NEW YORK: An inside look at what it takes to make hit comedies for kids.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not always easy to make kids laugh. While for some, all it takes is a silly face, a wacky voice or a fart noise to make them crack up, others are much less generous with their giggles. It\u2019s up to today\u2019s producers and distributors of children\u2019s comedy programming to determine what little ones get a kick out of, even those whose funny bones are more elusive. This is not a simple task, but somebody\u2019s got to do it\u2014kids need to laugh in today\u2019s complicated world.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is always an appetite for comedy,\u201d says Joan Lambur, the executive VP of family entertainment and executive producer at Breakthrough Entertainment, which reps comedy hits like the animated Rocket Monkeys <\/em>and the live-action series Zerby Derby<\/em> and Max & Shred<\/em>. \u201cComedy is just never going to go away.\u201d<\/p>\n MAKE ME LAUGH!<\/strong> Housed within the DHX Media catalogue is the upcoming animated comedy Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: The Series<\/em> (based on the film franchise), as well as Looped<\/em>, the recently launched Supernoobs<\/em> and the new iteration of Inspector Gadget<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cUltimately, there\u2019s always been a need for it,\u201d states Ken Faier, the senior VP and general manager of DHX Studios, the production arm of DHX Media, about the market for kids\u2019 comedies. \u201cKids love to laugh after a stressful day at school and dealing with all the anxieties they have. A solid comedy is good for co-views, good to relax to\u2014something that networks always need a healthy dose of. It\u2019s [also] very repeatable, much more than drama or serialized content.\u201d<\/p>\n Dave Beatty, the studio creative head at Portfolio Entertainment, which produces and distributes such upcoming animated comedies as Freaktown<\/em> and Invasion of the MooFaLoo!<\/em>, argues that kids\u2019 comedy is an evergreen genre.<\/p>\n \u201cComedy is the one thing that never goes away,\u201d he says. \u201cYou\u2019ll have other genres of shows that will come into vogue for a while and then kind of disappear\u2014action\/adventure is a big one, fantasy is another\u2014whereas there is always a demand for comedy. Kids [will] always want to laugh.\u201d<\/p>\n There are many elements that go into making a successful comedy for kids, but it all starts with the writing. \u201cIt has to begin with a funny script,\u201d says Natalie Dumoulin, the VP of creative affairs at producer and distributor 9 Story Media Group, which boasts such animated comedies as Camp Lakebottom<\/em>, Numb Chucks<\/em>, Almost Naked Animals<\/em> and Nature Cat<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cA very dedicated combination of comedy and emotion\u201d is key to making a successful comedy for kids, according to Marc du Pontavice, the CEO of Xilam Animation, which produces and distributes the non-verbal slapstick animated comedies Oggy and the Cockroaches<\/em> and Zig & Sharko<\/em>. \u201cIt\u2019s not all about the gag; kids must also relate to the character. When you have the combination of those two feelings, it\u2019s very powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think what works the best is non-verbal comedy\u2014everything that is linked to the characters and their expressions,\u201d says Morgann Favennec, the deputy managing director of international sales and acquisitions at Superights, which distributes such comedic animated fare as Boyster<\/em> and the three-parter The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales<\/em>. \u201cThen you go deeper into the dialogue.\u201d Favennec urges writers to always remember who their primary audience is, and to avoid incorporating specific jokes into a show simply because it\u2019s amusing to them as adults. \u201cIt may be funny to write, but you have to think about the people who are going to watch and those people are children,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n GETTING PHYSICAL<\/strong> \u201cPhysical comedy works universally,\u201d says Portfolio\u2019s Beatty. \u201cWhat is harder is wordplay; [that\u2019s] harder to translate into different languages and for different cultures. But slipping on a banana peel, that\u2019s kind of funny no matter where you go.\u201d<\/p>\n SLAPSTICK SELLS<\/strong> It is necessary for writers to be thoughtful about how they incorporate physical comedy into a story line. \u201cThere are countries where inflicting physical pain onto a main character in the show is completely acceptable if it\u2019s funny; there are a lot of other territories where that is seen as an outrage,\u201d says CAKE\u2019s van Waveren. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to take a concept like that because you know you\u2019re actually going to get closed doors in quite a few territories.\u201d<\/p>\n Another important aspect of making sure a kids\u2019 comedy has the potential to sell abroad is to stay away from references that are culturally specific. This can be achieved by having little or no dialogue. \u201cComedies that are more dialogue-based are more difficult to translate because usually they are very culturally grounded,\u201d says Xilam\u2019s du Pontavice.<\/p>\n DHX\u2019s Faier concurs: \u201cDialogue-heavy is a challenge. You want to have great dialogue, but you don\u2019t want to rely on puns in terms of translatability for the global market…. You want it to be smart without being too talky.\u201d<\/p>\n Avoiding cultural references is especially important when it comes to kids\u2019 comedy co-productions. \u201cLocal sitcoms are hard to export and find co-producers for, except perhaps with your really close neighbors,\u201d says Superights\u2019s Favennec. \u201cWith slapstick and non-verbal, generally speaking, you speak the same language, so you can have partners from the other side of the world. It doesn\u2019t matter where you\u2019re from; the language is the same, so you can easily work together for co-production and then your programs will travel.\u201d<\/p>\n GROWING PAINS<\/strong> \u201cEach demographic has a different idea of what it finds funny,\u201d says 9 Story\u2019s Dumoulin. \u201cA preschool audience loves it when things are flipped around\u2014for example, when there\u2019s a rabbit\u2019s head on an elephant\u2019s body. A preschool audience also tends to appreciate physical comedy, although you have to make sure it is safe if imitated. Sometimes gender will play a role as well\u2014fart jokes, for example, remain a classic with boys, while girls tend to favor witty repartee.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c[With] younger kids, it really is all about physical comedy because word jokes don\u2019t play with them,\u201d says Portfolio\u2019s Beatty. \u201cThey haven\u2019t developed enough; they\u2019re still trying to figure out what funny is. And so that kind of humor has to stay primarily either in the appearance\u2014how a character is dressed, how a character behaves, how a character sounds\u2014or the physical: running into a door, slipping on a banana peel. It\u2019s less sophisticated humor. As they get older, you can start introducing more wordplay and more situations and humor based on social networks and environments. You can joke about friends, whereas [that] doesn\u2019t play to a preschool audience.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Breakthrough\u2019s Lambur, it\u2019s particularly difficult to find projects to work on for the 7-to-11 and 8-to-12 demos. \u201cIt\u2019s super challenging because you\u2019ve got to find that sweet spot where you\u2019re not hammering them over the head with comedy that\u2019s insulting to them,\u201d she says. \u201cYou have to have an intelligence to go along with it.\u201d<\/p>\n For the older set, CAKE\u2019s van Waveren says producers must speed up the pacing of a series to match the prime-time content that more mature kids are likely already consuming on various platforms. \u201cFor an age 12 demo, if you want to really connect with them, your pacing needs to be very close to that of a prime-time show.\u201d<\/p>\n Live action tends to work better with older kids\u2019 demos, but animation offers greater freedom when it comes to comedy. \u201cIn live action you are limited to the situation; you\u2019re limited to what you can physically afford to shoot,\u201d says Portfolio\u2019s Beatty. \u201cSo for instance, if I\u2019m doing a live-action show, I may not be able to have an episode that takes place in outer space, whereas if I\u2019m doing an animated show, it can take place anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n 9 Story\u2019s Dumoulin echoes Beatty\u2019s sentiment: \u201cThere are so few restrictions within animation compared to live action\u2014we can make an animated character do just about anything! Animation, as a general rule, also travels more easily than live action, so you have a greater chance of taking your show global.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the reasons that animated comedy often travels better than live action is because the latter tends to have a more local feel to it, which kids in other countries may not relate to as well. \u201cThe worlds in animation are often recognizable but they\u2019re not exact, so they will translate to different cultures more easily,\u201d says Beatty, who adds that animation is also \u201cmore forgiving in its lip sync when you dub it into a different language.\u201d<\/p>\n ANIMATED ANTICS<\/strong> In some countries, live-action kids\u2019 comedies are more difficult to make simply because of a lack of funding. \u201cIn France, there is no obligation to finance from the broadcasters, contrary to animation, where they all have an obligation of investing part of their turnover,\u201d says Superights\u2019s Favennec.<\/p>\n Another challenge posed by live action is the fact that young actors tend to physically mature faster than their characters, which may give the show a less authentic feel and a limited life span. But one advantage that live action does have over animation is that it takes less time to make. \u201cIn live action the turnaround time in production is much quicker,\u201d says Portfolio\u2019s Beatty. \u201cYou can produce a series in nine months, whereas in animation, [it\u2019s] usually a year and a half to two years before the series is on the air.\u201d<\/p>\n Above all, the success of a children\u2019s comedy comes down to the writing. Of course that is not the only ingredient for success\u2014for instance, the actors must also have the comedic chops to make kids laugh\u2014but if the writing isn\u2019t funny, the show is doomed to fail.<\/p>\n \u201cFinding good writers is really hard,\u201d says Breakthrough\u2019s Lambur. \u201cI think people assume that writing for children in many ways would be easier [but] it presents so many of its own challenges that it can\u2019t be underestimated.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou will always find writers, but good ones who would be ready to leave their comfort zone and be ready to forget about duplicating or copying and pasting the previous stories they\u2019ve written and apply them to the new series they\u2019re involved in\u2014I think that\u2019s the most challenging part of all,\u201d says Superights\u2019s Favennec.<\/p>\n At Xilam, du Pontavice notes, \u201cWe have actually asked a lot of our storyboarders to start writing because the kind of comedy we do is very much driven by the visual and they have a sense of directing animated characters. So there are more and more writers in our staff who are coming from directing and storyboarding.\u201d<\/p>\n Sometimes talented kids\u2019 writers migrate over from adult comedies, but DHX\u2019s Faier points out that this type of transition typically means a step down in pay. \u201cThe budgets in kids\u2019 TV are a lot lower than in prime time,\u201d he says. \u201cSo they have to really love it and want to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think as an industry, we should continue to make children smile,\u201d says CAKE\u2019s van Waveren. \u201cIf we\u2019re successful at that, we can be proud.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An inside look at what it takes to make hit comedies for kids.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":479,"featured_media":10127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-top-stories","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\n
\n\u201cI think there\u2019s always been a demand for good comedy and it\u2019s very hard to do,\u201d says Tom van Waveren, the CEO and creative director of CAKE. \u201cThere\u2019s been less of an interest or an open search for action\/adventure shows, so I think by default if you want fewer action shows, you end up with more comedy. But through the years, there\u2019s always [been] an interest in finding new comedy formats, because you can never have too many of them.\u201d CAKE distributes the hit animated comedy Angelo Rules<\/em>, with the animated shows My Knight and Me<\/em> and the book-based Bottersnikes and Gumbles<\/em> currently in production.<\/p>\n
\nAs with programming for other demos, there are certain elements in kids\u2019 comedies that may be extremely successful in one country, but much less likely to resonate in another. One surefire way to create a funny children\u2019s show that can travel is to foreground physical comedy.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cPhysical comedy tends to travel well,\u201d agrees Natalie Osborne, the managing director of 9 Story Media Group. \u201cThe show has to communicate the joke visually. Puns, on the other hand, do not typically work well on a global scale.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nBesides making content that can reach beyond borders, kids\u2019 comedy creators have to cater their jokes to the specific demographic they are trying to reach. Preschoolers, for example, are accustomed to simple physical comedy, while older children require humor that is slightly more mature, yet still silly enough to be kids\u2019 entertainment\u2014DHX\u2019s Faier refers to this as \u201csophisticated ridiculousness.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nAnimation also leaves more room for improvement during the editing process, whereas with live action, once an episode wraps, there\u2019s not as much that can be done to raise the level of comedy. \u201cWith animation, you can always just tweak, add a wink or an eyebrow move or a reaction shot, and you\u2019re plussing it up all along the way,\u201d says DHX\u2019s Faier. \u201cIn live action, you have to catch it then and there.\u201d<\/p>\n