October Review Challenge, #7 - Humorous moment

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October Review Challenge, #7 - "What's a humorous moment from your work?"

Thanks to the alphabetical order I put the prompts in, I ended up with Funny Line right before Humorous Moment. I wish they were separated by few more days. But they are distinct however, when one is about a one-liner that is funny, this is about something funny that happens.

As I've said, I've been very into humor these days. I've recently completed four episodes of my Dream Machine comedy since April, and I attribute that fairly large amount of work in such a short period to how fun and exciting I've found that project. I've been pretty proud of some of the amusing scenarios that made it into those scripts. Like in episode 2: "Requiem for a Dreamer" when Ryan is making Leah spitball ideas for a new show, and Cari did a series of costume changes in real time as her her character Josie has visualizes all their suggestions. Or in the soon-to-be-released episode 4: "The Opposite of People" when they have to audition a series of actors who are all... not quite what they're looking for.



But I think I'm going to talk about another Hawking moment, since it was a neat unexpected touch in an otherwise serious piece. When we meet Justin Hawking in part III: Base Instruments, it's made clear quickly that he's a bit of a roguish ladies' man. When he and Nathaniel's first one-on-one scene begins, we hear Justin telling the end of what is clearly a raunchy story with the line, "And so I said to the second sister, 'I'm sure you are, but what's your name?'" Nathaniel is at once scandalized and intrigued, as he always is by his brother's exploits. But this actually isn't the moment I think is truly funny.

Later in the show, Nathaniel is trying to ingratiate himself with the kind of skeezy Lord Seacourse, who is a suspect in the murder they're investigating. But Nathaniel needs him to believe that he's also a creep like Seacourse is so the man will open up. So, in order to do that, what does he do? At the top of their scene together, Nathaniel tells the end of Justin's story in the exact same tone— "And so I said to the second sister, 'I'm sure you are, but what's your name?'" —as if it happened to him. And Seacourse cracks up. I love the idea that in order to appear like a skeeze, Nathaniel imitates the foremost skeeze in his life, his darling big brother. He loves Justin, but I think it's funny that he thinks Justin's life would appeal to a creep. It's a little mean and it's a little clever, which is honestly my favorite kind of humor.