Monday, February 11, 2019

2019 OSCARS: Green Book (2018) - Hope; When Humor Comes Out of Character

[Quick Summary: In 1962, racist New Yorker Tony Lip becomes a bouncer for black concert pianist Dr. Don Shirley's tour of the South.]

TWO THINGS THIS SCRIPT DOES WELL:

1) Hope. I really enjoyed the hopeful tone of the script, especially in the ending.

2) Humor Out of Character. Director/co-writer Peter Farrelly said that the script is not terribly funny on the page.* He did not set out to write funny scenes.  

Instead, the humor comes out of character.

What is "humor out of character"? I think it is more about behavior than jokes.

For example, a character's misunderstandings, contradictory actions, back tracking, etc. are funny because he/she don't see them, but the audience does. **

I like this scene below as an example of misunderstanding:

ex. "INT. DINER - DAY

....Lip goes back to his plate.

LIP (CONT'D): By the way, when you hired me, my wife went out bought one of your records -- 'one about the orphans.

DR. SHIRLEY: Orphans?

LIP: Yeah. Cover had a bunch of kids sitting around a campfire?

Shirley has to think a moment.

DR. SHIRLEY: Orpheus.

LIP: What?

DR. SHIRLEY: Orpheus in the Underworld. It's based on a French Opera. And those kids on the cover? They were demons in hell.

LIP: No shit? Must of been naughty kids."

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I think humor coming from character is harder to write, but more universal. It seems to rely less on understanding language than behavior.

Green Book (2018) 
by Nick Vallelonga & Brian Currie & Peter Farrelly

* Interestingly, he only started to see that it was really funny when the actors elevated it.

**Farrelly cites The Andy Griffith Show as a model of humor out of character. It is not a show built on jokes.

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