Creating comedy is serious business. This is a journey full of dangers and fears - but if you follow the concepts and structures described in this book, it will be much easier. Steve Kaplan explains why comedy typically doesn't fit into traditional dramatic storytelling structures and identifies new rhythms a comedy writer can follow.

Truly useful, practical examples illustrate a new way of thinking about comedy structure. You will not only learn a lot of new things, but also laugh heartily! If you're looking for inspiration and encouragement to write your next comedy script, there are great comedy scenes to inspire you and important character archetypes and structures to help you get going.

Characters' paths may be similar but mileage, as used car dealers say, varies.

Features

The book is illustrated with still frames from films.

In most films, the comedy hero goes through all the stages their path, but they are not tied to either the page number or timing. These kind of crossroads can be encountered by the hero at different stages, in different orders and at different points in the narrative.