A Serious Look at Funny Video

Whether you are the polished professional, or a beginning videographer, comedy can be a useful tool for reaching your audience. Mastering the formula for writing and shooting comedy, however, requires more than just a good sense of humor. An understanding of what makes video funny will help you create videos that make your viewers, be they your kids or your clients, take notice and perhaps even laugh.

There are really two types of comedy in video. The first type is the spontaneous "caught-on-tape" variety that you see on shows like America's Funniest Home Videos and The World's Funniest. A baby, having sampled pur´ed carrots for the first time, promptly bathes its mother with a gush of liquid orange. A no-nonsense newswoman reports from the field, unaware that the llama behind her has taken a sudden interest in her ponytail. A man walking across a stream on a fallen tree trunk suddenly feels himself slip. His body wobbles, straightens and pitches forward. His legs split open as he drops like a stone to the hard, wet surface of the log. Spontaneous events like these are funny, but catching them on tape can be nearly impossible. Why? Because by their very nature they can't be scripted. The videographer must rely on time, chance and lots of videotape.

The other type of humor captured on video is the scripted variety. Scripted comedy can take the form of television sitcoms or set up gags, as seen on shows like Candid Camera and Show Me Your Funny. Either way, scripted comedy has become a mainstay of American te…