Juliet May Examines the Boundaries of Comedy

Merman director Juliet May is a comedy director who has helmed episodes for series including Motherland, Red Dwarf, Cold Feet and Miranda as well as commercial work for Aldi.

As part of the upcoming Kinsale Shark Awards and Festival she will be giving a talk entitled Yes, But is it Funny? where she aims to share secrets and anecdotes as well as ask if comedy has frontiers or whether it should be allowed to go wherever it wants if there is an opportunity for laughter.

Below, May talks to shots.net ahead of the festival about mining for comedy and why social media can be a rich seam.

 

Do you think that there are some areas which comedy should steer away from, or is anything ‘fair game' if it's funny? 

Nothing should be out of bounds for comedy. I remember Kenneth Williams [below] insisting on [chat show] Parkinson that once you decide something is too serious or too sad or too shocking for comedy, you turn that thing into a tyrant which dictates what you can say and how you can behave

Comedy can be painfully honest while it’s being funny: that double effect is one source of its power – in his lost book on the subject, Aristotle is supposed to have argued that the comedic is “an instrument of truth”. Some people seem to think that a grim script, shot handheld in the rain with a real, live newsreader doing a turn in the middle of the show is the only way to get armour-plated authenticity, but we should always be aware that gritty realism is a contrived effect, another genre, just like soaps, sitcoms and Strictly Come Dancing.

"I always say my cast and my production teams need comedy bones, not comedy brains." 

Social media has allowed taking offence to become an international sport; do you think that the fear of reprisal has stunted comedic output?

I’ve seen no evidence of that: if you’re frightened of the mob, which is usually as stupid as it is noisy, maybe you’re too sensitive a soul to be working in comedy.

Conversely, do you think social media and the number of platforms has allowed brands to have more than one voice, with a certain section of their audience more accepting of an edgy approach?

I think you’re in danger of attributing too much original, creative energy to social media; by and large its outpourings are pretty banal and reactive. I defy you to read through a thread on Twitter or a comment-chain in a newspaper without muttering “these people are nuts” just before you drop into a troubled sleep.

Every writer needs an editor, every actor needs a director, every director needs a producer, and when you look at a lot of the stuff that’s published on social media without the wisdom of a cool head giving a second opinion, you understand why.

One of the funniest, cleverest TV commercials I’ve seen is the IKEA ad [above] with the 18^th century family portrait being carted around by servants from place to place – interrupting a duel, a couple in bed, and so on – to get Facebook-style thumbs-up likes from friends. It was a thing of such wit and beauty that I wish it might have been mine. But the point is that the ad was satirising not just Facebook, but the vanity our times. At the moment I think there’s much more mileage to be had from taking the piss out of social media than applauding or trying to learn anything from it.

Many brands are understandably less embracing of edgy and contentious comedy, but do you think that they're often too nervous about those consumers who might take offence?

One problem, of course, is that “edgy and contentious” comedy on television is achieved within the context of a programme lasting half an hour or an hour or a whole series, so you can twist and turn and build towards the shock of the impact, holding the audience’s head very still and looking at it languidly in the eye before you sock it in the jaw. You can’t do that in thirty seconds or a minute-and-a-half.

To give you an example, when, in Motherland, we discover that the most superior and aloof of the mothers has sex with a squaddie while her husband watches, it’s funny and shocking but it’s also pathetic, almost heart-breaking, and a big piece of the jigsaw that’s her character – an aspect that’s been intriguing us through four preceding episodes – falls into place.

My (so far) brief experience of making commercials has made me very aware of the differing pressures placed on programme makers and advertisers. Both groups are striving for popularity, but the first group is also subject to political and sociological pressures, while the second has to reflect what people really like, as opposed to what they’re supposed to like, or what they ought to like. That said, I’ve been very encouraged to see how much the agencies who employ me and their clients are now keen and bold enough to embrace diversity in all its forms.

"At the moment I think there’s much more mileage to be had from taking the piss out of social media than applauding or trying to learn anything from it." 

From your own point of view, how do you test if something really is funny; do you trust your own judgement or garner other points of view before committing to something?

The only test of a performance is a performance. The only way you know how an audience will react to a line is to deliver the line to an audience. So how you approach the script and produce the show has to be a mix of instinct and experience.

That’s why I always say my cast and my production teams need comedy bones, not comedy brains. I suspect that lots of would-be movie makers have sat down and watched The Producers or The Death of Stalin with a pad on their laps and said, “Right, I’m going to analyse this bastard scene-by-scene, beat-by-beat, so I can repeat the formula.” And the result?  Will almost inevitably be a turkey.

As a wise old Chinese philosopher said, “The way that can be shown is not the way”. And talking of philosophers, I don’t think Aristotle’s comedy book was lost at all. I think he wrote a couple of drafts then chucked it in the stove because he realised you can’t pin comedy down to a handbook of a set of foolproof technical specs.

"The only way you know how an audience will react to a line is to deliver the line to an audience."

What are some of the funniest commercials you've come across which push the boundaries of safe comedy? 

Sorry, that’s not something I look for or take particular notice of. What interests me and what I remember are commercials that are funny and original. That’s why I still remember the Sears commercial from 2012, a superbly realised spoof on a movie trailer. More recently, I loved Iceland’s Christmas commercial for the gilded turkey [below]. Such a simple, clever, brazenly successful idea.

What are you most looking forward to about your time in Kinsale?

New friends, conversations, seafood, a few half pints of the dark stuff and other things which I’ll tell you about when I’ve discovered them 

Attendees of the Kinsale Sharks can see Juliet May's talk, Yes, But is it Funny? on Thursday 27th September at 12.15pm. For more information about the Sharks, visit their website.