Writing Funny: The Presence and Purpose of Hostility in Comedy

S2_E29 – The Presence and Purpose of Hostility in Comedy

This week in our series on writing funny, we're talking about the second letter in Melvin Helitzer's acronym THREES, which makes up the six primary ingredients of all comedy writing. H = Hostility, because all comedy is intrinsically hostile. Humor is meant to eradicate many of the hostile feelings we have in our daily lives. So, what are we hostile towards?

Sex, authority, financial concerns, family affairs, angst and technology, physical characteristics -- pretty much anything that makes up our normal, everyday human experiences can become fuel for hostility. Hostility is going to be there no matter what we write. The key is to allow humor to become a cathartic and cleansing experience, rather than something that feeds the deep seeds of rage and division and turmoil. Even though hostility is always going to be an inherent part of comedy, it can still be used in a healthy and constructive way.

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SPECIAL THANKS to CARLA PATULLO for the original music used in the intro and outro of this podcast. To find out more about this amazing talent, go to  www.carlapatullo.com