True or not, the Buffy writers are largely credited with inventing all this stuff. Those shows had a very fresh, jaunty, goofy dialog style that was unique at the time. It was known as the Buffy Voice.
I don’t think I totally buy that one TV franchise invented an entire cultural way of speaking, but they at least popularized, influenced, and supercharged it. They were tuned in very early to where the zeitgeist was going, if nothing else.
See, who needs professional writers when we have comedy gold right here.
We need new cliches.
Hmmm, did I miss seeing “alarmed character flies through the air while mouth gets distorted by inrushing air like early astronaut training films”?
Nah, because that would have taken up the whole board.
I have a vague memory of the first “Wait. What?” and thinking it was genius, then using it myself. Of course, now, enough. Does anyone know the first instance?
I didn’t see anything about chickens crossing roads, it might be time to revive an old classic.
Moses. When god handed him the tablet that read, “Thou shall not commit adultery.”
Some shows seem to think that term would apply to every single line said by anybody at all.
What’s really weird is that some of these shows manage to be staggeringly popular, despite apparently never having any actual jokes in their “comedy”.
Now that is original.
The ones that last more than a season generally rely on actors who gained and held the public’s attention in an earlier show or in a movie. The hack writers may get in a genuinely funny line or plot every now and then, but for the most part it’s joke-like substances, call-and-response insults, catchphrases, and puerile sex and drugs quips. With the rare exception broadcast TV is too risk averse for anything truly edgy or innovative.
A couple days ago I accidentally caught half of a show of that sitcom that Brooke Shields was in in the 90s. So dreadfully not funny.
That’s what’s known to comedy writers as a “Stan Daniels turn”, almost always accompanied & achieved by a smash-cut, and it’s much older than all of these (as is he).
At least a quarter of these originated on early Simpsons and Friends episodes, not Buffy - which makes sense as those were two that influenced an overwhelming amount of sitcom writers that came up in the early 00s - and who beat this material to death in time for the Workaholics showrunners to list-and-ban them somewhere between 2011-17.
It was a gag on both Community (Chang) and The Office (Dwight) so it may have been a bit of a trope at the time.
I presume because a lot of the comedy writers are friends their inside jokes make it into multiple shows over time.
There’s also “comedy-like intonation” that gets trendy for a while.
I remember in the mid-80s, there was a Letterman-esque acceleration that a huge number of people affected when making a funny, where the second part of a phrase was said much faster and all run together.
There was a particular vocal fry that I was hearing a lot a decade ago. I don’t know the origin, but it was specifically used when making an ironic “agreement,” and was widely imitated.
I see similar vocal affectations that are shared among comedians in certain groups. Look at how Greg always say “the final task of the show” in Taskmaster and compare it to his former room-mate Russell Howard’s “welcome to my guest” intonation.
Good point! Also Chandler’s emphasis of an unexpected word as a form of sarcasm on Friends. That became a nauseating fad for a while that luckily burned out quickly.
Well played.
Wait, is “well played” on that list? I take it back!
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
