Film Courage: What makes someone laugh?
Steve Kaplan, Author/Instructor/Script Consultant: That's a physiological response
some people some people think some scientists think that what happens is
is your your brain is full of neurons and the neurons have created neural pathways
and so the neural Pathways that they've created help you go from if I ask you what's what's
your street address you tell me because that's a neural pathway so when when you or when somebody
says I dropped something the neural pathway says either I'll I'll pick it up or not my
problem you you pick it up that's that's a neural pathway when when you hear a joke the joke is is
kind of fooling the neural pathway that it's going to go down the same pathway and then it
it it kind of creates a different neural pathway which because the brain is based on electricity
and I'm as you can tell I'm not a scientist but what happens is is there's there's kind of almost
an explosion that happens in the brain because it it has to all of a sudden change gears change
directions it's literally creating a new neural pathway in the brain and that creates kind of a
physiological response where your air is being brought up and and it it comes out and comes out
in laughter we see this in babies we see this in chimpanzees this response where something is
surprising but not dangerous and and so and so laughter can can create it can be created but
it's based upon the fact that somebody has said something that is surprising yet in retrospect
inevitable if it's surprising but makes no sense you just kind of go huh if it's not surprising
then you're just going to go okay so it needs so if you're creating a moment that's both surprising
yet in retrospect inevitable that creates that can create laughter and then go ask a neuroscientist
that's the next TedTalk yeah that's the next step how important is it to make yourself laugh
well if you have to make yourself laugh I think you know take two aspirin and see a doctor in
the morning I think I think it's important that you that you seek out things that will lift your
spirit for many people it's it's something funny it's something it's laughter but some people like
like yoga like like meditation but but I think that it's I think it's important to
see the world from a different perspective and that's that's partly what comedy does it it
helps you see your life from a slightly different perspective if you're if you're watching Die Hard
that's a lot of fun it's exciting you can live vicariously through somebody who's daring do
you could probably never duplicate but how close is that to your own life but if you're if you're
watching Party Down about a group of servers in a catering company well maybe maybe you don't work
in a catering company but you work somewhere is similar or The Office or Parks and Rec something
there that is similar to you and and and has you see your own life again because it's about
identifying it as you see your own life from a slightly different perspective
unless it's too close to your own life and then you're crying because that's true that's your
reality that's true maybe when it's too close well if you're if you're already if you're
already a server don't watch Party Down then watch Hacks okay I mean because sometimes when you when
you're you're talking about the fish that's in the world of the water in the water they don't know
that they're in this world the imaginary world and so sometimes when a world is like when I saw
This Is 40 to me it was hilarious it was sort of this LA couple living this sort of Bourgeois
life and it's not exactly my life but I'm able to laugh at it because it's not so close to mine
but if it was more my life I think it would be a little more probably less laughter but well I'm
not sure I mean so which which which fictional counterpoint is closest to you The Honeymooners
or Roseanne or The Connors
maybe not that one but and I did love that show by the way I love that one so maybe that's why
but yeah I think maybe you have to have it a little more removed if it's too close to your own
because I was wondering if you're able to laugh at yourself are you that's a very that's a very
rare talent how many people do can laugh at themselves well maybe past selves not current
maybe past cells because anything current might be too right and that's that's one of
the things that comedy helps us it helps it has us laugh at ourselves
in at one one step removed so when we're laughing at Gene Arthur and and Hannah Einbinder
not Gene Arthur, Gene Smart and Hannah Einbinder in Hacks yeah I'm not a stand-up comic but I've
been in that world I know that world and and if I'm laughing there I'm also healing myself
because some of the things that they've gone through I've gone through and maybe I haven't
laughed about it but this this helps me see that through that perspective so so in that way
a comedy is is just as good as therapy and and less expensive right and no one's taking notes
well hopefully not well one of the things that's great about comedy especially contemporary comedy
is that it it no longer avoids the the the fact that we all change when when the radio sitcoms
trans translated or or trans transformed into television sitcoms the formula was
a a central character who had a good sense of humor would solve a solvable problem
in 22 minutes by interacting with a small group of characters and and everything stayed the same
so that any one episode of of a sitcom is viewable because any other episode
of the sitcom was basically the same dynamics and that was okay
but what's changed because of cable because of streaming just because of people's tastes
is that what you see now is that character since it comes all change it's all about transformation
so it used to be that only a character in in a in a long-form narrative in a film would change
Bill Murray in Groundhog Day from the beginning to the end Scrooge which is not really funny although
it had some funny moments and all the comic takeoffs on the Christmas Carol and Scrooge
I think there's one with Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell out now they come and they it starts in
one place and then they change but now with Hacks with Ted lasso somewhere someplace I
think that's the name of it's this thing that takes place in Oklahoma, Reservation Dogs they
they're it's all about change it's all about what happens as we're changing what happens to
make us change what happens is we as we resist change in in a way that isn't just This Is Us
which by the way for those of you who like This Is Us that's okay I hated it if a writer is
having a script reading what cues will they pick up on to know that the script is no longer funny
the crickets the silence I think it's important that if you're having a script reading you
record the entire event because at a certain point you won't be able to listen or observe
objectively anymore and so record the entire event because it'll surprise you the things
that you thought didn't go well you'll hear you might hear more response than you thought
there was because maybe you were fixated on this didn't go well or that didn't go well
or conversely if you thought everything was swimmingly and then you hear it back and you hear
the here's what happens with friends who come to your readings yeah first
minute one through minute seven lots of laughter but after seven minutes you've
if it's not happening if if there's nothing alive happening the laughter peters out and then there's
always these one or two people who are just they just love you and so you'll actor will say a line
and and it'll be it'll be a solo just just just standing out and that's just that's just pity
laughter or that's just supportive laughter but but you'll the cues are are people engaged or are
people not engaged if they're engaged something that's something that you wrote is working if
they're not engaged something you wrote is not working and it's not the audience's fault it's not
the people it's not the people listening to the readings fall it might be something that you can
easily fix or or maybe maybe there's an outside reason that has nothing to do with the script but
most writers who look for that outside reason are avoiding their own responsibility for creating a
dramatic event a comedic dramatic event that is engaging so here's the most important thing
rather than looking for the the clues or the hints of what's going well what's not
going well after the reading you want to ask your audience to tell you four things and and and just
what parts what parts were you engaged in what parts were you not engaged in what characters did
you want to see more of what characters did you not want to see more of where were you confused
and that's all that's all you need to know don't ask for any don't ask for any suggestions don't
don't ask well what do you think when she when she said this in act in in the second part no
no you don't want suggestions Neil Gaiman is a writer who once said that 95 of the criticisms
you receive are correct but 95 percent of the solutions you're offered are incorrect meaning
if somebody doesn't like something that's real a human being didn't respond to what it was that is
absolutely useful information but why they didn't like it what you should do about it
that you should throw out because it's really about taking the your your own EKG of the script
you don't want that EKG machine to say well you should eat more fiber no you just something
something's not going right and I gotta figure it out myself and it seems like if you invite
people that whether they're actors and they're in the industry or not they're going to have a
similar sense of humor and so then no okay do you have friends that have an opposite sense of humor
I again senses of humor are are variable they're they're everybody has a different sense of humor
so I think somebody once said that that they never heard Lorne Michaels laugh in an audition
and that's a scary thing you're there and the guy who you want to hire you never responds
and so that can make you go crazy but everybody has their own sense of humor their own their own
specific sense of criteria that makes them laugh or not laugh but you people are either engaged or
not engaged I mean are they shifting around in their seats are they are they leaning forward
meaning what's gonna wonder what's gonna happen next
so so when when you're when you're doing a reading the important thing is to don't spend a lot of
don't spend a lot of your time trying to rehearse the readers you're just doing more damage you
don't have enough time to do it well and you have enough time to screw things up so just give them
the script make sure that the stage directions if any that are read out loud are clearly delineated
so people don't trip over themselves and make sure that you have an equal number of listeners to the
people who are reading so that you get some sort of a sense how things are going and serve wine
and cheese and wine and and and more wine so that so that people are in a receptive mode.