Peter Bogdanovich on how a Comedy scene should be structured:
"Interviewer: When you are doing comedy and pacing a joke, do you work at a series of payoffs—at a topper?
Bogdanovich: You’ve usually got to have three jokes and then a fourth on the same subject that’s funnier than the other three. If you don’t give the audience the topper, they slightly resent you. I think the best one I did was in 'What’s Up, Doc?' (1972) Obviously, the pane of glass scene is a great joke; Buck Henry wrote that, based on an idea of Benton and Newman’s. That was like ten jokes building to the guy going through the glass. The glass had to break. If it hadn’t broken I would have been shot, and the people would have stormed out of the theater in fury. But one day, while we were going through San Francisco looking for locations—we were about twenty in a bus driving around—I had an idea. I said, “Wouldn’t it be funny if we had a Volkswagen bus, and the first car hits it and smashes it up, and then the second car hits it and smashes it some more, and then a third car hits it, and then finally the guy who owns it runs out, and the whole thing falls over?” Everybody laughed, so I said, “Let’s do that.”
It’s just a very satisfying joke because the audience laughs every time the cars hit, and then on the last one, when the thing falls over, they’re thrilled that we went all the way with it. It’s not even laughter—it’s relief. “Thank God he went all the way.” But, there’s another scene in What’s Up, Doc? that didn’t go all the way, and I’ll always regret it. It’s when all the cars go in the water, and then the police cars pull up. I should have had one of those police cars go in. I knew in preview the audience wanted that to happen, but I didn’t have it. I should have had one of the police cars tear out to the edge of the pier and teeter over the edge, halfway. I should have had two cops jump out, and as they’re hanging on above the water, their car topples in. Once it falls, they fall in. That would have been terrific."
(Peter Bogdanovich, AFI, 1978)
@rickygervais Could you imagine, taking a picture of this poster and your phone gets nicked at the same time an all you can say is “oh well, Ricky did warn me…” 😂😂😂
@rogue_om Yes. Your analysis is spot on.
It needed to be longer.
I walked out feeling that something was missing.
My 12 year old walked out saying he enjoyed Superman more and felt it was missing something. He doesn’t have any reference material to go from either…
Over 30 years ago, I began the journey of producing my first film, Mission: Impossible. Since then, these eight films have taken me on the adventure of a lifetime.
1/20
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@HAIMtheband Ooooooooooooh. Hot weather, windows down and long road trips. And also passive aggressively recommending this song to other people who don’t know your sauce 🙌🏾