Sketch War

Category: Analysis

  • Thoughts on sketch comedy

    There’s a lot of sketch comedy out there, and a lot of ideas on what makes sketch work. Even on our little platoon of sketch-warriors, you can see different schools of thought at work in our material. I thought I’d kick out some of the guiding principles I use when I’m working on a sketch.…

  • R.A.’s self-critique: Advertising Edition

    My advertising sketch is yet another example of an interesting premise in need of editing. I seem to be producing a lot of these lately. It’s a simple blackout, but I dragged it out by inserting the second scene in 1992. I think it’s necessary for internal narrative cohesiveness, but lessens the overall impact. Way…

  • Peter’s Commentary on the ‘Resolutions’ Edition

    Finally catching up on my Friday Sketch War commentary. This past week, the FSW deadline fell on January second, so we went with the holiday-appropriate theme of “resolutions”. This time we had only two entries (*sniff*): this one from me and this one from Mr. Porter.[1] Alas, all the talk from local sketch-comedy types about…

  • Peter’s Commentary on the ‘Christmas Presents’ Edition

    Still a bit behind in writing commentary on the Friday Sketch War. I thought I’d deliver a few words about the “Christmas Presents” round. We’d talked about maybe skipping the 12/26 week of sketchwar, on account of everybody’d be busy with the holidays. But a couple of us believed strongly in the “it’s easier to…

  • Peter’s Commentary on the ‘3:34am’ Edition

    Hello — looks like I’ve fallen a bit behind in writing commentary on the Friday Sketch War. On December 19th, we all handed in sketches based on the theme “3:34am”. I had suggested “Santa”, “The Recording Studio”, and “3:34am” to Mr. Porter, and he opted for the weird one.[1] We had three sketches that week.…

  • Peter’s Commentary on the ‘First Dates’ Edition

    This past week, the Friday Sketch War topic was “First Dates”. We had three sketches this time around:  mine, Mr. Porter’s, and Mr. Robertson’s. All in all, I’m happy with how my sketch came out. Like the previous week, I was trying to move away from traditional scene-y sketches, and trade off plot for funny.…

  • Peter’s Commentary on the ‘Learning Something New About History’ Edition

    Last week’s FSW topic was “Learning something new about history”. Last week, Mr. Porter let me pick the week’s sketch topic. I actually deliberated for quite a while. I didn’t want something so vague/broad that it suggested nothing to the writers, but nor did I want something so specific that it straitjacketed people. I finally…

  • Peter’s Commentary on the ‘Oprah’ Edition

    Okay, so last week’s FSW topic was “Oprah”. So I wound up writing this sketch. I had spent days trying to think of something — *anything* — that I could do with the topic. I think the best I managed was a couple’s young daughter idolizes Oprah and causes embarrassing situations by trying to treat…

  • Peter’s Commentary on the ‘Horrible Family Holidays’ Edition

    [Catching up on blogposts, now that I’ve recovered from the Dance Weekend That Ate My Life.] Just thought I’d put up some thoughts on the most recent Sketch War. Ken Robertson’s entry: laughed aloud at “No ‘Christians and Heathens’, okay?” / “Awwww.”. I liked the payoff at the end — possibly could have trimmed the…

  • Answer Key to Friday’s Sketch

    Okay. I realize I overreached so far on yesterday’s sketch that it appears I’ve had a stroke. To assure you all, the ASPBV (American Society for the Protection of Blood Vessels) monitored the writing of that sketch and no blood vessels were injured in the production. So here’s a quick legend: The patient is named…