How to Write Comedy: The Danny Simon Notes

by James Scott Bell

Neil Simon, Danny’s younger brother, and Woody Allen both credit Danny for teaching them to write comedy. Not a bad recommendation.

Danny Simon made his bones in the golden age of TV, on shows like Make Room for Daddy and Sid Caesar’s Show of Shows.

Then he taught a legendary comedy writing class in L.A. for many years. A young writer named James Scott Bell took the course, and copious notes. These notes have never before been published. Bell is revealing these comedy secrets now for the first time.

This booklet (4500 words) also includes an analysis of a legendary comedy show that Danny Simon had his students study. If you are serious about comedy . . . or if you just want to put more humor in your writing, this booklet will give you the tools.

“I loved this booklet! So many great points. Terrific examples too. When I teach comedy, it is so challenging to really outline how to write a joke, all the setup that is involved, all the word play, all the reversals and the word choices. This is so well articulated. I will definitely reference it and promote it when I teach!” – Rene Gutteridge, author of Escapement and Never the Bride

James Scott Bell is one of the #1 bestselling writing coach of Plot & Structure and The Art of War for Writers. He is an award winning thriller author and seminar teacher.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction

31 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 22, 2012

About the author

Jim is a former trial lawyer who now writes and speaks full time. He is the bestselling author of Try Dying, No Legal Grounds, Presumed Guilty, Glimpses of Paradise, Breach of Promise and several other thrillers. He is a winner of the Christy Award for Excellence in Inspirational Fiction, and was a fiction columnist for Writers Digest magazine. He has written two books in the Writers' Digest series, Write Great Fiction: Plot & Structure and Revision & Self-Editing.

Jim has taught writing at Pepperdine University and numerous writers conferences. He attended the University of California, Santa Barbara where he studied writing with Raymond Carver.

Series:
* Shannon Saga (with Tracie Peterson)
* The Trials of Kit Shannon
* Ty Buchanan

Reviews

[Frank Carver · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very brief, sketchy, and repetitive

As well as a reader, I also try to write. To help with that (and not at all as a way of putting off the, you know, actual writing) I have been collecting a lot of books about writing. I have read a few of them, but not recently, so I decided it was time to delve into the archive and pluck one or two out to see if they helped. In the case of this one the answer is: not really.

This very short book (a little over 5000 words) describes itself as a set of notes from a lecture by a master of comedy, with annotations by the author of this book. In a sense, that is exactly what it is, but what the description does not emphasise is that around half the book is actually composed of a rough transcript of a classic episode of the Mary Tyler Moore show. I say “rough transcript”, as I watched the episode concerned on YouTube after reading this book, and there are several points where the book diverges from the actual episode.

If we ignore the TV transcript, the book is literally a set of notes, hurriedly taken by Bell while listening to Danny Simon teach a course on writing comedy. Interspersed between the notes are some comments from Bell which attempt to clarify or rephrase what the notes are intended to convey.

There are a few good points in this book, but what surprised me most of all was how repetitive it is. It takes several thousand words to tease out a few simple concepts:
* Start with a premise on which to hang everything else.
* Then create characters. Make them quirky, with plenty of opportunities for conflict.
* Put your characters in situations which cause and increase conflict.
* Give the characters trouble, but not so much that it becomes a tragedy.
* Jokes should flow naturally from the characters in the situations.
* Consider lots of options and edit, edit, edit.

All of that seems completely logical, and I can’t honestly think that I would have approached writing comedy very differently, anyway.

What is missing from the book is anything about actually, you know, making people laugh. The discussion centres on setting up a scenario in which funny things can happen, but then stops short of discussing the actual funny.

There is a big issue here, though, and it is that different people have very different senses of humour. The sitcom episode “Chuckles bites the dust”, discussed at length in this book follows the concepts above, and is apparently considered to be one of the funniest ever sitcom episodes. However, I didn’t crack a smile even when I watched it performed by the tremendous ensemble cast of actors from the Mary Tyler Moore Show. It all seemed very “in your face” with, for example, boss Lou Grant explaining several times that laughter is a coping mechanism. There just did not seem to be any subtlety to it. The only bit that I found even slightly humorous when I watched the episode was the running gag about Mary having been given an ugly mobile made out of fake food and not knowing what to do with it, but that is a ‘C' story at best, and doesn’t even make it into the transcript in the book.

There is certainly something to be learned from this book, but it is very sketchy and should really be expanded into a more thorough treatment of forms of humour, how to recognise them, and how to balance them in a story to appeal to different people.

[Miguel Jr. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The weakest link.

How to Write Comedy is the worst book in this series. I surprisingly read this one last, even though it's the first book in the series. I won't reread it, but I may skim some texts that I highlighted while going through it. The other two books in this series are far superior to this one.

[Rachael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not quite what I was looking for.

[Anne Libera · Rating 3 out of 5]

Genuinely just notes with some explanation from the author. What is there is smart but little substance.

[Gwyn Haller · Rating 4 out of 5]

If only 4.75 stars out of 5 stars were possible

James Scott Bell strikes comedy gold again, proving that humor isn't just about dropping a punchline—it's about crafting characters so real that their quirks and mishaps become comedy fireworks. The secret recipe? Understanding your characters so intimately that their comedic moments feel less like calculated jokes and more like inevitable, hilarious bumper car wrecks waiting to happen. It's comedy alchemy: part character study, part perfect timing, and 100% organic hilarity.

[Henrietta · Rating 3 out of 5]

More useful if you already know the basics of comedy writing. Much of what is written is vague. They're someone's notes quickly jotted down so it's lacking a lot of context. However, it's useful to compare someone else's interpretation of the basics. I picked up two or three ideas which made the very short read worth it. You could probably finish the entire book over a single cup of coffee. Not a bad trade off.

[Francene Carroll · Rating 2 out of 5]

This 'book' consists of notes taken by the author at a comedy writing seminar. For him, they are obviously very meaningful, but for the reader who wasn't there, they come across as random and vague. It would have been much more fruitful for readers if he'd taken the time to flesh out these notes and explain the ideas in more detail. I'm glad I got this for free.

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Feels a Bit Light

I didn't really walk away from this feeling like I had a better grasp of how to write comedy.

Don't get me wrong, I like outlines and I like books that don't beat around the bush; however, this felt like it was missing key information.

I'm cleaning out my Kindle account and erasing books that don't make the cut.

This one didn't.

[Michael Sanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Couldn't quit laughing. Imagine that.

Great comedy is a pratfall of the unexpected. It hits you when you least expect it, and John Scott Bell couldn't have laid it out more perfectly.

[Frederic · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too short and too vague. Very inexpensive but not worth it, in my view.

[Jorge Cruz · Rating 5 out of 5]

lol! It’s only 36 pages. But I’m writing comedy and using it for creative brainstorming…

[Stephanie Carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some great tips in here and a very interesting story about an important name in comedy. Like some of the other reviewers, I wasn't aware that it wasn't a full book when I purchased it, but I didn't read much of the description to find out either. I just heard James Scott Bell had written "How to Write Comedy" and I had to get it because I've read all his other books on craft and writing. He's a great writer and a fabulous teacher. I started using his books when I first started writing, and I still reference them even now as a published author myself (A White Room - Historical Fiction). I think it's especially helpful that he included a critique of a real screenplay script in this book. That was very exciting and useful. Overall a useful set of notes for anyone interested in incorporating comedy into their work.

[Edward Boyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book, wish it was longer. Some of the tips apply outside comedy and it doesn't have all the rhetoric of many "learn to write" books.