Although often stirred in the moment, I am a hopeless skeptic. Almost every story in my social media feed or emails these days is outright false. We stretch the truth with a wink and a nudge but we have a factual launching point.Įmails via friends and family from both political camps share talking points, stories and regurgitated ideas. Great arguments and comedy can debate the relevance and interpretation of a facts, but your audience often knows when the fact is out right false. Less is more but total lack of details is worse. With google at our finger tips 24 hours/day this is totally unnecessary and unforgivable. Similarly a lot of students will be lazy with details. I merely told the student to do a little research and dig a little deeper and brainstorm a few more ideas. What ever it was, I double checked my facts via google before sharing my note to the student. I forget the specifics as I focus on the positive. There were two or three good points but then things went a stray. That same nine year old made a totally untrue statement while comparing plastic to glass. They were so excited about their arguments based on a false premise. They are heart broken at times when I tell them that is just not factually correct. They just lack certain knowledge as kids and teens. ETHOS – Credibility, TrustĪlmost weekly a student or two will make an argument with data that is out right false. “Why not use plastic?” Satire by definition creates analogies. It may not be logical to stop using Glass in construction, but the the argument follows the logic of other conservation movements. My nine year old student was ridiculous in his ANTI GLASS routine however for the most part made some good points, no matter how exaggerated. Most times, however, we are not in opposition to conventional logic, we merely expand our understanding, adding a few twists for comedic effect. No matter how much we defy logic, we recognize the logic we defy. Many funny stories require purposefully going against the logical outcome. Many Sci-fi/Fantasy/Horror writers will invent alternate logic to discover alternate realities where space and time work differently. ALL BECAUSE WE WON’T GET OFF OUR BUTTS and experience the world beyond the pane.Ĭreativity often defies logic. What if our over use of glass destroys the ability for turtles and birds to lay their eggs. WHO ELSE NEEDS SAND? Who buries their eggs their? We did not even get to the dessert dwellers. I suggested he needed a second and third to make the argument stick. The nine year old only mentioned the Sun Bathers as victim of over use of sand in glass production. Magic three creates a familiar timing and rhythm to our comedy. Humans have been conditioned to this rule since Greek times, perhaps before. More than three and you risk loosing your audience. Less than three and your arguments fall short, unjustified. With every argument, have at least three supporting facts to back up your statements. With any debate or comedy routine, do you pass the test of logos, pathos, and/or ethos? LOGOS – Structure and Logicįor structure I teach the magic three – Great for comedy, great for book reports. Without any grounding in reality we lose our audience. As artists of any kind we will defy logic and reason but without understanding the rules we break we will lose a foot in reality. If the joke does not get a laugh, what have we got? Ethos Logos Pathos in Comedy Writing Laughter as the only goal can fall short. I digress… lolĬomedy writing and presenting is often a form of debate. Unfortunately they too often get this result far to easily. They require masses of blind followers to not question their logic to succeed. Their arguments lack logic, empathy, inspiration, proof, ethics etc.
It’s bad enough politicians and their hack representatives on the news shows often outright lie, but their debate technique and story telling is flawed.
Normally these concepts pop up daily as I rip apart political debate. This kid made me think about Logos, Ethos and Pathos and how it can help our comedy writing. While this sounds ridiculous, it has the basis of a very strong argument.
You sit and observe the world through glass, meanwhile sunbathers suffer.
Great story telling is an art with technique.Ī nine year old student from my Sunday class on Long Island did routine about humans over use of glass – basically an argument for sand conservation. Comedy / Creative writing is much more than jokes.
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