Comedy for Animators

Chapter 9Gags and Comic Events

What, all this junk, the yak-yak-yak? It would’ve broke my heart! Dialogue gags are a dime a dozen, but a good sight gag is hard to come by.

Tex Avery¹

To get laughs with animation you have two choices. Gags and jokes. A gag is intended to create laughter with visual humor. A joke uses words for the same purpose. Tex was right, gags are hard to come by, requiring considerable time to develop and integrate into the action in a natural way. American television animation has relied on verbal jokes because they are far more efficient in terms of production. A group of writers can sit around in a room and pitch storylines, then fill in some jokes, and before you know it the script is ready and there is only limited ...