Parodying the film noir detective film

The film noir detective film, with its hard-boiled detectives and gorgeous, backstabbing dames, is a great genre to parody, whether as a comedy sketch, a sequence in a movie or sitcom, or an improvised scene. I’m going to discuss a few quick’n’dirty...

The sketch comedy monologue

If you’re writing sketch comedy, the monologue is a real time-saver. A sketch comedy monologue usually involves one actor talking directly to the audience in character. The comedy comes from the character, and will usually have a story to it. It’s...

Writing Tips: Bathos

One of my favourite comedy words is “bathos”. Bathos is a technique which many experienced writers use instinctively, but most don’t know by name – which means you can throw the word around and sound cleverer than they are. Bathos is humour that comes from an...