Pugad Baboy: The Unrealized Slapstick Situational Comedy by 2nd Comedy Writer's TV Workshop

Case Study : Pugad Baboy : The Unrealized Slapstick Situational Comedy
by 2nd Comedy Writers' Television Workshop

Slapstick Comedy depends on broad physical comedy and pantomime for its effect rather than verbal wit or character dialogue. Thus, when a comedy revolves around slapstick, physical routines that provoke the audience to laugh are essential.

Word plays and puns are often identified with slapstick. This is a common mistake. Action and activities are more related with this mode compared to text and subtext. This is more or less supported by Slapstick Comedy of the Three Stooges wherein physical comedy is widely applied.
People who do not understand this mode and genre of comedy often la bel Slapstick to be a comedy with no meaningful content. Partly, this is the fault of comedy writers who are not familiar with and do not respect this comedy sub-genre. Often, they recklessly interchange Slapstick Comedy with Gags.

Slapstick Comedy provokes the audience to react or act on a funny and physical stimulant. The funny factor of this genre may draw its strength from its form or function. Thus, Slapstick Comedy may either entertain people or engage them in a dialectic discussion of varying topics or issues.

When television introduced Pugad Baboy as a situational comedy, immediately, it was a disaster in the making. The lack of proper research and deconstruction made the whole attempt futile in the first place. Such a promising material was reduced to a meaningless exercise. Some people say, that disastrous sitcom affected the popularity of the franchise in the print media. Somehow, the magic disappeared when inherent weaknesses of the franchise were exposed.

Pugad Baboy is a comic strip that relies on physical comedy as a mode. Characters revolve around routines that are directed to inducing laughter to its immediate audience. Furthermore, the comic strip by nature is made up of visual one-liners. Thus, there are no visible emotional and physical narrative threads. What we see are feedliners and punchlines that constantly interact in order to create what we call "the funnies".

Translating a comic strip that is base on visual one liners that utilizes slapstick comedy as a mode requires a lot of structural conversions in order to transform it into a workable situational comedy. For one thing, a sitcom requires visible emotional and physical narrative threads. Thus, the mode of comedy is no longer a function of feedliners and punchlines rather it begins to tell a complete story in terms of components and structure.

The Pugad Baboy sitcom did not exhibit such vital features rather it relied on sentimental popularity that was clearly flimsy because the story and the characters were not deploying a meaningful material whether it was for entertainment or dialectic discussions.

Proper research and deconstruction would reveal that the sitcom was a situation of place. The magic came from the mythology of the place called Pugad Baboy from which the characters and their relationships existed. Take away this urban myth and the characters cease to be alive. I mean, where was the self-conscious dog Polgas in the equation?

The point of this case study is to emphasize the need to understand the dynamics of both the genre and the format. The inability to identify, deconstruct and manage a material will always lead to disastrous consequences. Pugad Baboy could have been a groundbreaking sitcom. It has the potential to use Slapstick Comedy as a genre in engaging its audience in dialectic discussions through the situational comedy format.

Due to overwhelming requests
COMEDY WRITERS' TELEVISION WORKSHOP (CWTW)
sessions are moved to DECEMBER 3 to avoid conflict with the sched of Pacquiao-Morales fight.

Also, ONLY THIS DECEMBER!!!
We're offering PACQUIAO VICTORY and CHRISTMAS DISCOUNT. We slash P1,000 off the workshop fee.
REGISTER NOW for ONLY P 5,500.

NEW CWTW Sessions Sched:
DECEMBER 3, 10 & 17
10am-5pm

VENUE:
FUTURE PROSPECTS ART SPACE
62-63 Marikina Shoe Expo
Gen. Romulo Ave., Cubao, Q.C.

REGISTER on November 25, 3pm onwards.
AT:
FUTURE PROSPECTS ART SPACE
62-63 Marikina Shoe Expo
Gen. Romulo Ave., Cubao, Q.C.
OR
Contact: +6390-8793237
for other registration schedules/arrangements

COMEDY WRITERS' TELEVISION WORKSHOP
LEVEL 1: IMMERSION (Situational Comedy)
2nd Batch Sessions Moved To DECEMBER 3
3 Sundays, from 10am-5pm
Fee: P 6,500 (NOW P 5,500)
Register NOW!
Contact: +63920-8793237
E-mail: irish_patatas_entertainment@yahoo.com
Click: http://the-chips1.tripod.com

COVERAGE
- Systematic Approach Towards Idea and Premise Construction Of Situational Comedies
- Story Outline Management and Development
Facilitator: Mel df. Escarcha
(writer for television/story editor for animation)

- Treatment and Script Development and Management
- Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Sitcoms
Facilitator: JL Caiña
(TV Program Analyst /Developer, Writer For Television)

Lecture breakdown
(NOTE: Friends, the sitcom, is primarily the basis for all the activities and discussions)

PHASE 1: Story Outline Management and Development

Sunday 01 : Morning
Comedy : The Genre
1. History : Classical Foundation
2. Creation, Shaping and Honing of Comedy Material
3. Knowledge of Market Requirements
4. Craft
5. Art

Scope of the Comedy Material
1. Market Outlets
2. Comedy Materials
3. Comedy Writer vs. Funnies

Comedy : Mathematical Equation and Diagram
1. The Comedy Equation
2. The Comedy Diagram

The Need vs. Want of Comedy
1. Laughter is the Best Medicine
2. Coping Mechanism
3. Social Control Mechanism
4. Non-Agressive Tool
5. Subjectivity of Humour
6. Dynamics of Comedy

The Comedy Writer
1. Comedian vs. Comedy Writer
2. Observation, Research and Analysis
3. Responsibilty

Generating Ideas
1. Inspirational Aids
2. Idea Generating Techniques

Sunday 01 : Afternoon
Comedy Writing Techniques
1. Golden Rules of Comedy
2. Comedy Techniques
3. Structural Techniques
4. Specialized Mode of Comedy

Comedy Units
1. One Liners: Jokes & Gags
2. Sketches

Comedy Writing In Television
1. Flow Chart Of Television Process
2. Writing Process
3. Writing Visually
4. Script Lay Out & Camera Terms
5.& nbsp; Production Considerations

Sunday 02: Morning
Premise Evaluation
1. The Pitch
2. Components of a good premise

The Story Outline
1. Features " The Step Outline Method"
2. Components
3. Structure
4. Evaluation

Output : Requirement for the Next Phase
Story Outline of an episode for an existing Situational Comedy Program - Friends

PHASE 2: The Teleplay: Structuring & Management

Sunday 02: Afternoon
Group critiquing on story line.

Evolution of Sitcom and the TV comedy genre.
From gags to sketch to sitcom to comedy series

Usual Sitcom set-ups:
A study of the existing sitcoms, local and foreign, vis-à-vis Friends

Cooking Humor: The Ingredients

Turning the storyline into a treatment/script outline
1. Storyline vs. script outline or treatment
2. Defining the points in the story

You as an editor and a censor: Choosing scenes
1. The question—A scene or not a scene? : Finding points the story that has no point
2. To merge or to drop a scene
Activity: writing the treatment for the first body
Assignment: Full Treatment

Sunday 03: Morning
Group critiquing on the treatment.
Gapping in sitcom
1. Contents of the bodies or gaps.
2. Gap-enders: to cliff-hang or to laff-hang?
3. Warming up the engine: the first body of the treatment: Making an impressionable laugh-hook in the beginning
Activity: Writing and critiquing

Dialoguing
1. Crisp lines: on-the-nose vs. subtlety in a comedy
2. Cracking the joke
a. going back to the gags: Punchline’s Coming
b. The anticipation for the laugh

6 Comic attacks for a better scene
1. Counterintuitive
2. Physical
3. Circumstantial.
4. Innuendo
5. The Stock
6. One-Liner
Activity: Scripting

Sunday 03: Afternoon
Group Critiquing on the script
Dialoguing 2: Off the culprit’s mouth: how characters talk or not talk

The writer and his characters
Knowing your characters

Descriptions
1. Rules: What should you describe?
2. Can it make or interfere with the laugh?
Activity: Polishing the script

Final Product: a sample script based on the characters of Friends.

Venue:
FUTURE PROSPECTS ART SPACE
Unit 62-63 Marikina Shoe Expo
Gen. Romulo Ave., Cubao, Q.C.