Discover Top Posts Tagged with #james downey

SNL writers Robert Smigel and James Downey

#james downey #robert smigel #comedy writers #SNL

They saw the power of my mind and body (One Battle After Another 2025)

#one battle after another #sean penn #tony goldwyn #james downey #absurdism #paranoia #machismo #dark humor #deception

He awards you no points...

#James Downey #Billy Madison #90s #men's fashion #comedy

notes on poking a dead frog

intro: talks about "I did it their way"

"all great comedy has managed to circumnavigate executive meddling."

james downey

jim downey on clapter "it congratulates itself on its edginess, but it's just the ass-kissiest kind of comedy going, reassuring his status-anxious audience that there are some people they're smarter than"

"my own politics are sort of all over the place in terms of issues, but as far as the writing goes, the only important thing its that it's funny, and that it's an original comment. that the audience agrees with me isn't necessary and probably isn't even a good thing. it's so easy to coast by, just hitting the same familiar notes you know are popular and have been pretested for effectiveness. the audience will always at least applaud, so you never have to risk silence."

he goes on to then talk shit about monica lewinsky, which is not the vibe

shouldn't there be some connection with the audience? can you be a complete anarchist when it comes to humor? "yeah well that's norm macdonald. he does things for the experience of doing it, and he doesn't fear silence at all"

it's funny that he says his status anxious audience wants to be assured that they're smarter than someone but this guy does seem to sort of think he's smarter than a lot of people

talking about not being able to title a sketch pussywhipped "'cmon it doesnt mean vagina. it means female-dominated. but that's where the nbc standards lady says, 'well as a woman...' which was her way of reminding me that her sense of humor had been removed at birth."

"one of the points i pride myself on is that i avoid anything i feel is a cheap laugh based on shock or just being dirty. you can always get a laugh, but you don't want it to come at the price of your dignity"

talking about the chippendales sketch he's like it wasn't making fun of him for being fat, because it's crucial that farley wasn't embarrassed and that the judges react the way that they do

~but bro, all of the laughs are predicated on the idea that it's ridiculous that anyone could find chris farley or his body attractive. like there's not really any laughs that aren't about just like making fun of chris's body. they're literally like we thought you were a great dancer, just a fat fat fatty and we hate that about you. like there's actually no way that this joke could be played out in any other way. like the jokes they're going for are literally just look at this fat fat fatty and how fat he is lol isn't it dumb that he thought he could be sexy

"writers tend to write ordinary people in weird situations. performers tend to write weird people in ordinary situations."

"i honestly never want a political agenda to be the leading edge of the piece. i want the piece to be funny, but only because it's based on an observation that i think if fair to make and that no one else is making."

he wants them to be true more than he wants the implications to line up with what he believes

talks about this interesting exercise when he was reading submissions he would ask for three pieces and one of them had to be something that only you think is funny as the writer

#poking a dead frog #jim downey #james downey #source notes

Principal: Mr. Madison, what you just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response, were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to.

#Principal #James Downey #Billy Madison