking”, it’s a good one. Thanks for the feedback, I think you’re right about 1b, I might give writing it a go.
great post, I appreciate the attempt at dissecting an inherently hard-to-answer question. As an aside, I can't help but think of this recurring joke from Norm Macdonald's "video podcast" where his sidekick asks a bunch of comedy legends where they get their ideas from.
Before I watch your sketch I thought it would be fun to write my version of the annoying meditation app.
1. A sci-fi dystopia where aliens enforce a highly regimented mindfulness routine.
2. Our protagonist is sure the meditation they enforce is actually brainwashing because all his friends have stopped fighting the aliens.
3. After a couple of close calls the protagonist is trapped and must meditate under threat of being imprisoned-very tense meditation. Character is sweating profusely and clearly afraid. Alien is menacingly holding some kind of incomprehensible alien device to their forehead.
4. The surprise is after the hero is like “wow…I actually feel so much better. It’s like I was finally able to let myself breathe” and the alien is like “I know right! Meditation has totally changed my life.”
I also kinda would want to explore an ending where even though the protagonist feels better, they still fight it next time. (Basically based off of the fact I don’t make time for meditation even when I know how beneficial it is)
It’s a fun prompt to think about! Now I’m going to watch yours.
Just an idea on the aliens, have you read anything on scientology? I think (don't@ me) part of the belief is that we get sad because we're possessed by upset alien ghosts...
I just subscribed to the newsletter and I'm really glad I did. I needed to read this for my own sanity. I've just started in the last year taking my ideas and taking writing and comedy seriously. The only way I know how to develop an idea into a sketch is to do what you suggest, if you find an idea, or have a thought, write down a one sentence premise and expound on it whenever you get another piece until you have a rough idea of the sketch. I have spent a month writing one sketch and it's based of a one sentence premise I had over a year ago. Thank you for the post, I look forward to more and to going back and reading past posts.
Thanks for subscribing! One thing I've found helpful if you find yourself getting stuck on one sketch for a long time is to "get stupid" -- put down the sketch for a bit and instead write the stupidest sketch based on the dumbest idea you have. It forces you to write something that is completely free of expectations. You don't need it to be perfect. You're not even expecting it to be good. But it WILL give you the satisfaction of finishing something, and you'll have fun writing for a change instead of agonizing over every word. Sometimes this stupid idea actually turns into something okay! And even if it doesn't having another sketch kicking around makes that other one a little less precious so you can work on it less fearfully.
I love that the voice slowly became Katie 😂 also "pay meditation bill" and spending too much money was too real, heightening the comedy with my cortisol. Thanks for sharing something that sounded a little funny and making it rediculous. Keep up the good work of teaching us how to truffle hunt those joke-shrooms Trapp
My first thought with the black eye concept was someone going through a story leading through ups and downs and close-calls and the start to a dramatic climax before revealing that the black eye came from something stupid, only to have the person who asked about it giving the storyteller a new black eye for wasting their time.... and then someone else walks up and asks how they got TWO black eyes. When you mentioned the idea of someone getting upset that nobody noticed their black eye I thought of Grant O'Brian, and how nobody would be impressed that he got a black eye because they assumed he got it from being a big klutz. Grant would defend himself, saying they don't know, and list a variety of ways in which he could heroically have gotten the black eye and thereby humbling the crew. Rekha would apologize and ask how he got it and Grant would say he tripped face-first into a big green dildo he had stuck to the wall of his shower.
Going through this and noticed how easy it is to think of negative emotions. I watched some Game Changer recently and was impressed/moved that a joke inspiration could be "we came here to make someone cry and now reveal all the nice things about them."
It's easy to focus on negative emotions, but the powers of repeating something, heightening, and juxtaposition is funny with any feeling.
Yes! The real potential is in strength of feeling, positive or negative. I'd even go so far as to say negative emotions make for BETTER sketch inspirations than positive ones. If you're confused or angry or sad or annoyed, it's often because something unjust or illogical has happened to you -- something that you feel shouldn't be possible and yet it is. And that means there's probably some kind of paradox at the root of your experience. If you can root it out and shine a light on that absurdity you can write something that will feel funny, truthful, and relevant.
Great post, it really feels like the last piece of the puzzle has now clicked into place for me.
Unfortunately I couldn’t do the meditation app exercise because I’m familiar enough with the CH back catalogue that I knew exactly the sketch you were talking about as soon as you started to describe it, so let’s give the emotions exercise a go!
Strong Emotions I’ve recently experienced:
a) Frustration at a co-worker for not putting away equipment in its correct spot.
b) Anxiety at watching an ambiguously worded political statement on TV, unsure if they’re about to make a good point or spin off on a racist tirade.
c) Embarrassment that I instantly recognised a 4 year old sketch from a one sentence allusion in my online sketch comedy course and now people will think I’m an obsessive weirdo.
Sketch ideas:
1a) Someone has just moved into their partners apartment and is being shown how they like to organise their things. They twisted logic behind their system gradually gets more absurd.
2a) A chill, “go with the flow” type dude clashes with his fellow brain surgeons as he disregards organisation and procedure.
1b) Characters ride a “News-coaster”, experiencing the whiplash of watching political current events, while experiencing actual whiplash.
2b) “That one friend who’s actually the worst” Someone defends their friendship with a politician by charitably interpreting all the statements they make, while another friend points out all the dog whistles and actual meanings.
3a) Someone reconnects with a casual friend and gradually reveals that they’re too familiar with how their life is going.
3b) The cool, devil-may-care, leather jacket dude at the bar is gradually embarrassed as it’s revealed that in fact, he does care about many things.
If I had to pick the one that had the most legs, it’d probably be 3a), mostly because I know Raph Chestang wrote basically that sketch back in 2020.
…. I’ve said too much.
Haha, I had to edit the meditation exercise too, for the same reason! What a bunch of nerds. Instead, I tried to brainstorm a similar sketch premise, but someone signing up for too many newsletters instead. I thought maybe she could spend more and more time reading emails while her actual work starts to gather cobwebs and decay, eventually getting cataloged by alien anthropologists while she's still like 'I'm so inspired now omg.'
Also, 3a does seem like it'd be lots of fun - Do you remember which sketch Raph did? I also really like your 1b idea, that seems like it'd be ripe for fun visual jokes without getting too heavy, subject-wise.
Nice, I like the newsletter angle, definitely think there’s something there about inventing your own false productivity that’s very relatable. Did a little digging, the Raph’s sketch is called “Caught Internet Stalking”, it’s a good one. Thanks for the feedback, I think you’re right about 1b, I might give writing it a go.
Thanks very much! Good luck doing the thing, I hope to read it once it's done!
great post, I appreciate the attempt at dissecting an inherently hard-to-answer question. As an aside, I can't help but think of this recurring joke from Norm Macdonald's "video podcast" where his sidekick asks a bunch of comedy legends where they get their ideas from.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF59yAwaELE
This is a delight
This is so inside lol thank you for sharing 😂 I get my ideas from Amazon FYI, they're slowly breaking into the idea market rn
Before I watch your sketch I thought it would be fun to write my version of the annoying meditation app.
1. A sci-fi dystopia where aliens enforce a highly regimented mindfulness routine.
2. Our protagonist is sure the meditation they enforce is actually brainwashing because all his friends have stopped fighting the aliens.
3. After a couple of close calls the protagonist is trapped and must meditate under threat of being imprisoned-very tense meditation. Character is sweating profusely and clearly afraid. Alien is menacingly holding some kind of incomprehensible alien device to their forehead.
4. The surprise is after the hero is like “wow…I actually feel so much better. It’s like I was finally able to let myself breathe” and the alien is like “I know right! Meditation has totally changed my life.”
I also kinda would want to explore an ending where even though the protagonist feels better, they still fight it next time. (Basically based off of the fact I don’t make time for meditation even when I know how beneficial it is)
It’s a fun prompt to think about! Now I’m going to watch yours.
Cool idea! The mental image of a person stressfully meditating is very funny to me. :)
Mike, your sketch is great! Very funny. Thanks for the post. I’m finding these very helpful.
Just an idea on the aliens, have you read anything on scientology? I think (don't@ me) part of the belief is that we get sad because we're possessed by upset alien ghosts...
This is where my 'deep' research ends:
https://southpark.cc.com/video-clips/54abfk/south-park-what-scientologist-actually-believe
I think there's something with the alien idea and mindfulness, thanks for the chuckle 😁
I just subscribed to the newsletter and I'm really glad I did. I needed to read this for my own sanity. I've just started in the last year taking my ideas and taking writing and comedy seriously. The only way I know how to develop an idea into a sketch is to do what you suggest, if you find an idea, or have a thought, write down a one sentence premise and expound on it whenever you get another piece until you have a rough idea of the sketch. I have spent a month writing one sketch and it's based of a one sentence premise I had over a year ago. Thank you for the post, I look forward to more and to going back and reading past posts.
Thanks for subscribing! One thing I've found helpful if you find yourself getting stuck on one sketch for a long time is to "get stupid" -- put down the sketch for a bit and instead write the stupidest sketch based on the dumbest idea you have. It forces you to write something that is completely free of expectations. You don't need it to be perfect. You're not even expecting it to be good. But it WILL give you the satisfaction of finishing something, and you'll have fun writing for a change instead of agonizing over every word. Sometimes this stupid idea actually turns into something okay! And even if it doesn't having another sketch kicking around makes that other one a little less precious so you can work on it less fearfully.
I love that the voice slowly became Katie 😂 also "pay meditation bill" and spending too much money was too real, heightening the comedy with my cortisol. Thanks for sharing something that sounded a little funny and making it rediculous. Keep up the good work of teaching us how to truffle hunt those joke-shrooms Trapp
My first thought with the black eye concept was someone going through a story leading through ups and downs and close-calls and the start to a dramatic climax before revealing that the black eye came from something stupid, only to have the person who asked about it giving the storyteller a new black eye for wasting their time.... and then someone else walks up and asks how they got TWO black eyes. When you mentioned the idea of someone getting upset that nobody noticed their black eye I thought of Grant O'Brian, and how nobody would be impressed that he got a black eye because they assumed he got it from being a big klutz. Grant would defend himself, saying they don't know, and list a variety of ways in which he could heroically have gotten the black eye and thereby humbling the crew. Rekha would apologize and ask how he got it and Grant would say he tripped face-first into a big green dildo he had stuck to the wall of his shower.
You saw that Don't Laugh News episode, too, huh? (In a good way!) :)
I like the idea of Grant getting hurt in overtly Grant ways and everyone talking about it like it didn't happen or like he's lying to cover up abuse.
Also I reposted this to see if my picture is uploaded. Thank you for your patience.
Going through this and noticed how easy it is to think of negative emotions. I watched some Game Changer recently and was impressed/moved that a joke inspiration could be "we came here to make someone cry and now reveal all the nice things about them."
It's easy to focus on negative emotions, but the powers of repeating something, heightening, and juxtaposition is funny with any feeling.
Yes! The real potential is in strength of feeling, positive or negative. I'd even go so far as to say negative emotions make for BETTER sketch inspirations than positive ones. If you're confused or angry or sad or annoyed, it's often because something unjust or illogical has happened to you -- something that you feel shouldn't be possible and yet it is. And that means there's probably some kind of paradox at the root of your experience. If you can root it out and shine a light on that absurdity you can write something that will feel funny, truthful, and relevant.
Hope this adds some value: https://youtu.be/y70nbDJI5Uk
John Cleese also has a fun book about making funnies and a plethora of free talking information.