Creativity Muscle Workouts: Out of their Wheelhouse

I was watching a re-run of Friends this afternoon... you know the episode where Joey writes the "Recommendation Letter to the Adoption Agency" for Monica and Chandler. Joey used the thesaurus on EVERY WORD of his letter. He wanted to sound smart. 

But isn't that ONE KIND OF COMEDY... in attempting to sound smart, he sounds ridiculous. 

This opened up a handful of creativity moments for me, which I will explore over the next few workouts :) For today...

Writing comedy can simply be a person trying to be or do something that isn't "in their wheelhouse." For example...

• Hiccup in "How to Train Your Dragon." He is constantly trying to be something he is not... a dragon-killer. And his attempts are funny. Sad, but funny. 
• Joey in "Friends." He attempts to sound smart and only sounds ridiculous. 
• Lucy in "I Love Lucy." She and Ethel try to be candy-makers and end up consuming and stuffing pounds of chocolate into their mouths, hats, and dresses. And all in attempt to prove they are working girls, which in this show... they are not.  
• Leopold in "Kate & Leopold." He is an 1800s English Duke who is transported into 21st century New York (the how is irrelevant here). He doesn't understand cleaning up dog poop, cross-walks, and police officers which leads to hilarity. 

This is used EVERYWHERE in storytelling. It gives the audience both a chance to laugh AND see a character learn about him/herself through this "out of place" experience.  

Learning how to use this in your writing is powerful.

Let's give it a try...

Creativity Muscle Exercise #4

Take a character from any book, film, episodic, or game and put him/her into a situation that is NOT their thing. 

Describe what happens. What is said. What exchanges with other characters that leads to both hilarity and a character growing in their own self-awareness.

Let your creative muscle do the work and just write... you might find you crack yourself up. 

NOTE: Don't let choosing a character to do this exercise, stop you from doing the exercise. There is no perfect character to do this with... If you are struggling to narrow and choose, do this exercise with 2-3 characters. It won't hurt you :) In fact it will help you to write this in multiple contexts. 

DEBRIEF: 

1. How did you choose an experience that was "NOT their thing?" What questions did you ask yourself to find this? Note them next to your writing. These questions will help you later :) 
2. What made the situation funny? (be specific) 
3. What did the character learn about him/herself through this situation? Why would that be helpful in storytelling?