The recipe for a side-splitting sitcom

A Sitcom is a series where the same characters are thrown into different amusing situations every episode. What are the key ingredients that combine to create an effective episode?

Sitcoms continue to be a genre as popular in the 21st Century as they were in the 70s, 80s and 90s. From British classics such as One Foot in the Grave (1990–2000) to Gavin & Stacey (2007–2010), there are so many great examples of series that have us clutching our stomachs with laughter.

When you mention Sitcoms to people around my age, some of the first series that come to mind are probably long-lasting American programmes such as Friends (1994–2004) and The Big Bang Theory (2007–2019). However, personally, I’ve never become particularly interested in either of the two. Sense of humour is a very personal concept, which is why something that has one person in hysterics could be greeted with an indifferent shrug by someone else.

As a writer, you can’t help but analyse what makes each programme successful, but also where you think there is plenty of room for improvement. Sitcoms can tackle important issues — such as the Channel 4 series Flowers — (although it is more of a black comedy), poke fun at stereotypes and modern society or be downright controversial and offensive. Whatever your sense of humour, there’ll most likely be a sitcom out there that will bring your out of the worst mood with an amused smile.

My favourite Sitcoms include The IT Crowd (2006–2013), One Foot in the Grave and Cuckoo (2012–2018). On the other hand, (and again, I must stress that this is all down to personal taste), ones that had me zoning out and planning my to-do list were the recent Not Going Out episodes and Man Down. They didn’t even make me grin. Nevertheless, despite all their differences, I believe there are some key ingredients that every sitcom needs in order to be greeted with success and, most importantly, laughter.

Here are my six key ingredients for an effective sit-com:

1: A likeable and relatable character or cast.

You can’t make everyone a loveable person in a sitcom, nor should you avoid creating those irritating personalities that pop up at the least desired moments to wreak havoc on the main character’s life, but you need a bare minimum of one character whom your audience can relate to.

Every good sitcom has that one flawed and imperfect character that you just can’t help but love and feel sorry for when everything bad happens to them. Be it Roy from The IT Crowd or Victor Meldrew from One Foot in the Grave (back to my favourite examples of course), there has to be at least one disaster-prone protagonist for the viewers to get behind. You just know things aren’t going to turn out well for them, but that’s what makes it so darned funny when they end up in sticky situations time and time again.

Despite the name “Situation Comedy”, the genre actually depends on the characters much more than the events they are unwittingly thrown into. If you have a cast of strong characters, each with their own personality quirks like the Friends cast, you could place them nearly anywhere and easily create a funny episode.

2. A succession of believable but hilarious situations.

After stressing that characters take precedence over the situations themselves, I may sound like I’m contradicting myself here, but that doesn’t mean the events of each episode aren’t important too. The most memorable episodes from your favourite sitcoms will probably be those with the best characters in the best situations.

To refer back to one of my favourite sitcoms, the funniest IT Crowd episode for me is when Roy ends up pretending to be a disabled man for the evening. He accidentally pulls the ‘emergency’ switch in the disabled toilets at the theatre when he goes to flush the toilet. The hilarity of the situation comes initially from knowing that Roy is an awkward character, too humiliated to admit the whole event was an accident. The ensuing situation is that he ends up spending his evening at the theatre being pushed around needlessly in a wheelchair, eventually forced to get a bus home with other disabled people to a city where he doesn’t even live, just to keep up the humiliating charade. It’s a great example of a brilliant character finding himself in an unlikely but believable situation. The perfect recipe for comedy.

3. Authentic speech.

There’s nothing worse than watching a programme where the dialogue feels stilted and unrealistic. Each character needs their own voice, dialect, speech patterns and verbal ticks to make them three-dimensional.

For one character, greeting someone with “Hello, how are you?” might sound relatively naturalistic — for example, if they tend to speak quite formally. On the other hand, if you make every character speak using the Queen’s English, with absolutely no slang or contractions, it could get very boring to watch after a few minutes. It’s vital to make your speech authentic and believable so your characters feel like living, breathing people with lives outside of the episodes. When characters have a distinctive voice, comedic lines will be delivered much more effectively.

4. Changes in scenery and location.

You don’t need to go overboard, changing unnecessarily from a park to a house to an exotic holiday location every five minutes; however, a new location can create new opportunities for humorous situations. A lot of sitcoms have a kind of “base” for the characters to return to. In Gavin & Stacey, it’s the two family houses. In The IT Crowd, it’s the IT office in the basement.

Often, there are other locations that quickly become familiar to characters and viewers alike, such as the boss’s office or a local park that they tend to frequent. Throwing in the occasional vastly different location such as an airport lounge, a hotel or even a foreign country can also prevent a sitcom from stagnating. As much as predictability can be a tool for creating laughs, variety is equally as important. It allows new opportunities for characters to grow and develop, or else throws them into even more sticky situations.

5: A relatively cyclical structure.

Have you ever noticed how, in your favourite sitcoms, no matter what happens or how time progresses, the characters almost always end up pretty much where they started? This can be physically, emotionally or regarding their relationships with others.

No matter how well relationships seem to be progressing, Roy inevitably ends up single. Despite how well a family event may be going, in Outnumbered the likelihood is that the children will somehow ruin harmony by asking an inappropriate question. As predictable as this structure may become, it doesn’t have to lead to a boring plot or an average ending. More often than not, this structure makes it all the funnier when we’re waiting tentatively for something to go wrong and… surprise surprise, it happens!

It also doesn’t mean that every episode must be exactly the same. Far from it! What is funniest of all is when a situation is set up to lead us in a completely different direction… then takes us right back to where we began. Or to an even worse situation for the protagonist!

6: A catchy or witty title.

Although this is probably the least important part of a sitcom, (take the title Friends for instance — it’s hardly a work of genius!) as a writer I don’t think a good title should be underestimated. It could toy with the meaning of a popular saying or phrase like One Foot in the Grave or be succinct and self-explanatory like Gavin & Stacey. Sometimes, simple can work better. The Big Bang Theory is probably as long as things should get, so that the title is still easy to say and fairly memorable.