How To Write Comedy Scripts With LOL Dialogue

Learning how to write comedy scripts that makes a reader laugh out loud is no easy task. But if you’re writing a comedy screenplay, your dialogue had better be damn funny. Not jokey. Not just a comment. Not just blue throw away humor, but I’m-dying-from-laughter funny.

When wondering how to write comedy scripts with super funny dialogue, think of all the dialogue you hear with weak jokes or line deliveries. Now multiply that times a thousand. Because that’s how many different agents, managers and studio readers read last year. Most of which included those same jokes.

You don’t want to turn a screenplay in that makes the reader cringe with the awfulness, or even mediocrity, of the jokes. And the best way to do this is to make your characters truly witty.

When your characters say something witty and different to elicit a laugh, the reader will be impressed and think you are a better writer than you are. Trust me! I was one of those readers. So take more time giving your characters a razor sharp wit and it will pay off in dividends. But how do you do this?

How To Write A Comedy Script With Woody Allen Level Wit

How do we make all the gags feel like they’ve been written by a professional comedy writer? How do we give the characters Woody Allen-esque one-liners?

We steal!

Yes, that’s right — one great way to give your characters fantastic lines is to not even come up with the jokes yourself. Yes, I’m talking about ripping off existing jokes or modifying existing jokes. There are literally millions of jokes out there ready to be adapted to your comedy screenplay.

Say you have a guy in your script who’s really immature. You could spend ages trying to come up with a funny joke about how he acts like a 14-year-old. Or, you could pop into Google “jokes about immature men” and hey presto you have an abundance of ready-made professional gags waiting for you.

In a matter of seconds I found: “Men are like government bonds… they take so long to mature.” This can then be easily adapted to a one-liner along the lines of “He needs to grow up. I’ve seen government bonds mature faster.” You get the picture.

This will immediately give your characters the comedic edge over most others out there in spec-script land.

How To Write Comedy Scripts With Characters Who Aren’t Witty

But what about characters that are just generally “comedic” and not necessarily witty?

Take George Clooney’s character, Everett, in O Brother Where Art Thou!’  I would argue he has the funniest dialogue in the film. But it’s his sidekicks, Hogwallop and O’Donnell, who are arguably funnier.

The Coen Brothers achieved this by giving each of the characters a voice. They each have their own speaking style and very little of what they say comes across as “jokey.” This is because the humor comes from naturalistic (or humorously unnatural) voices, individualized within each character.

Great advice, I know: “WRITE LIKE THE COEN BROTHERS, STUPID!”  While I realize how difficult that is, my point remains:

Give your characters a point of view, and base any humor coming from them off of that point of view. This the basis of all great comedy writing.

You could try fleshing out fully-formed characters using the Enneagram method. Once you have done that, your characters’ voices should come clear for you, and just like everyone you know has a different sense of comedic voice—for better and worse—so should your characters.

How To Write A Comedy Script: Conclusion

If you want to know how to write a comedy script with dialogue and characters that make studio readers, agents, and managers double up with laughter, here’s what you should do:

• If you have a “witty” character, make sure that their jokes are super funny by stealing and modifying existing jokes.

• If you have a “comedic” character, make sure that how they act rather than what they say makes them funny.

Do this and your comedy screenplay will be head and shoulders over 99 percent of the comedy specs out there and studio readers will be that much more likely to give it a “consider” or “recommend,” just on the strength of the humor alone.

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More posts on how to write good dialogue…

HOW TO WRITE SCRIPT DIALOGUE: The Ultimate Screenplay Dialogue Audit To Ensure Your Characters Are Never “Just Talking”

HOW TO WRITE DIALOGUE BETWEEN TWO CHARACTERS: THE ULTIMATE THEORY HACK

HOW TO WRITE A SCREENPLAY FOR A MOVIE: A PRACTICAL STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE

THE SIMPLE TRICK TO MAKE YOUR DIALOGUE SOUND LIKE REAL MOVIE DIALOGUE

HOW TO WRITE A PHONE CONVERSATION IN A SCREENPLAY

ON THE NOSE DIALOGUE: THE VERY BEST WAY TO ELIMINATE IT

GET THE BOOK “Master Screenplay Dialogue: The Ultimate Practical Guide On How To Write Dialogue Like The Pros”