What director John Hughes knew about writing good jokes

How to challenge yourself into writing better punchlines.

Act outs get laughs – and every good act out is akin to writing dialogue. You basically become a character doing lines.

(Related: I’ve written before about how many great Chappelle standup bits are like little plays that he acts out.)

So how do you write great dialogue? 10 Screenwriting Tips You Can Learn from The Breakfast Club offers this advice...

CHALLENGE YOURSELF WITH DIALOGUE
There are very few movies as quotable as The Breakfast Club. Part of that is because Hughes was an insanely talented dialogue writer. But I’ve read some of Hughes’ unproduced scripts, and believe it or not, he doesn’t always come up with the goods. That tells me he worked extra hard on Club. One of the keys to coming up with great lines and sharp dialogue is to challenge yourself, to not go with the easy first choice, but to keep digging until you find something original. Your initial idea for a line may be “What an asshole.” But with a little work, you could come up with “That man…is a brownie hound.” Instead of “Nice outfit buddy,” how about exploring 20 more choices until you come up with, “Does Barry Manilow know that you raid his wardrobe?” Dialogue is about challenging yourself. It’s about not taking the easy way out. Clearly, Hughes practiced this philosophy in Club.

Reminds me of coming up with punchlines. Frequently, you have to come up with dozens of choices before you get that perfect line. The first thing that occurs may feel right but is often too obvious. You’ve got to push to find that twist, that rhyme, or that other shazam thing that lands the plane in a weird/surprising way.

Up ahead: What you can learn from Richard Pryor’s act outs…