Sorry for the late post. It’s a travel day so I didn’t have time to read and review a script. But I did want to share with you a comedy I recently watched that’s quite good. It’s free on Amazon Prime and it’s called Brittany Runs A Marathon.
I was researching the movie for something that had nothing to do with comedy but came away from it with a valuable comedy lesson.
When it comes to comedies, 99.9% of the time, you want your hero to be likable. Comedies are not thrillers. They’re not dramas. Their mission is to make people laugh. It’s hard to do that if we don’t like your hero.
I thought Brittany Runs a Marathon was great. But I didn’t like the main character. She complained a lot. She felt sorry for herself all the time. She was a downer. So why did I still root for her?
Well, Brittany Runs a Marathon reminded me that, even though it should never be your first choice, you can still make us root for your unlikable comedic hero as long as you make them *sympathetic.*
You’ve heard about sympathy and its affect on audiences before. But usually in regard to other genres. In comedy, a lack of likability is tougher to do. Which is why you need to consider whether it’s worth the risk.
The way they made Brittany sympathetic is by leaning into a universal insecurity – Brittany hates the way she looks. She hates that she’s overweight. They drive this home by showing Brittany out drinking one night and some douchebag comes up to her and says he wants to have sex in the bathroom. She doesn’t even know this guy so she’s disgusted.
Later in the evening, Brittany catches herself in one of club’s mirrors and, from her look, we can tell she’s disgusted by what she sees. A few minutes later, she runs into the same guy by the bathroom, and he gives her a, “Are we going in?” look. Brittany follows him in to get just the tiniest amount of validation, anything to push away the image she just saw of herself in the mirror.
From that moment on, we’re sympathetic towards Brittany’s plight. We want to see her succeed.
Again, when it comes to comedy, the best thing to do with your hero is to make them likable. But, if that type of character doesn’t fit the story you’re telling, you can still ensure that the reader will root for them if you make them sympathetic.
