Keith Giglio - Writing the Comedy Blockbuster: The Inappropriate Goal

Making people cry is easy. Making people laugh is hard. Teaching people how to make other people laugh is even harder. Keith Giglio does it in this book in a straightforward and humorous way!

Alan R. Cohen & Alan Freedland, Writers/Producers of Due Date, King of the Hill, American Dad

Itll light a fire under your ass and not in a teen comedy kind of way. Inspirational, practical, and a great read unto itself. Keiths book will help you write not only a great comedy screenplay but also any genre of screenplay.

Michael Davis, Writer/Director of Shoot Em Up, Eight Days a Week

This book is not only about Blockbuster Comedy it reads like one! Sharp, funny, and focused on the practical and commercial, Keith Giglio has crafted the essential handbook for writing modern film comedy for anyone ambitious and twisted enough to try!

Tom Brady, Writer/Director of The Animal, The Hot Chick, Bucky Larson: Born To Be A Star

Keith Giglios Writing the Comedy Blockbuster is a must-read for all comedy writers working or not working student or pro. It is entertaining, inspirational, and packed full of valuable information.

Tom Martin, Two-time Emmy Award winner for Fox TVs The Simpsons

Finally, a funny book about being funny from someone who is and has actually made a living at it. This is a wonderfully entertaining screenwriting class school in 200 pages. I hope both screenwriters and producers decide to enroll.

Lisa Bruce, Producer, No Strings Attached

Keith Giglio has crafted the essential handbook for writing the comedy screenplay. Teaching that a strong storyline is as important as a clever punchline, Keith guides the reader step by step through the process of turning a clever idea into a funny script. Insightful, educational, and hilarious, this is the how-to book that all aspiring comedy writers needs next to their laptop.

Carr DAngelo, Producer, The Animal, The Hot Chick

Giglios tone is light in this funny, easy read. Highly recommended for screenwriters interested in writing comedies.

Library Journal

Breezy, accessible, and above all useful. Keith Giglios book wont turn you into a better lover (sorry, Mom), but it WILL help you become a better screenwriter.

David Breckman, Writer/Producer, Monk, Saturday Night Live

Keith Giglio is an amazing writer and an even more amazing teacher. Hes got tons of experience, wisdom, and knowledge, and the very rare ability to convey all of it in a clear, easy-to-follow, and entertaining way. Keith is the real deal!

Steve Mazur, Co-Writer, Liar, Liar

Keith breaks down the comedy screenplay from concept to completion and does so with a lot of laughs. Its a great behind the scenes tour of the Hollywood writers process, full of good advice for anyone trying to figure out the business of comedy.

Michael Bostick, Producer, Bruce Almighty

What Keith has done is nothing less than a comedy version of The Heros Journey, providing writers not only a sequence-by-sequence roadmap for the specific genre, but also a slew of tips, principles, and exercises to create their comedy blockbuster. Think Joseph Campbell meets Judd Apatow.

Scott Myers, Writer, K-9, host of GoIntoTheStory.com

Writing the Comedy Blockbuster: The Inappropriate Goal is not your ordinary, garden variety tome on screenwriting its probably one of the most entertaining and informative books on the subject of scripting a comedy! Giglio gives writers valuable in-the-trenches advice partnered with practical, insightful exercises. This read is guaranteed to help you focus on your comedy project as well as tickle your funny bone!

Kathie Fong Yoneda, consultant, workshop leader, and author of The Script-Selling Game: A Hollywood Insiders Look At Getting Your Script Sold and Produced (2nd edition)

Keith Giglio has opened my eyes and shut my mouth! Ive been writing comedy for 25 years, and have never heard of the inappropriate goal. I have to tell you, it was an eye opener. Knowledge of that, and how to use it to make your comedies really funny, is definitely going to help me in my feature career as well as in my sitcom classes at Loyola Marymount University. If you want to write a comedy, BUY THIS BOOK!

Paul Chitlik, Author of Rewrite: A Step-By-Step Guide to Strengthen Structure, Characters, and Drama in Your Screenplay

WRITING THE COMEDY BLOCKBUSTER

THE IN APPROPRIATE GOAL

KEITH GIGLIO

MICHAEL WIESE PRODUCTIONS

Published by Michael Wiese Productions

12400 Ventura Blvd. #1111

Studio City, CA 91604

(818) 379-8799, (818) 986-3408 (FAX)

mw@mwp.com

www.mwp.com

Cover design by MWP

Interior design by William Morosi

Copyedited by Annalisa Zox-Weaver

Printed by McNaughton & Gunn

Manufactured in the United States of America

Copyright 2012 by Keith Giglio

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Giglio, Keith, 1963

Writing the comedy blockbuster : the inappropriate goal / Keith Giglio.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-61593-085-2 1.

Comedy films--Authorship. I. Title.

PN1996.G42 2012

808.2523--dc23

2011039251

Printed on Recycled Stock

CONTENTS

DEDICATION AND THANK YOUS

T hanks to the Breckmans to Dave, for friendship and many years of laughter and joy away from Staten Island; and to Andy for showing me the yellow brick road and for pointing me in the direction of Oz.

Thanks to Dr. Linda Venis and everyone else (then and now) at UCLA Extension for giving me the opportunity to develop the class that became this book.

Thanks to my family (Mom, Dad, Aunt Ella, and my brother and sister, inlaws, outlaws, and all the rest) for putting up with my foolishness.

And special thanks to my Giglio Girls my daughters, Sabrina and Ava, for laughing at my good jokes, not laughing at the bad ones, and for having such great senses of humor an amazing feat considering one quarter of your ancestry. I fully expect a Thank You note from the two of you for earning a mention in the dedication.

To Juliet, for laughing with me, and for making me laugh and making me smile even when youre yelling at me for something I stupidly said, did, or was thinking of doing. Im very happy you married this fool.

INTRODUCTION

BY ANDY BRECKMAN

Andy Breckman is a television and film writer and a radio personality. He is the co-creator and executive producer of the Emmy Award-winning television series Monk on the USA Network, and is co-host of WFMU radios long-running conceptual comedy program Seven Second Delay. He has written screenplays for a number of comedy films including Sgt. Bilko and Rat Race and is frequently hired as a script doctor to inject humorous content into scripts written by other screenwriters. He has worked on Saturday Night Live and Late Night with David Letterman.

L et me tell you about my first day in Hollywood.

I had flown to Los Angeles to pitch some movie ideas. I had worked on some TV shows back in New York, but this trip was my first time trying to sell to a major studio. I pulled up to the main gate at Universal Studios. The guard handed me my drive-on pass, and waved me through. My movie geek heart was pounding! Id been watching absorbing movies since I was a kid. All I ever wanted to do was make movies.

Write movies.

That was the dream.

There was a truck in front of me. It stopped. Some workers started loading movie scripts onto the back. They must have been cleaning out a warehouse or something. There were thousands