People should look at comedies as dramas when they're writing.
It really doesn't help to think of these stories as comedy
stories.
They should be stories that would work just as
well without any jokes.
If you have a great story and great characters,
it's easy to find a way to make it funny.
The problem with a lot of comedies
is they're serving a comedic premise,
primarily, and they don't really have a reason to exist.
You could say that The 40-Year-Old Virgin
could have fallen prey to that.
We don't approach it as a funny idea.
We approach it as a real idea about a guy who
let something get past him.
And now he's so embarrassed and so scared that he can't do it.
And that's a dramatic story about shame
and about someone who is stuck as a pubescent person.
And if you take it seriously, then, suddenly, his predicament
can become funny because he's in a corner.
I generally just think difficult circumstances lend themselves
to comedy and it allows it to be both dramatic and funny.