The eternal conflict between comedy screenwriters and the guys who make trailers: Invariably the trailer will give away the four or five best jokes. Now that’s good for discerning moviegoers because you’ll know in three minutes whether this is a movie worth seeing. If the jokes in the trailer are turds in the punchbowl (or if that specific gag is featured) you know you’re only in for an hour of a half of cinematic waterboarding. But if the jokes make you laugh then maybe there are others in there you’ll find amusing too. 
Also, if there is any physical comedy in the movie whatsoever you’ll see it in the trailer. Pratfalls are to comedy previews what explosions are to action films. Pratfalls are such a staple of comedy trailers that they’re included if they don’t appear in the movie. In an earlier post I talked about how my partner and I were once hired to write five funny trailer moments for a comedy that had none. They filmed our gags, built the trailer around them and never put them in the actual movie. By the way, the movie did good business.
This practice even extends to dramas. If a character trips on the way to his execution they’ll feature that in the trailer to show there are lighthearted moments in death camp flicks.
Comedy writers and producers argue that giving away the five best jokes kills the surprise and hurts the movie. But here’s the dirty little secret: Audiences laugh at the big jokes ANYWAY. Even if they know they’re coming, even if they’ve seen them ten times already, they’ll still fall out of their seats. The trailer people are right, damn it.
And in romantic comedy trailers there will always be a scene where one member of the couple sees the other naked, usually in an embarrassing situation. Now if the naked person should fall out a picture window, land in a wedding cake causing it to get all over everybody and have a hilarious quip like “That better be the little bride and groom that’s sticking up my ass” I think the studio can guarantee the biggest opening for a Mike Myers movie EVER.
I watch trailers for my job, and I remember seeing one set in front of some comedy, and EVERY SINGLE ONE had someone get hit in the nuts in some way.
ReplyDeleteI have a question for you, Ken. I'm writing a romantic comedy at the moment, but there is no scene where someone gets hit in the nuts. Is there any chance of me selling it like that or should I include one?
It's been my experience that the trailer jokes always get big laughs when you go see the movie specifically because they were already in the trailer.
ReplyDeleteBecause people know that's where they're supposed to laugh - that it's okay to laugh at those jokes.
So even fairly lame jokes from trailers get a nice, healthy reaction from movie goers, because these jokes have all been validated: you may laugh here, folks, free of embarrassment.
Because the last thing most people want to do, says me, is go to a comedy and then be the only person laughing at something. Me, I have no problem doing that. And maybe some of you, too. But it is a social situation, going to the movies, and I think this definitely plays out in people subconscious. Or maybe even right up there, on the surface.
So I really like it when the trailer jokes are "the best," because they're gonna get laughs anyway when I go see the flick. I'd prefer to feel like they earned them.
It's been my experience that the trailer jokes always get big laughs when you go see the movie specifically because they were already in the trailer.
ReplyDeleteBecause people know that's where they're supposed to laugh - that it's okay to laugh at those jokes.
That's certainly true in other contexts. When I do a comedy that's about a particularly group, jokes will get audible laughs depending on the audience. When an audience is made up of folks outside the group, few people laugh, because they don't know it's OK to find the jokes funny. When the audience has people from within the group, those people know it's funny and laugh, and it lets people from outside the group know it's OK to laugh, too.
Giving people cues that it's OK to laugh is important, I think, in a piece of work.
I've found that people almost get excited when they hear the trailer jokes in the context of the film, like that's what they came for.
ReplyDeleteTo me, the best jokes are the ones that are most organic to the characters and the story, in which case they usually do not play well taken out of context, so I feel like the best comedies are least likely to have good trailer moments. Whereas, a film with five funny jokes may have five funny jokes and 90 minutes of filler.
"--Tim W. said...
ReplyDeleteI'm writing a romantic comedy at the moment, but there is no scene where someone gets hit in the nuts. Is there any chance of me selling it like that or should I include one?"
Two is probably best.
One nut is just sad, even before it gets hit.
One nut is just sad, even before it gets hit.
ReplyDeleteGood point James. And who's to say Lance Armstrong would even be available?
ouch anonymous that joke is a bit below the belt!
ReplyDeleteWord is the captain of the Detroit Red Wings lost one in the recent playoffs. Maybe a buddy comedy with Lance Armstrong.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they both sell pens for Uniball.
ReplyDeletethe trailer for "throw momma from the train" 100% ruined the movie for me. that movie was so terrible becasue I had seen too many trailers. who donesn't know when to laugh? when it is funny laugh.
ReplyDeleteIs it just me or, in that photo, Mike Myers looks sort of like Alfred E. Neuman's dad?
ReplyDeleteWVW - SUPPIP = How one is to greet Pip should one be counted among his homies.
Or there are movies like Superbad where the funny stuff is so inappropriate that they can't show it in the trailer. I remember my husband and I thinking that that was a sad little throwaway teen comedy. I can't even count how many times we've watched it on DVD.
ReplyDeleteAs the last person in America who hasn't seen The Hangover, I am guessing it is much the same way.
That last paragraph would have been so much classier-- yet still funny -- with Dudley Moore.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, I never quite figured out exactly what is wrong with the word "preview?"Is that only for use by the plebes? Do I remember correctly that one of the menu options on some DVD's might be "trailers" and then when you click on it, the clip says "preview," or is that just wishful thinking?
I remember the trailer for "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" and there was a scene in which Michael Caine and Steve Martin were walking along a canal.
ReplyDeleteSteve Martin passes an elderly woman who is standing at the edge of the canal (I think feeding the ducks) and he non-chalantly pushes her in with one hand, as the title phrase appears. I remember laughing.
That funny scene did not show up in the movie, and nor did the movie make me laugh as hard as that trailer.
On the other hand, one can be highly disappointed if a great trailer moment isn't in the film. My wife and I saw Beverly Hills Chihuahua because the dancing dogs sequence in the trailer looked fun (yes, I know, sad. But it was on cable and free. We didn't actually pay to see it). The very reason we decided to see it wasn't in the film. Not even in the credits. The movie which we hoped we'd smile at because the trailer had that "Happy Feet" infectious attitude had nothing to recommend it. A disaster. If a scene is good enough for the trailer it should be inserted into the film.
ReplyDeleteI always wonder where you get all your great graphical pictures. You illustrate everything so well, is there a free database for that?
ReplyDeleteHi Ken,
ReplyDeleteWe cut together a trailer of our web series to present to show runners. We had to shoot a few extra scenes to bring it all together. I think it works, if you have a minute your opinion would be greatly appreciated.
www.burninghollywood.tv , the trailer will come right up.
The trailer for ROMY AND MICHELE'S HIGH SCHOOL REUNION was misleading. That movie ceased being funny the moment they walked into their reunion. Right prior to that, there's a funny fantasy sequence where the girls imagine what the reunion will be like. In the trailer, scenes from the fantasy reunion are interspersed with scenes from the actual (and less funny) reunion, making one think the whole thing was going to be hilarious. What a disappointment.
ReplyDeleteOnly a small thing but in the trailer for the excellent 'Pulp fiction' Travolta and Thurman dance to an up tempo track by Dick Dale which really caught my attention and yet in the actual film they dance to Chuck Berry’s ‘you never can tell’. This really threw me when i watched this scene and i spent the next few minutes wondering why this was and if they would be dancing again later..?
ReplyDeleteI need to lose weight. Thanks for the help you provided by putting up the picture of Mike Myers.
ReplyDeleteNext time I see a movie I'm going to watch for scenes that were in trailers. I know that I've noticed that before, but I didn't pay close attention.
ReplyDeleteWV word: repsi
what happens when you drink your Pepsi too fast.
Good grief Marv, I am still suffering from PTSD on account of that musical number in the Beverly Hills Chihuahua trailer.
ReplyDeleteIt has been irking me for awhile now the way that audiences now predictably laugh hardest at bits that have been shown time and time again in ads/trailers, but some of the explanations offered here make me feel a little less annoyed by the phenomenon.
If your 1.5+ hours movie only has 5 good jokes in it, you're in trouble.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, turds in the punchbowl? I'm in!
Anonymous: Then you'll love Mad Magazine's "Up The Academy". Of course it has nothing to do with Mad magazine, except for a cameo of a guy with an Alfred E Newman mask, and it stars Ron Liebman but he isn't listed in the credits, probably because there isn't anything funny in the film and he didn't want to be associated with it.
ReplyDeleteBut it does have a scene with turds in a punchbowl.