Comedy Legend David Zucker Reveals Untold Stories Behind Ryan Reynolds, Matt Stone, Trey Parker, and Hollywood’s Hidden Secrets
David Zucker
It’s a good question. We have the rules, 15 rules, just about jokes. And then there’s a glossary of about over 100 terms. And one of the things we teach is you have to keep, even a crazy spoof, you have to keep it grounded in reality. And let me use Naked Gun 4 again as an example of what not to do. In the beginning, there’s a bank robbery. And there’s a little girl who comes in. And she takes off her mask. And it’s Liam Neeson. So, at that point, I always think the audience goes, oh, great. Now we don’t have to care anymore. And that’s death for comedy if you don’t keep it grounded and based in reality. And then you can do crazy jokes. And that’s another rule, which is that didn’t happen. If you remember an airplane, Robert Stack and Lloyd Bridges are saying very seriously, we can’t land. Now they’re on instruments. And then we cut up to the plane. And they’re all playing instruments, completely messing with the reality. But then the next time we cut to them, it’s like nobody acknowledges it. There’s no instruments, which is what we call that didn’t happen. So it’s very, very particular, the rules. And then the glossary is there’s a million things to know, which we weren’t geniuses, but we did learn over 40 years how to do this. And Seth McFarland, he’s good at family guy and Ted. But that ain’t spoof. So you can’t just come in and say, hey, we just knock this off. It’s just like the way I feel about I would love to write a sitcom because my house is crazy. And everybody who comes here thinks it would make a great sitcom. But then I watch Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm. And I have my share of arrogance, but I’m not arrogant enough to say, well, I can knock one of these off because I’m so great. No, you stay in your lane. And it’s another thing that I kind of teach in this course. It really goes beyond the specifics.
