Find One Single Parody + Twist

New guests for "Working on Gallery" are lined up. I am SUPER excited to share their essays in this website.

But I would also like to share my new writing project! I am taking Writing 2 at the Second City. Sunday was my first class, and I am truly excited to know all the fellow writers from all over the United States.

For the next couple of weeks, I will share my progress and comedy writing here between my guests' craft essays.

Past Guest List for Working On

I learned about parody from the first class. 

One example skit was ​"Manson" from The Ben Stiller Show.

This is a parody of a famous story of "Lassie Come-Home", but the main character (dog) was replaced by Charles Milles Manson (criminal).

The similarity between Lassie and Charles Manson are both characters could not communicate. Lassie barked and Charlie Manson spoke nonsense.

So, the parody is like

Replace something to keep the original content.

• ​Ex. The parody of "Lassie Come-Home". The black & white style, farm house background, the original fictional characters are similar.

Using similar ideas are better than adding random scenes, ideas, and characters. Though, the surprise nonsense may work occasionally.

In the class, we experienced several exercises. One group session was to create a parody pitch from familiar TV shows, movies, commercials, etc.

My team chose Harry Potter.

In this Harry Potter's universe, they did not use brooms, instead, they flied with Rumbas (the electric vacuumed cleaner). Also they had a new professor, Marie Kondo, who tidied up their houses using her "spark joy" methods. In the end, Professor Snape was categorized as an unnecessary object, because he was not "spark joy".

This was a quick 10-minute group session. The teacher's feed back was "needs a bigger twist!"

Example: The setting did not have to be in the magical school. It can switch to an office, hospital, or any unexpected place.

I got it!

I am so excited to write 3 - 4 pages for my assignment. It will be so fun to think about it this week. 

During the warm-up, we made quick tabloid headlines and online click-bait lines. So each writer shouted a word, and the next person created a sentence with each spelling.

For example, as my turn,
I need to say a headline using STICK.
S - - Stinky
T - - tea
I - - is
C - - cooking
K - -Kookyly

Now, I so wished that I could have said tentacles for T. 

Everyone was so quick to think!

I had been living in a slow pace, so I am glad that my brain will be spinning faster as it goes.

Some exercises are perfect for my little Japanese students (minus the tentacles). 

英作文書き方練習法！