The word “trope” is one of my favorite writing terms. It refers to a creative device that’s not quite a cliché, but is sufficiently familiar as to be recognizable to the reader (or viewer of it’s regarding a movie or TV program). Tropes have been on my mind a lot lately. One of my many side projects these days is writing a treatment for a television sitcom that I think will strike the right chord in these times. Including tropes in the sample episodes is a necessary evil and somewhat tricky business, too. You want to put in some familiar gags to give the audience a comfort level with the material, but at the same time, you want to avoid coming off a hackneyed and stale.
So it’s no surprise that when I was at the Y the other day and found myself without my ear buds, that the thought of tropes returned to keep my mind occupied while I did my cardio workout. As a mental exercise, I came up with an example of a trope that could be used in different ways within a similar scenario.
The scene takes place in a health club, full of all kinds of fancy machines and attractive people in exercise gear. Most everyone is very fit, though you may have a few “regular” people working out among them. Enter your main character, a guy ready to exercise. Let’s call him Joe. The basic action in the scene is this: Joe walks over to an unoccupied treadmill, gets on it and falls, at least once, due to his ineptitude, cockiness or any number of other reasons. As he lies in a heap, bruised and humiliated, he becomes an object of ridicule, ending the scene.
Sound familiar? Could be something that happens to Howard Wolowitz from The Big Bang Theory or Mr. Bean (or even Jack Tripper, in Three’s Company, if you’re a 70’s TV fan), right? Will you laugh even if you saw this in another show before? More than likely, yes, because one of the basic rules of comedy is people laugh when others fall down, as long as they don’t really get hurt.
Let’s see this in action. Here is the scene with two different Joes.
Joe #1 is a macho guy. He looks like he’s been working out for years, but he’s not a muscle-bound weightlifter. He’s dressed in the most gaudy workout clothes out there, designed to emphasize his physique. You know the kind of guy I’m talking about. Anyway, this Joe walks in like he owns the place. He scans the gym slowly, an animal on the hunt. He’s obviously looking to see if there are any hot women he can flex for. He spies some lovely ladies near an unoccupied treadmill, so he strides over to the machine and climbs on. Joe looks left, then right, smiling his most winning smile at the two women, then starts up the treadmill. Everything seems to be going fine at first as Joe trots at a low speed. He’s looking good (he thinks), smiling as though there’s nothing to this and nods to the two women like “this is the way it’s done.” For their part, neither woman really respond much, something not lost on our friend.
Then Joe decides it’s time to pick up the pace to raise the stakes, so he hits a button or two and starts jogging faster. He looks at the two ladies again, but they’re unimpressed as they continue their own exercise. Not to be daunted, Joe hits the button several more times until the treadmill is turning at an almost maniacal pace. Now it looks like Joe can barely keep up, but he keeps that rictus of a smile plastered on his face as he struggles to pump his legs fast enough to match the machine’s speed. He then makes the fatal mistake of looking at both women to see if they’re watching and KA-BLAM, he slips and the treadmill launches him backwards on his butt. The two women finish their exercise and towel themselves off as they step over the now prone Joe.
Pretty funny, right?
Joe #2 is totally different. He’s a geeky-looking fellow, not conditioned at all, wearing unfashionable clothes -- checkered shorts, extra long athletic socks, an “E = MC2” T-shirt, and the like. It’s obvious he’s probably never stepped into a gym before and he appears to be lost with all the bustling activity going on, not to mention all the machines standing like trees in a metal forest. He wanders sort of aimlessly, looking with more than casual interest at some of the other exercisers and appears a bit befuddled by their obvious skill. He backs up and bumps into an unoccupied treadmill. A woman comes up to him and asks if he’s using it and looking confused, he stammers he is, then climbs on. Joe stares at the panel with all the buttons and lights and tries to figure it out. The woman looks on and asks if he needs any help, but of course, Joe’s ego is going to trump his common sense here and he declines. He pushes one button and nothing happens. Then he pushes a second one and the treadmill begins to turn. Joe has to grip the handrails to prevent falling over and straddles the moving belt, watching as it rolls under him. Still hovering over him, the woman tells him he needs to step on the belt and walk at the pace it is moving. Joe thanks her and tries it.
To his surprise, he’s moving along quite nicely and he smiles, pleased with himself. Unfortunately, curiosity creeps in and he can’t help but push another button to see what happens. The machine speeds up and Joe barely keeps his feet while maintaining the treadmill’s pace. Somehow, the machine speeds up some more without Joe’s intercession this time and he’s now struggling to keep up. The machine ramps up another notch and now Joe is running as fast as he can, panting like a madman. The woman tells him to hit the red button, but Joe can’t hear her over the roar of the machine. She yells again, “The red button!” and he repeats it after her, then sees the button she means. He presses it; the machine stop immediately, but Joe isn’t expecting that and his forward momentum sends him careering over the top of the treadmill and he lands face first in front everyone. The woman walks over to him, bends down and instead of asking him if he’s okay, she wants to know if he’s done using the machine now. He replies with a resigned “yes.”
Can you picture it?
I’m sure you can imagine other Joe scenarios (like Joe who has a crush on one particular woman, sees her there and wants to impress her on the treadmill, and his shoe lace gets caught in the mechanism, sending him flying). Or what about if you add a prankster to the mix? Either it’s a friend or rival in any of the above circumstances who sabotages the machine while Joe is on it -- say by stepping on the back of the belt or pulling the plug -- and the consequences are the same with poor Joe sailing this way or that, landing on some body part that’s going to hurt like hell later.
Want to know more about tropes? Check out this link.
Tropes, my friends -- fun for the whole family, don’t you think?
- Michael
So it’s no surprise that when I was at the Y the other day and found myself without my ear buds, that the thought of tropes returned to keep my mind occupied while I did my cardio workout. As a mental exercise, I came up with an example of a trope that could be used in different ways within a similar scenario.
The scene takes place in a health club, full of all kinds of fancy machines and attractive people in exercise gear. Most everyone is very fit, though you may have a few “regular” people working out among them. Enter your main character, a guy ready to exercise. Let’s call him Joe. The basic action in the scene is this: Joe walks over to an unoccupied treadmill, gets on it and falls, at least once, due to his ineptitude, cockiness or any number of other reasons. As he lies in a heap, bruised and humiliated, he becomes an object of ridicule, ending the scene.
Sound familiar? Could be something that happens to Howard Wolowitz from The Big Bang Theory or Mr. Bean (or even Jack Tripper, in Three’s Company, if you’re a 70’s TV fan), right? Will you laugh even if you saw this in another show before? More than likely, yes, because one of the basic rules of comedy is people laugh when others fall down, as long as they don’t really get hurt.
Let’s see this in action. Here is the scene with two different Joes.
Joe #1 is a macho guy. He looks like he’s been working out for years, but he’s not a muscle-bound weightlifter. He’s dressed in the most gaudy workout clothes out there, designed to emphasize his physique. You know the kind of guy I’m talking about. Anyway, this Joe walks in like he owns the place. He scans the gym slowly, an animal on the hunt. He’s obviously looking to see if there are any hot women he can flex for. He spies some lovely ladies near an unoccupied treadmill, so he strides over to the machine and climbs on. Joe looks left, then right, smiling his most winning smile at the two women, then starts up the treadmill. Everything seems to be going fine at first as Joe trots at a low speed. He’s looking good (he thinks), smiling as though there’s nothing to this and nods to the two women like “this is the way it’s done.” For their part, neither woman really respond much, something not lost on our friend.
Then Joe decides it’s time to pick up the pace to raise the stakes, so he hits a button or two and starts jogging faster. He looks at the two ladies again, but they’re unimpressed as they continue their own exercise. Not to be daunted, Joe hits the button several more times until the treadmill is turning at an almost maniacal pace. Now it looks like Joe can barely keep up, but he keeps that rictus of a smile plastered on his face as he struggles to pump his legs fast enough to match the machine’s speed. He then makes the fatal mistake of looking at both women to see if they’re watching and KA-BLAM, he slips and the treadmill launches him backwards on his butt. The two women finish their exercise and towel themselves off as they step over the now prone Joe.
Pretty funny, right?
Joe #2 is totally different. He’s a geeky-looking fellow, not conditioned at all, wearing unfashionable clothes -- checkered shorts, extra long athletic socks, an “E = MC2” T-shirt, and the like. It’s obvious he’s probably never stepped into a gym before and he appears to be lost with all the bustling activity going on, not to mention all the machines standing like trees in a metal forest. He wanders sort of aimlessly, looking with more than casual interest at some of the other exercisers and appears a bit befuddled by their obvious skill. He backs up and bumps into an unoccupied treadmill. A woman comes up to him and asks if he’s using it and looking confused, he stammers he is, then climbs on. Joe stares at the panel with all the buttons and lights and tries to figure it out. The woman looks on and asks if he needs any help, but of course, Joe’s ego is going to trump his common sense here and he declines. He pushes one button and nothing happens. Then he pushes a second one and the treadmill begins to turn. Joe has to grip the handrails to prevent falling over and straddles the moving belt, watching as it rolls under him. Still hovering over him, the woman tells him he needs to step on the belt and walk at the pace it is moving. Joe thanks her and tries it.
To his surprise, he’s moving along quite nicely and he smiles, pleased with himself. Unfortunately, curiosity creeps in and he can’t help but push another button to see what happens. The machine speeds up and Joe barely keeps his feet while maintaining the treadmill’s pace. Somehow, the machine speeds up some more without Joe’s intercession this time and he’s now struggling to keep up. The machine ramps up another notch and now Joe is running as fast as he can, panting like a madman. The woman tells him to hit the red button, but Joe can’t hear her over the roar of the machine. She yells again, “The red button!” and he repeats it after her, then sees the button she means. He presses it; the machine stop immediately, but Joe isn’t expecting that and his forward momentum sends him careering over the top of the treadmill and he lands face first in front everyone. The woman walks over to him, bends down and instead of asking him if he’s okay, she wants to know if he’s done using the machine now. He replies with a resigned “yes.”
Can you picture it?
I’m sure you can imagine other Joe scenarios (like Joe who has a crush on one particular woman, sees her there and wants to impress her on the treadmill, and his shoe lace gets caught in the mechanism, sending him flying). Or what about if you add a prankster to the mix? Either it’s a friend or rival in any of the above circumstances who sabotages the machine while Joe is on it -- say by stepping on the back of the belt or pulling the plug -- and the consequences are the same with poor Joe sailing this way or that, landing on some body part that’s going to hurt like hell later.
Want to know more about tropes? Check out this link.
Tropes, my friends -- fun for the whole family, don’t you think?
- Michael
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