The Secret to Writing Comedy

Larry David

I came across this article in the New Yorker, which includes a look at how Larry David weaves his plots together for his great show, Curb Your Enthusiasm.

See: http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/040119fa_fact?040119fa_fact

Referring to his tattered notebook:

He leafed through the notebook. “Most of the ideas stink,” he said. “But you’d be surprised. See, a lot of these I’ll use, not as a big story but like a little piece of filler. And then all of a sudden it somehow leads into something.”

When the time comes to begin writing the new season, David scans his notebook for possibilities. “He’ll go through the notebook and find three or four stories and extrapolate them to worst-case,” ... “He starts to weave them together. Sometimes you can brainstorm ideas with him—you can even pitch B stories to him. He’s used stories from Larry Charles and me. Cheryl got a story in there. And then he just sits down and sweats it out.”

There you go. That's the secret. Comedy writing is hard work.