How to create a comedy character
By Chris Head. So you want to create a comedy character. Perhaps it’s a character for you to perform or for a sitcom/comedy drama script. In this blog I am particularly thinking of narrative comedy script characters, but these thoughts can be equally useful for sketch characters and so on. Here are some ways you can explore and develop your characters to make them as rich and comedic as possible.
Base your characters on real people
Characters are fleshed out and made individual by drawing on the qualities of real people you know or have encountered. Whether they’re neighbours, bosses, colleagues, friends, family members or even spouses, real life offers up an abundance of eccentric and dysfunctional people who can become comedy characters. When you have a real model behind the character they become more individual, believable and idiosyncratic.
You might base a character on someone close to you, your nearest and dearest, however, if you’re basing a character on someone you know less well, or even have only seen fleetingly, there’s a lot you don’t know and you are fee to invent to fill in the gaps. If you don’t have a real-life model (or models) in mind you are more likely to draw on stereotype and cliché.
You can draw on a number of real people to flesh out your character picking up on their mannerisms, speech patterns, attitudes, beliefs as well as their biography and life experience. Since you’re fictionalizing, do feel free to do them a terrible disservice and focus on and exaggerate all their worst qualities. And in terms of their biography, if they’ve done three really stupid things in the last five years, your character version of them will have done those three stupid things in the last three weeks – of if they’re a real klutz, in the last three days. Then once you have identified the kinds of stupid things the real person does, you can invent more in a similar vein for your character.
Positives and negatives
Let’s think about basing a character on a bad boss you have had in your working life. Maybe you have one now! It can be brilliantly cathartic to take these dreadful people and turn them into comedy characters. Your characters have a problem or a goal and they set about trying to get what they want with their limited skill set. They don’t have the skills, knowledge or ability to effectively achieve their goals, but still they try. (Just like your bad boss). A first question to ask of your boss is: What’s wrong with them?
This will be where the comedy lies. All their negative qualities, failings and shortcomings. Have a clear, short list of these issues. This is enough to get started. A next step to ask is: Who else do I know who’s like this? Now you are drawing on bad qualities of other people to make this character even worse.
Then having considered your boss’ negative sides ask: What’s right with them? If you really despise them or find them totally contemptible, this can be tricky! They must have some positive qualities. What are they? A balance of positives and negatives makes the character more rounded and engaging – even if the negatives are likely to dominate with many characters, that bit of humanity is important. For instance with Basil Fawlty (who was based on a Mr Sinclair who ran the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay with his terrifying wife):
Basil Fawlty
Negatives: Petty, vindictive, snobbish
Positives: Witty, resourceful, intelligent
We so enjoy the comedy of his negative qualities it’s easy to overlook the positives but they are there. Sybil loved him once! Like Basil, your character might also use their positives to negative ends. For example, Basil’s biting wit is often deployed at the expense of the guests he should be deferential to. His resourcefulness meanwhile, which could be employed in improving the hotel, ends up being channelled into managing the increasingly absurd situations he creates.
Note that it’s absurd situations that he creates. I see a lot of early drafts of scripts and a common shortcoming is that stuff just happens to the characters. As a rule, it’s so much stronger when the comedy comes from characters making bad decisions, or making bold decisions they are ill equipped to deal with the fallout from. For example, in the pilot of Friends, Rachel walks out on her wedding rather than being left at the altar by the groom.
With positive and negative sides, the negatives will be why we find them funny but the positives will be why we warm to them nevertheless. A dialogue exercise you can try is to start an interaction with another character in one of their positives and the flip to one of the negatives. In the opening minutes of Friends, Joey says to Ross (in response to hearing about his painful breakup):
Joey: Alright Ross, look. You’re feeling a lot of pain right now. You’re angry. You’re hurting. Can I tell you what the answer is?
(Ross gestures his consent.)
Joey: Strip joint! C’mon, you’re single! Have some hormones!
Here we see Joey start off in an empathic, caring tone… before he flips to being crude. This is a key part of finding funny moments in dialogue. The first sentence misdirects as to where he is going and the second sentence flips our expectation. And it’s a flip from positive to negative. Here’s a made up example from a teacher character speaking to a student: “I see you’ve produced your homework on time which I appreciate. Just a shame it looks like it was written by a monkey”.
You can do this selfsame process of exploring the negatives and positives with a difficult or ridiculous friend, relative or co-worker. Or a relative, spouse or sibling. Or even… yourself. Yes you can become a character in your own narrative. To help come up with positives and negatives, I have produced a table for 108 positive qualities and 108 negative that is on p.5 – 6 of my ‘Creating Comedy Narratives For Stage & Screen‘ book.
Two perspectives on your characters
Here’s another way of looking at your character from two perspectives: firstly, describe how they see themselves and secondly how others see them. If there is very little difference between these two perspectives then that would be a self-aware, functional person. The bigger the difference the more comic and/or tragic the character. Steve Coogan’s appallingly brilliant Alan Partridge, for example, was based on a number of real-life British TV presenters. Many potential models for Partridge have been identified but (fortunately) there isn’t one single person who embodies all of Partridge’s traits, so it’s very much an amalgamation of different individuals and Coogan says there is a lot of himself in Partridge too. Here’s how you might describe Alan Partridge in this way:
How Alan Partridge sees himself: Charming, funny, relaxed, professional, friendly, popular
How others see him: Petty, vindictive, neurotic, incompetent, loathsome, moribund
When you’re developing a character, think in terms of the first list as how they see themselves when they’re at their most self-regarding and the second list as how others see them when they are most critical. This creates a persona and a shadow. List 1 is the persona they try and project, list 2 is the shadow that undermines and contradicts the persona. Think about THE GAP between how characters see themselves and how others see them – the bigger the gap, the greater the comedy (and tragedy) of the character.
Here’s an example from Alan Partridge where he flips from positive to negative as Joey does above:
“I’d just like to fly a helicopter all around Norfolk. You know, swoop down over a field….” So far it sounds like a love of the landscape and natural beauty… but then it flips: “Scare a donkey so that it falls into a river. Hover over one of those annoying families that go on holidays on bikes. And shout at them “get out of the area!” and watch them panic!”
To explore this in action, try writing a scene where the character is trying to embody a quality or qualities from the first list while their efforts are undermined by qualities from the second list. In order for this to happen, think about a situation that will bring out their worst sides. Here is an example from Alan Partridge where he is DJ’ing on Radio Norfolk. On the one hand in his DJ role he is wanting to project professionalism and knowledgeable enthusiasm for the music… but he can’t help being petty and judgemental.
“That was ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ by Joni Mitchell, a song in which Joni complains they ‘Paved paradise to put up a parking lot’, a measure which actually would have alleviated traffic congestion on the outskirts of paradise, something which Joni singularly fails to point out, perhaps because it doesn’t quite fit in with her blinkered view of the world. Nevertheless, nice song.”
Likeability of characters
Often writers get feedback that their characters aren’t likeable enough and yet at the same time there are often sitcoms with characters who behave badly and aren’t obviously likeable. And yet so many viewers have an appalled fascination with the truly dark characters, for example Julia Davis with Jill from Nighty Night. Returning to the point made about basing characters on real people, even Julia Davis’s horrific creations are, as she says, based on people. She described Jill as the ultimate extreme narcissist and sociopath, and acknowledges they’re traits she’s interested in and that run through a lot of her characters. She says she does see such people around and continues to be shocked by their behaviour and wants to keep looking at it from a slightly different perspective each time.
You couldn’t however have a cast made up entirely of these extreme types. Imagine if Jill, Basil and Alan Partridge were all in one show! They’d cancel each other out. You need the reasonable and normal people around them for contrast but also to create a way in for the audience. We sympathize with those people. And indeed we need characters who are holding it together.
Developing an ensemble of characters
Once you have one clear character with strongly defined positives and negatives, to create another character – simply make them the polar opposite of the original character. Comedy thrives on opposites. Spontaneous, brave, outrageous Fleabag is paired with a total opposite in her sister Claire who is uptight, cautious and anal. When I was growing up I used to love watching Ever Decreasing Circles where dour, controlling, obsessive Martin is contrasted with his neighbour, the dashing, freewheeling, charming Paul. In fact, all of your characters should be strongly contrasting, with no two characters having the same characteristics.
When putting together your ensemble of characters, it helps to think in terms of BOSSES, STRIVERS, FOOLS and FOILS. I have developed my own Boss/ Striver/ Fool – and foil – model of sitcom characters. It’s a useful way of looking at sitcom when you’re setting up your own group of characters. And it’s a useful model to apply when considering an existing script. Try and identify whose who in the script and see if you’ve got a missing character or if the ensemble is unbalanced.
The BOSS is the one with authority, from whatever source (job role, position, social status, family role). Note that an actual manager or leader in name may not have real authority; usually the authority figures in sitcoms are incompetent or dysfunctional in some way or exercise their authority badly. The STRIVERS are the central characters who want to improve themselves or their situation, they are striving after something. The FOOLS… are self-explanatory. But they needn’t necessarily be stupid (although they often are.) They could be intelligent but still be a fool due to being naive or their social ineptitude.
The main character in your sitcom will be a STRIVER. It is that central striver’s behaviour and attitudes that create comic problems for those around them. They are the comic PROTAGONIST. It is a common strategy to have a FOIL for who is a normal, reasonable person – or at least they are the one who is most affected by the antics of the striver. Often, they are the one the audience can relate to and we see the world through their eyes.
In summary, most successful sitcoms have this dynamic (and some unsuccessful ones lack some element of it):
BOSS – A character in position of power over the striver/ protagonist and others – it may be a role or rank or just social status or family seniority. They may have real power or it may just be vested in them by their position but they are inept in some way.
STRIVER (PROTAGONIST) – The main comic character with all their flaws and failings
FOIL – The more reasonable normal one (usually also a striver) who has to deal with the main striver. Often protagonist and foil are basically on the same side but they can be rivals. Usually the foil is the one the audience can identify with but sometimes they are less obviously likeable.
FOOL – Self-explanatory – the stupid or naive and awkward one. Often happy with their lot, they tend to be able to bounce back from the indignities heaped on them.
Some examples:
There will be other characters in these shows (who will also tend to fall into one of these slots) but here I am focussing on the central ensemble.
Fawlty Towers
BOSS – Sybil (and sometimes a guest like the American man.)
STRIVER/ PROTAGONIST – Basil
FOIL – Polly
FOOL – Manuel (and others – eg the Major)
The (UK) Office
BOSS – Neil Godwin. And Chris Finch; a social status boss who has authority over Brent
STRIVER/ PROTAGONIST – David Brent
FOIL – Tim
FOOL – Gareth (and others – eg Keith)
Blackadder 4
BOSS – General Melchett (and his boss Field Marshall Hague)
STRIVER/ PROTAGONIST – Blackadder
FOIL – Captain Darling (also a rival)
FOOL – Baldrick & George*
One working class/ one upper-middle class. One uneducated/ one educated; but both fools.
Friends
BOSS – Monica
STRIVER 1 – Ross
STRIVER 2 – Rachel
FOOL – Joey/ Phoebe
FOIL – Chandler
Having used this model with many writers and students I have found it to be a very useful framework to consider when planning your own ensemble of sitcom characters and for analysing an existing script where something is not working with your characters. Chapter 8 in my ‘Creating Comedy Narratives’ book explores creating ensembles of characters in this way and I speak with Hollywood comedy guru Steve Kaplan and TV producer and the former Controller of BBC Comedy Commissioning Lucy Lumsden for their insights into putting a group of characters together. Elsewhere, picking up on topics from this blog, chapter 1 is about basing characters on you and your nearest and dearest, and chapter 2 is all about basing characters on people you have encountered in life. Plus in later chapters I go into detail about writing and structuring scenes and sketches and ultimately build up to structuring narratives of 30 minutes and longer. And throughout I draw in stand-up and improvisation too, to make it an inspiring cross genre guide to creating comedy narratives.
For more on creating characters, writing scenes and sketches, constructing plots see Chris Head’s brilliant and unique new book “Creating Comedy Narratives for Stage and Screen”
And Chris runs online courses in sitcom/comedy drama, sketch and stand-up.
www.chrishead.com