ARE WE GOING TO BE ALRIGHT?:
Why I (Want To) Work in Comedy
As you could have probably guessed by now, my favourite genre of film and television is comedy. Everyone needs to have a laugh every now and then, don’t they? After having a long, hard day at work, what’s better than slumming onto a couch, cracking open a beer and watching something silly to boost your mood and forget about the day that brought you here.
To me personally, comedies are so much more than dumb fun. Satire, burlesque, deadpan humour, slapstick, crime comedies, parodies, and so on and so forth. Comedy is subjective, but so is any other genre! What makes one laugh, makes the other cringe. And just like that, with drama, what one finds the most heartbreaking and devastating event shown in a film, the other thinks is pretentious and pseudo-phylosophical.
I want to work in comedy because I believe that this genre can be amazing as a tool to explore humanity - both our faults and what makes us brilliant. I think life is an inherently funny thing. I can say this because I’ve been through the most horrific sh*t I wouldn’t wish upon anyone. My country has been bombed, for f*ck’s sake. And after going through so much, everything starts seeming a little funny from a different angle.
Though because of that, I’ve come to realise this - most folks I know see comedy as a “lesser” genre of film. When people usually hear the word “comedy”, they think of something akin to “Meet the Fockers” or “Norbit” - something that doesn’t require a lot of thinking, vaguely crude, mediocre and over-the-top. I mean, comedy isn’t really a “serious” genre to begin with - and the majority don’t treat it as such. Most films that have been nominated for the Oscars, for instance, have been serious dramas or social-problem films, biopics with pseudo-inspirational themes, epic historical productions, and so forth. There’s a distinct underappreciation of comedy as a genre in the public eye.
My favourite TV show I can talk about endlessly is the 2003 British sitcom “Peep Show”, created by Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain. The central characters of the series are Mark and Jeremy - two middle-aged lifelong friends sharing a flat in Croydon. What I love about the show is how naturally funny it is, and it’s a brilliant representation of human life in general. There’s little to no over-the-top gags. The show is funny because Mark and Jez, as people, are funny.
Jeremy’s confidence in the fact that he’s a successful musician when he is, in fact, not, is funny because everyone knows at least one person in their life, so stuck up and full of themselves they don’t realise how ridiculous they actually are. This can also be true for Mark’s over-obsession with a conquest to find a girlfriend can also ring a bell for a lot of people who are so desperate to get a partner as if it’s a little achievement in their lifelong “to-do” list. “Peep Show” hits close to home because it explores the inherent comedy of being human, and that’s why I love it so much.
"This is f*cking wicked. I'm almost definitely a comedic genius."